My Status Report
Monday
8:05am
User called to say they forgot password. Told them to use
password retrieval utility called FDISK. Blissfully ignorant, they
thank me and hang up. God, we let the people vote and drive, too?
8:12am
Accounting called to say they couldn't access expense reports
database. Gave them Standard Sys Admin Answer #112, Well, it works
for me. Let them rant and rave while I unplugged my coffeemaker
from the UPS and plugged their server back in. Suggested they try
it again. One more happy customer...
8:14am
User from 8:05 call said they received error message Error
accessing Drive 0. Told them it was an OS problem. Transferred
them to microsupport.
11:00am
Relatively quiet for last few hours. Decide to plug support phone
back in so I can call my girlfriend. Says parents are coming into
town this weekend. Put her on hold and transferred her to
janitorial closet down in basement. What is she thinking? The Myst
and Doom nationals are this weekend!
11:34am
Another user calls (do they ever learn?). Says they want ACL
changed on HR performance review database so that nobody but HR
can access database. Tell them no problem. Hang up. Change ACL.
Add @MailSend so performance reviews are sent to */US.
12:00pm
Lunch
3:30pm
Return from lunch.
3:55pm
Wake up from nap. Bad dream makes me cranky. Bounce servers for no
reason. Return to napping.
4:23pm
Yet another user calls. Wants to know how to change fonts on form.
Ask them what chip set they're using. Tell them to call back when
they find out.
4:55pm
Decide to run "Create Save/Replication Conflicts" macro so next
shift has something to do.
Tuesday
8:30am
Finish reading support log from last night. Sounded busy.
Terrible time with Save/Replication conflicts.
9:00am
Support manager arrives. Wants to discuss my attitude. Click on
PhoneNotes SmartIcon. Love to, but kinda busy. Put something in
the calendar database! I yell as I grab for the support lines,
which have (mysteriously) lit up. Walks away grumbling.
9:35pm
Team leader from R&D needs ID for new employee. Tell them they
need form J-19R=9C9\\DARR\K1. Say they never heard of such a form.
Tell them it's in the SPECIAL FORMS database. Say they never heard
of such a database. Transfer them to janitorial closet in
basement.
10:00am
Perky sounding intern from R&D calls and says she needs new ID.
Tell her I need employee number, department name, manager name,
and marital status. Run @DbLookup against state parole board
database, Centers for Disease Control database, and my Oprah
Winfrey database. No hits. Tell her ID will be ready tonight.
Drawing from the lessons learned in last week's Reengineering for
Customer Partnership I offer to personally deliver ID to her
apartment.
10:07am
Janitor stops by to say he keeps getting strange calls in
basement. Offer to train him on Notes. Begin now. Let him watch
console while I grab a smoke.
1:00pm
Return from smoking break. Janitor says phones kept ringing, so he
transferred them to cafeteria lady. I like this guy.
1:05pm
Big commotion! Support manager falls in hole left where I pulled
floor tiles outside his office door. Stress to him importance of
not running in computer room, even if I do yell Omigod -- Fire!
1:15pm
Development Standards Committee calls and complains about umlauts
in form names. Apologizing for the inconvenience, I tell them I
will fix it. Hang up and run global search/replace using gaks.
1:20pm
Mary Hairnet from cafeteria calls. Says she keeps getting calls
for Notice Loads or NoLoad Goats, she's not sure, couldn't hear
over industrial-grade blender. Tell her it was probably Lettuce
Nodes. Maybe the food distributor with a new product? She thinks
about it and hangs up.
2:00pm
Legal secretary calls and says she lost password. Ask her to check
in her purse, floor of car, and on bathroom counter. Tell her it
probably fell out of back of machine. Suggest she put duct tape
over all the airvents she can find on the PC. Grudgingly offer to
create new ID for her while she does that.
2:49pm
Janitor comes back. Wants more lessons. I take off rest of day.
Wednesday
8:30am
Irate user calls to say chipset has nothing to do with fonts on
form. Tell them of course, they should have been checking Bitset,
not chipset. Sheepish user apologizes and hangs up.
9:10am
Support manager, with foot in cast, returns to office. Schedules
10:00am meeting with me. User calls and wants to talk to support
manager about terrible help at support desk. Tell them manager
about to go into meeting. Sometimes life hands you material...
10:00am
Call Louie in janitorial services to cover for me. Go to support
manager's office. He says he can't dismiss me but can suggest
several lateral career moves. Most involve farm implements in
third-world countries with moderate to heavy political turmoil. By
and by, I ask if he's aware of new bug which takes full-text
indexed random e-mail databases and puts all references to furry
handcuffs and Bambi Boomer in Marketing on the corporate Web page.
