Underappreciated Workers #4 (Close to Home ed.) The gang in IT!

[blondeatlast]

The ones who have eliminated the virus before you read the e-mail warning you about it.

the ones who (at least where I work) never make you feel stupid; even if you are!

Case in point: The "disappearing" selection window . . .

As many are aware, I work in a library. Our automated acquisitions software has a resizeable window that posps up after a keyword or title search so that you can select from various formats of a single title (book, cd, book on tape, etc.) Well, shortly after an upgrade, I could not get the selection window to display more than one title; very frustrating. I rebooted, i reset my prefs, I did everything, I swear, before I called our automation office. Finally, I had to give in; I had to admit that SRAQ had picked me to be the one it would punish for the many epithets that had been hurled at it since October 1, 1999, the date of it's inception.

To his credit, R was stumped too, but he did reassure me that SRAQ hadn't chosen me to personally aggravate. With kind, unpatronizing words, he led me through resetting my preferences, to no avail. He finally said that he would go back to the automation room and take a look at it, with my login info. No sooner than it took him to get to his office, start it up, and call me back, he returned with the answer:

I had resized the window so that I could see all of a single bibliographic record, but not the various results.

R was laughing hysterically at me, right? I was laughing, not hysterically, but humiliatedly; why not R?

He had done it too--another IT guy had pointed it out to him!

I love these people, I really, really do. I should, I'm married to one;

who is laughing hysterically at me . . .

edit: Still, I won't take this thread back. We do have a nice leather couch downstairs in front of the big screen TV . . .

[Occulus]

1. not hysterically

but I've had those tech moments myself. One time I was drunk and installing linux (not an advisable combo if one wishes to avoid difficulty, BTW) on my desktop and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I couldn't access the internet. I got frustrated and went to bed, only to realize the following day that, gee, it would help if the driver for the network card was installed...

[JanMichael]

2. OK, I guess so...

Our tech guys are pretty cool (They have lunch with my department almost everyday) but holy crap are they weird..:toast:

[blondeatlast]

3. I know what you

(oops)

'kay, he left. That was close!

mean.

:evilgrin:

[Mikimouse]

4. Kudos to IT folks!

Apps. and IT people are among the least appreciated and most overlooked workers in industry. On my end of things, salespeople used to go into the various hospitals and tell the administrators that our computer system would do anything that didn't require divine intervention (and sometimes that too!), then it was the IT person's task to try and make the system work to an acceptable level. This often involved re-writing code in some archaic language to be compatible with new languages. (shiver at memories). IT people have to think while running- (bowing and saluting).

on edit: speling iznt mie strong sute twonyte-typo city

[blondeatlast]

5. No, really, I mean it . . .

I know you're out there (HypnoToad) . . .

[Deja Q]

6. (blush)

Thanks!

Most IT workers are underappreciated. Those who are end up getting their jobs outsourced to India. x( My company's administration almost boasts that its IT department is small and lean, but they also feel fit to cut our department's budget all the same. (I believe their next goal is to replace PCs with Thin Clients (aka dumb tubes)). Fortunately, with the dirt I'm collecting on them, I'll have a nice story for the media whe the time is right! :evilgrin:

[blondeatlast]

8. Hubby is in pretty much the same boat as far as the

braggadacio regarding "lean and mean."

Ironically enough, he's a resident alien (considering citizenship) from, yep, INDIA.

Even as a library assistant in th public sector, I got the "lean and mean" treatment, right in the middle of a painful layoff that I managed to avoid.

Library administrator was taking a group of librarians from Sweden through once, stopped right outside our dorr, 5 feet from my desk, and bragged how our office operated with a staff of "1 1/2" professionals (I work part time) and 1 clerical. I was fit to be tiedd, but I swallowed it. But I did let said Administrator know her language wasn't appropriate, especially when she called us "her" staff.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[GregW]

7. As a Director of IT I say thank you, thank you, thank you

I have 85 IT folks working for me, including 50-odd who do nothing more than desktop support and run my regional helpdesk. These folks KICK ASS and always put our customers first.

Just got my latest customer satisfaction ratings for the last quarter and my people scored an average of 4.2 on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being excellent. I feel like a happy parent bragging about their son's report card!

Here's to our unsung heroes! :toast:

[blondeatlast]

9. My hubby's contract expires next year . . .

(smiles sweetly . . .)

It really is thankless. He shares on call duties 24/7 with 2 other people and has been known to pull shifts of 36 hours STRAIGHT (his company hired nearby hotel rooms so the staff could take 4 hour sleep shifts). Nobody knows when he rescues the servers, but they all let him know, and none too kindly, when their e-mail malfunctions.

We've become so used to computers, especially at work, that we only notice when things go wrong. We never realize that someone is monitoring the entire time, just so that we don't notice that something needs fixed because we aren't aware that someone is fixing it (if that makes sense).

It doesn't get much more thankless than that.

[blondeatlast]

10. Kicking for the DU ADMINS!!!

Pile on the POSITIVES!!!

[goobergunch]

11. Seconded! (n/t)

[toddzilla]

12. hey gregW

what's the best way to get my foot in the door? i friggin hate my current job and am looking to get into low level tech/help desk type of stuff. i have no "official" training related any type of business environmnet. i do frequent lan parties and am fairly knowledgeable about network troubleshooting and configuration. i'm looking at tech school or certification programs as a way to get a "diploma" and need some advice on where to best start.

thanks for any advice you have!

[toddzilla]

13. kick

:kick: