Thoughts from the abyss

Do you know what really annoys me about work, employers, bosses, users, and managers? It annoys me when they all want something done, they want it done now or better yet yesterday. When a manager or normal user contacts the help desk, they expect results ASAP. They don’t want to wait around, they don’t want an explanation most of the time, they don’t want you to do it tomorrow, they want it done right now so they can continue on with their business, or at least done in a timely fashion.

Since this is the primary job of a help desk type, I understand that’s my job and that’s not the frustrating part. The annoyance and frustration comes from when I need something, or I have to have a question answered that I can’t or don’t have authority to do. Instead of the prompt response back from an e-mail, phone message, IM, or however many other ways of correspondence between office persons, when the help desk (that’d be me) needs something, it takes days, weeks, and sometimes even months to even receive an answer back.

What’s even more frustrating is when the initial request was asked from a normal user, so the long drawn out delay makes myself look bad, or makes it appear to the user that I am ignoring their requests for assistance. It just pisses me off to know that my services are expected to be timely and prompt, but when I need to ask someone for their services to complete my portion of my job, it’s completely ok and normal for others to do it at their leisure. How many days, weeks or months does it take to reply to an e-mail message?

Now, I fully understand that this is the right of any and all bosses to exercise their “power” above the normal employee, but it’s rude to not correspond back when something is asked of you. Perhaps I should close my help desk for a week at a time, and only respond when I want something. I wonder how my employer and bosses would like that…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful and lucky to have a good job. But damnit! This is just one of those things that have nothing to do with that, and all about trying to show a little respect to those that serve you day in and day out. I vote for national IT appreciation day, where we reserve the right to ignore everyone for a day.

</rant>