Haha public sector. Union. You’d be surprised who needs Network Admins/Engineers, Webmasters, Security Analysts/Engineers, Tech support.
If it has a union, and you have some financial wiggle room, take low pay. Get in that union. Argue like hell for competitive wages for your role. Profit.
🙂 I’m responsive if the request is clear. I make sure to subtly train people I’m in frequent contact with to send me requests in ways that will get them done in, usually, <5 minutes.
But SO many requests are, quickly, responded to with questions to get the necessary info to do it quickly. And these folks are usually not as fast to respond as I am, so… No SLA breach, waiting on requestor.
No, I haven’t even started task X, please see the comments and 2 requests for updates I’ve sent you over the course of this week to gather requirements.
Today someone barged into the IT helpdesk to bug a support rep to bug me (I’m helpdesk adjacent).
This would be fine, except, two weeks ago:
“Hey [person], making sure I’m clear about our meeting. Did you want this? (Screenshot of proposal of what we had discussed). And as for the other thing, is it something we can export (from this 3rd party you all paid money for without consulting IT)?”
Hey foggy what’s the status on the (3rd, unrelated) thing we discussed?
"Hey [person],
(Screenshot)
Is this the thing? It doesn’t seem to have everything you’d said it would. If I found the wrong thing can you tell me where the right thing is so I can address 3rd thing?"
2 WEEK SILENCE
Fucking barge in here like I owe you something. Answer my fucking questions or set up a meeting, dickwad. Ugh. Bad day, man. Bad day.
Our emails that followed
Hey foggy you seemed busy, is there a time we could meet to discuss?
"Hey person, as per my previous email:
[Copy and paste first email]
Can you answer this question please?"
Sorry I’m bad with technology. Here’s that answer
"Great thank you. Can you please address this?
[Copy and paste second email]"
Oh I’m not sure foggy let me ask I’ll get back to you
I solve the most complex problems when I’m fishing or doing something else I enjoy that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer. When I just let my brain do it’s thing, that’s when the magic happens.
Engineering isn’t about writing code. Engineering is about solving problems. Anybody can write code. But not just anybody can turn code into a meaningful, well thought out solution.
The longer you do this, the more you realize that there are “developers” and there are “software engineers”. HR thinks they are the same thing. They’re not.
I am adamant about not beginning a new task with less than 2 hours remaining in the day unless the task will take less than 15 minutes.
Especially true for Fridays.
I use end of day time to prep for the next day so I can come in and hit the ground running. Faux-start the task up until you’d actually do work.
That being said, I’ll be clocking out in about 1.5 hours. Which is why I’m posting to Lemmy 😁
can I haz job
u need an assistant? 🤔
Haha public sector. Union. You’d be surprised who needs Network Admins/Engineers, Webmasters, Security Analysts/Engineers, Tech support.
If it has a union, and you have some financial wiggle room, take low pay. Get in that union. Argue like hell for competitive wages for your role. Profit.
I bet you’re amazingly responsive, too.
Newbies take notes. This is how a pro does it.
🙂 I’m responsive if the request is clear. I make sure to subtly train people I’m in frequent contact with to send me requests in ways that will get them done in, usually, <5 minutes.
But SO many requests are, quickly, responded to with questions to get the necessary info to do it quickly. And these folks are usually not as fast to respond as I am, so… No SLA breach, waiting on requestor.
This is me constantly.
“Did you finish task X?”
No, I haven’t even started task X, please see the comments and 2 requests for updates I’ve sent you over the course of this week to gather requirements.
Today someone barged into the IT helpdesk to bug a support rep to bug me (I’m helpdesk adjacent).
This would be fine, except, two weeks ago:
“Hey [person], making sure I’m clear about our meeting. Did you want this? (Screenshot of proposal of what we had discussed). And as for the other thing, is it something we can export (from this 3rd party you all paid money for without consulting IT)?”
"Hey [person],
(Screenshot)
Is this the thing? It doesn’t seem to have everything you’d said it would. If I found the wrong thing can you tell me where the right thing is so I can address 3rd thing?"
2 WEEK SILENCE
Fucking barge in here like I owe you something. Answer my fucking questions or set up a meeting, dickwad. Ugh. Bad day, man. Bad day.
Our emails that followed
"Hey person, as per my previous email:
[Copy and paste first email]
Can you answer this question please?"
"Great thank you. Can you please address this?
[Copy and paste second email]"
“Ok did you still need to meet?”
Real
Why did you get a job that requires you to know it then? AAAAAAAAA
Another pro tip:
I solve the most complex problems when I’m fishing or doing something else I enjoy that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer. When I just let my brain do it’s thing, that’s when the magic happens.
Engineering isn’t about writing code. Engineering is about solving problems. Anybody can write code. But not just anybody can turn code into a meaningful, well thought out solution.
The longer you do this, the more you realize that there are “developers” and there are “software engineers”. HR thinks they are the same thing. They’re not.
Also shouldn’t be starting a new task if you have less than two days remaining in the week
Yeah, nothing that’ll take > ~4-5 hrs, for sure. Especially if anything else is on my plate.