Only missed when gone

These last two weeks at work have been hectic. Since our ops engie is gone, and Ducky is on leave, I've been inundated with support requests ranging from the asinine to the incredibly feckless.

Most of the requests I get are of the "I'm not a technical person" or the "I don't know how to follow instructions" or the "I'm just plain lazy" variety, or some cock-eyed combination of all three. In reality, the first two are just variations of "plain lazy". How many things would a non-techie office user need to set up that can't be done by simply looking for the instructions and following them? In an organization where searching for information is the biggest thing since peeled potatos, there's a whopping lack of faith in the methodology.

Then there's the "I have X-person here working for me tomorrow, he needs to be set up by yesterday" request. And it always comes through a lackey at the last minute, because the self-important are above giving advanced notice, making it someone else's problem, ie., mine. You can't shoot the messenger, can you? Wellll... just give me a bazooka, and I can hope the blast radius covers everything. Wishful thinking.

And if the requesters aren't attended to in short order (a couple of seconds), or spoon-fed and coddled (please clip my toenails while you're down there), or politely enough (would you like cherries and whipped cream with that?), whoah boy - be prepared for the backlash. "I spend all my time chasing you people around and I can't get any of my own work done," was one that got my blood boiling yesterday. I haven't been able to get any of my own work done for the past two weeks thanks to you people!

LART! LART! LART!

Fortunately, there are a handful of requests that come in which are concise, detailed, and most of all, important. It's unsurprising that most of these come from techies or people who work closely with techies - they understand the value of a clear problem report, and when it's clearly a problem. Helping these people is so much more satisfying because you know they understand your limitations, leave you to prioritize, and appreciate your effort.

It's during irksome periods like this that make me really want one of these.