Tag: It support

Is Working harder really the best approach to keeping your Job?

Paul

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Why do some employees work harder?

This is going to be a little bit of a rant for me because of what is happening at work. Understanding the concept of working harder isn’t beyond me. I actually do that when the time calls for it but I have to wonder what goes through people’s head.   I’ll give a little bit of an explanation of what I mean,  We have a new employee, and I was trying to show him how to do something smarter.   He comes back saying, “He’s going to do it the right way!”.   I’ve really thought about this all day long and wondered what is the right way to do our jobs.   Are the higher up security people really watching us that closely to worry about doing it the right way?   I work for a really security focused place but I also know that there is NO way they can be watching us that closely.   Let us not forget we are the IT support so we may have to come up with unique ways to solve problems.

Understanding Business Justification

Some people think they have to work harder because they don’t understand this concept.   What is Business Justification, according to Wikipedia:

A business case (business justification) captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also come in the form of a short verbal agreement or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a specific business need.

This isn’t difficult concept, I beleive, it just tries to get people to think about how much money the business may or may not loose if we do it this way or that way.  So why do employees think there is the right way and other ways are wrong?  If the business justification makes it harder for us to work then they aren’t saving as much money as they could by allowing the IT depart to do things a little differently.

They give us tools to use

The tools we are allowed to use are already present and we should be able to use tools, such as programs or Windows access that not everyone has.   Why give us these tools if we aren’t allowed to use them?  That is the really question in my mind right now.   I think the most problems we are having is people are just afraid to use the tools that we have access to because of the idea that big brother is watching us.   I can’t see that happening even in a good day at our place.   If you are doing your job they could care less how we do it.   That’s the real issue I think because most of the time you never really know who got hired until it is too late.   No matter the amount of background checks, or stuff like that we’ll always going to have someone get through those checks that shouldn’t be there in the first place.  Yes I can see that may be why we do some things this way but if you really are doing your job then you shouldn’t need to worry about big brother.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

This has been my motto since I started working,  I am sure there are other blogs out there that even talk about working smarter and not harder! So Why working smarter is better for you than working harder.  The easy answer is that if you really think about your job and how to make your just easier than you have just started working smarter.   However if you do things to keep the same output than you aren’t working smarter but working harder to seem like you are more busy than you really are.   Office people are notorious for this because it keeps the boss of their backs.   I’ve seen some of this at my current work but I don’t think it as bad as other places.   I’ve heard about the toxic places that do worse than where I work at.    I guess this rant is about over with but I just want people to consider that working harder does not help you but hinder you and make you more tired at night when you go home.   Think about how you can make your work life better and you will find that you are much happier than you were few weeks ago.

Have you had this type of issue before with employees or do you work harder?  let’s start a discussion and hear how you have handled it in the past.

 

What’s been happening lately for me and Why I didn’t blog last week.

Paul
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A Long Week

Last week I took off from writing due to taking my Core 2 A+ certification. I still have to retake my Core 1 (Passing is 675) but I did pass core 2 last Friday(Yea me!).  I passed Core 2 by 47 points. (Passing is 700 points)   Which If they would add those two scores up and used that for a passing or failing of A+ certification,  I’d have my A+ but no I still have to take Core 1 again and pass that one.  Anyway, the story of this is simple, don’t stop taking those test because you failed the first one.  The Next test you might pass with flying colors.

Start of new Week

As you can see, We had a really busy start off my week.  I found a pattern in Tickets that customers were submitting last week and started to look for the reason why.   The simple reason is that Microsoft screwed up the old printer drivers due to the PrintNightmare Zero-Day.   Along with that, I was told my job has ended and I wasn’t needed anymore.  I personally think this was due to me not passing both tests and they didn’t want to worry about it down the road.  It however isn’t a big deal anyways because it gives me more time to work on getting that Core 1 test done and studying even more to pass it.

Future Plans

This one still in the air and I’m sure I will find a job as a help desk technician or something similar.  It’s not that I didn’t try to pass but it is just rotten luck.  I am sure I’ll find a company who will want my unique skills and want to see me succeed.  I am so ready to start my new career but it can still be difficult to get that first job to get the experience.  Let me hear your experiences with getting that first job.  Did it work out or did you have a difficult time like me getting your foot in the door to get the experience?

 

4 ways to deal with difficult customers

Paul
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Difficult customers

They are everywhere and nothing we can say sometimes will stop the difficult customer but that isn’t uncommon.   When a customer calls because of something that has happened, you would probably also be mad.   Either way, the probably is that you have to deal with them in one way or another and be able to listen to them and keep them calm.   Even in IT, we deal with difficult customers.   We all know  those customers and  they seem to always call when we least expect it.  I even know that companies are scrambling to find coverage of people to cover the gaping hole for IT support.   I guess this part, I am sure you’ve thought about.   I guess it times to say that I got hired and have been busy with dealing with those really difficult customers who want to get the help they are paying for.

How to deal with them

So you have them on the phone or they are right next to you.  Each technique can be used in any circumstance if you really think about it.   These are just what I’ve noticed and seems to help with me.   I know nothing I do or say sometimes will change how they will react or even deal with me but it does at least make it interesting to say the least.

  • Listen to them — This can be so difficult because of the way they customer is reacting to the situation.   If you sit back and listen to what they are saying and make them feel like you are actually listening then it could help alleviate the situation and make the  situation more bearable.
  • Tell them what you can do to help them — I’ve talked about this one but I will go back and talk about this.   You tell them what you can do to help them and try to help them resolve their issues will help create a rapport for the customer and the problem.   If you are there to help them they will make an effort to be more helpful to you.
  • Be Sincere — This one can seem almost like a given but you’d be surprised how people react to being sincere on the phone that you are trying to help them and be there for them.   Once this one is good they are very likely to listen and stop being so difficult but that one might take some time to learn or know how to be sincere with customers.
  • Be ready to Apologize and say sorry —  This is the best technique I could tell people because they really do want the company to apologize when the situation arises that even now.   With having to deal with customers and not having enough staff that can help keep the customer calm or maybe it will calm them down even more because they wanted to hear that from the company.

Understand the situation

Now since we have talked to the customer and tried to actively listen to the customer, we are more likely to want to understand the customer.   Have a script ready to ask the customers who are having a difficult time.   The script is always a good idea.  Here’s a good script that you can adopt:

  1. How can I help you?
  2. I am sorry for . . . 
  3. Let me create a ticket and schedule a time good for you to fix the issue!
  4. While I am at it, can we get more information on what you might need and what created the issue?
  5. Don’t forget to always thank the customer.  If they feel we value them and listen to them, they will come back even if we have a bad day.

Once you have the script down and know what to go to when there are customers who might be a very difficult person.  This can be a very interesting issue and can draw even more people into the bad day.   Understanding the situation and listening will help you evolve to be a better support specialist.  It just takes some time and know to be able to deal with those difficult customers.

Do you have a way to deal with them?  Why not leave a comment and tell me what you do and how you deal with them?  Is it something you’ve learned over the years or is it something you just learned last week?  Why not comment and tell me about it.