Meeting is adjourned as he reaches for keyboard, Web browser, and
Tums.
10:30am
Tell Louie he's doing great job. Offer to show him mainframe
corporate PBX system sometime.
11:00am
Lunch.
4:55pm
Return from lunch.
5:00pm
Shift change; Going home.
Thursday
8:00am
New guy (Marvin) started today. "Nice plaids" I offer. Show him
Server room, wiring closet, and technical library. Set him up with
IBM PC-XT. Tell him to quit whining, Notes runs the same in both
monochrome and color.
8:45am
New guy's PC finishes booting up. Tell him I'll create new ID for
him. Set minimum password length to 64. Go grab smoke.
9:30am
Introduce Louie the custodian to Marvin. Nice plaids Louie
comments. Is this guy great or what?!
11:00am
Beat Louie in dominos game. Louie leaves. Fish spare dominos out
of sleeves (Always have backups). User calls, says Accounting
server is down. Untie Ethernet cable from radio antenna (better
reception) and plug back into hub. Tell user to try again. Another
happy customer!
11:55am
Brief Marvin on Corporate Policy 98.022.01: Whereas all new
employees beginning on days ending in 'Y' shall enjoy all proper
aspects with said corporation, said employee is obligated to
provide substance and relief to senior technical analyst on shift.
Marvin doubts. I point to Corporate Policy database (a fine piece
of work, if I say so myself!). Remember, that's DOUBLE pepperoni
and NO peppers! I yell to Marvin as he steps over open floor tile
to get to exit door.
1:00pm
Oooooh! Pizza makes me so sleepy...
4:30pm
Wake from refreshing nap. Catch Marvin scanning want ads.
5:00pm
Shift change. Flick HR's server off and on several times (just
testing the On/Off button...). See ya tomorrow.
Friday
8:00am
Night shift still trying to replace power supply in HR server.
Told them it worked fine before I left.
9:00am
Marvin still not here. Decide I might start answering these calls
myself. Unforward phones from Mailroom.
9:02am
Yep. A user call. Users in Des Moines can't replicate. Me and the
Oiuji board determine it's sunspots. Tell them to call
telecommunications.
9:30am
Good God, another user! They're like ants. Says he's in San Diego
and can't replicate with Des Moines. Tell him it's sunspots, but
with a two-hour difference. Suggest he reset the time on the
server back two hours.
10:17am
Pensacola calls. Says they can't route mail to San Diego. Tell
them to set server ahead three hours.
11:00am
E-mail from corporate says for everybody to quit resetting the
time on their servers. I change the date stamp and forward it to
Milwaukee.
11:20am
Finish @CoffeeMake macro. Put phone back on hook.
11:23am
Milwaukee calls, asks what day it is.
11:25am
Support manager stops by to say Marvin called in to quit. So hard
to get good help... I respond. Support manager says he has
appointment with orthopedic doctor this afternoon, and asks if I
mind sitting in on the weekly department head meeting for him. No
problem!
11:30am
Call Louie and tell him opportunity knocks and he's invited to a
meeting this afternoon. Yeah, sure. You can bring your snuff I
tell him.
12:00am
Lunch.
1:00pm
Start full backups on UNIX server. Route them to device NULL to
make them fast.
1:03pm
Full weekly backups done. Man, I love modern technology!
2:30pm
Look in support manager's contact management database. Cancel
2:45pm appointment for him. He really should be at home resting,
you know.
2:39pm
New user calls. Says want to learn how to create a connection
document. Tell them to run connection document utility CTRL-ALT-
DEL. Says PC rebooted. Tell them to call microsupport.
2:50pm
Support manager calls to say mixup at doctor's office means
appointment cancelled. Says he's just going to go on home. Ask him
if he's seen corporate Web page lately.
3:00pm
Another (novice) user calls. Says periodic macro not working.
Suggest they place @DeleteDocument at end of formula. Promise to
send them document addendum which says so.
4:00pm
Finish changing foreground color in all documents to white. Also
set point size to 2 in help databases.
4:30pm
User calls to say they can't see anything in documents. Tell them
to go to view, do a Edit -- Select All, hit delete key, and then
refresh. Promise to send them document addendum which says so.
4:45pm
Another user calls. Says they can't read help documents. Tell them
I'll fix it. Hang up. Change font to Wingdings.
4:58pm
Plug coffee maker into Ethernet hub to see what happens. Not (too)
much.
5:00pm
Night shift shows up. Tell that the hub is acting funny and to
have a good weekend. Cheers
