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Jan. 9th, 2004 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizillaToday has been a pretty good day.
I took a lot of cases at work today, probably twice as many as usual, but I was on a good run where almost all of them were things I knew how to solve quickly, instead of things I would have to research endlessly. It's funny how life in tech support tends to be all good or all dreadful.
I have days on end when all I get are users who have bizarre problems I've never seen before and can't duplicate, and who are unwilling or unable to answer my questions and work with me to find the answer. People who demand to get passed up to Level 3 immediately (I'm Level 2) and then get mad because I don't have a Level 3 person lurking around on tap to talk to them right now. My whole week was like this, until today.
I'm not a Dogbert; I do care about helping the users, and when I strike out so many times in a row I feel terrible about it. One year at ConFusion, I had a memorable conversation with Eric Raymond. We talked about the silly notion that smart people go to development and dummies go to tech support, how tech support is a different skill and it needs smart people too. I would like to think I am one of the smart people even though I have absolutely zero interest in leaving tech support to become a programmer. Then I have a bad week in tech support and I feel despair. Maybe I'm a dummy after all.
Today, the callers were all cooperative, and even when I wasn't already familiar with the problem they were having, I was able to find the info I needed to get them taken care of. I learned new stuff and did an effective job for the users. I was the tech support person I want to be, today, so I am happy tonight.
Work wasn't the only thing that went well today.
I went to the Secretary of State and they finally seem to have caught up from their holiday backlog. There were a dozen people ahead of me instead of over a hundred, and the clerks were processing things quickly. So my drivers license is renewed, and I have tags for my truck, and I no longer have to worry that I'll get pulled over and fined. My visit to the Secretary of State went so quickly that I had time on my lunch hour to get the oil changed in my truck, get gas, and pick up chinese food.
What a productive day! This bodes well for the weekend. Maybe I'll get more things done!
I took a lot of cases at work today, probably twice as many as usual, but I was on a good run where almost all of them were things I knew how to solve quickly, instead of things I would have to research endlessly. It's funny how life in tech support tends to be all good or all dreadful.
I have days on end when all I get are users who have bizarre problems I've never seen before and can't duplicate, and who are unwilling or unable to answer my questions and work with me to find the answer. People who demand to get passed up to Level 3 immediately (I'm Level 2) and then get mad because I don't have a Level 3 person lurking around on tap to talk to them right now. My whole week was like this, until today.
I'm not a Dogbert; I do care about helping the users, and when I strike out so many times in a row I feel terrible about it. One year at ConFusion, I had a memorable conversation with Eric Raymond. We talked about the silly notion that smart people go to development and dummies go to tech support, how tech support is a different skill and it needs smart people too. I would like to think I am one of the smart people even though I have absolutely zero interest in leaving tech support to become a programmer. Then I have a bad week in tech support and I feel despair. Maybe I'm a dummy after all.
Today, the callers were all cooperative, and even when I wasn't already familiar with the problem they were having, I was able to find the info I needed to get them taken care of. I learned new stuff and did an effective job for the users. I was the tech support person I want to be, today, so I am happy tonight.
Work wasn't the only thing that went well today.
I went to the Secretary of State and they finally seem to have caught up from their holiday backlog. There were a dozen people ahead of me instead of over a hundred, and the clerks were processing things quickly. So my drivers license is renewed, and I have tags for my truck, and I no longer have to worry that I'll get pulled over and fined. My visit to the Secretary of State went so quickly that I had time on my lunch hour to get the oil changed in my truck, get gas, and pick up chinese food.
What a productive day! This bodes well for the weekend. Maybe I'll get more things done!
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-10 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-10 08:15 pm (UTC)