This week I have really understood the value that having an assistant to support me brings. Many months ago, after my predecessor was ‘let go’ and I was given the defacto promotion to ‘person who is responsible for keeping this janky old system from crashing’ I requested a second member of staff for the IT department. Initially, it was suggested we hired a gap year student who had been at the college previously. I dug my heels in and said that I needed someone who actually knew the basics of user support and troubleshooting and we really needed someone who had some experience or something like an A+ certification. The result was what I have come to learn is my boss’s default mode of operation when he is being asked to spend money than he wants to. Which is to delay making a decision until people get fed up with asking and go away. So after 2 months or so I caved and agreed to hire basically anyone because I couldn’t keep up with the workload.
Now we got very lucky. The former student they hired turned out to be a very quick learner and to possess common sense. This was great because I really hadn’t got the first clue what I was doing training a new employee on the helpdesk. So for a week or so she followed me around, learned the basics, like checking things are actually plugged in and switched on and very soon she was undertaking the bulk of initial responses and dealing with an increasing number of first like tickets independently. As her experience grew, so did her confidence and she became more proactive in dealing with tickets. Another significant task we have had is setting up Zoom sessions for both teachers and students who are having to self isolate thanks to Covid. Not only did she deal with all of these, she also dealt with the whole process from end to end. Organising her time and making sure that all of the work got done. The only involvement I had to have was when there were too many tasks needing simultaneous attention. When I would essentially be told what needed doing when and just have to rock up and do the work.
It was clear for me to see that she was incredibly valuable and will be sorely missed when she leaves to go to uni. During the two months before her hiring, I made very little progress with the myriad issues that the network, servers, etc had. What I hadn’t truly appreciated until this week was just what an effective filter she actually is.
This week my lovely assistant was off sick, and I got absolutely nothing useful done. What I hadn’t realised was how many interruptions she has been shielding me from allowing me to focus on prolonged tasks. Simply dealing with things like answering the phones, logging tickets and managing all the incoming tickets and emails had meant that I could lock myself into a problem on the server and focus on the task for a number of hours without having to break my concentration. IT support is by its very nature interrupt-driven. People aren’t going to have issues at convenient times. But that makes finding the mental space necessary to get your teeth into complex problems tricky. So that is my main takeaway from this week. It has been a humbling experience, reminding me of the value of a quality IT assistant. She will be a tough act to follow when the time comes for her to move on and start her own career.
As you may have gathered from the wall of text above. My week has mostly been taken up with covering first-line support and printers. I bloody hate printers! Although I will admit it was nice to leave the server room, speak to some humans face to face, and close off some easy tickets rather than over stretching my skills by solving problems I don’t fully understand.
I did have my 6 month review. Which went pretty much as expected. I managed to gain a small pay rise, but most significantly I got a year subscription to CBT nuggets which means that I can really focus on my professional development and gain some certifications ready to move on from this place.
