help + desk = ?

A helpdesk is supposed to be helpful. After all, it does contain the word 'help'.

A helpdesk should not reject and send back forms that require a user to fill in everything again and again.

Once... fine

Twice... if its for a legitimate reason. (Which somehow wasn't picked up the first time.. also fine).

But 4 times ? Not including the first two forms I was requested to filled out, actually turned out to be the wrong form !!

Not only does he want individual forms filled out for each user request. He now wants me to highlight which ones are existing rules on the firewall (We are talking about an IT change request). And which ones will be new additional rules to the firewall.

Riigghhtt...Hang on a moment there. I DO NOT OWN \ HAVE ACCESS TO THE FIREWALL.

If I did... wouldn't I just do this myself ??? And save myself from all this pain ?!??

And since I do not. Just how do I know which rules exist on the firewall ?!????

Psychically remote into the firewall, take note and match up all the rules with the ones I'm requesting ???

Fooking peanut.

Helpdesk IT support is supposed to make your working life easier. Not harder.

I work in the IT industry too. If I did this to any of my customers, I wouldn't have a job anymore.

Btw.. for those who are thinking, at least you have someone attending to your requests. I lodged this request over a month ago.

bite-me-not

Like any one else that likes to go out for drinks, I go out to have a good time.

But, there is always a fine line between getting close and getting too close. Atleast I think I still do so while reasonably sober.

I've been joining my colleagues for drinks for a while now. And while its all good clean fun, you do run into some weirdos once in a while.

This one guy, who I had met once before at another colleague's farewell joined us for drinks as well. I could tell he was reasonably dosed up when he arrived. He asked to swapped seats with another one of my colleagues to sit next to me and we chatted for about a couple of minutes. I turned my attention back to my colleagues when I realised he wasn't making much sense.

Then out of nowhere.. He bit me.

Somehow it occurred to him, it might just be a good idea to try and take a piece out of my left shoulder.

After a few stunned seconds, I asked my colleague to swap seats with me. After I finished my drink, I asked some of the regulars if they wanted to move on to another pub. They had sensed something was wrong when I had asked to swap seats and left straight away with me.

I felt a lot more at ease after we had left him behind.

After we reached the next pub, I told them what that weirdo did. Although most of them were appalled, we did have a good laugh over it. A lot of laughing accompanied by various chomping sounds.

One of the guys commented on how 'thats what 10 years of system administration will do to you'.

*sigh.. One weirdo and the whole industry gets a bad name.

I still have the bite marks on my shoulder.

However, he was drunk. And drunk people do stupid things. So I will let this go.

But I swear.. if he ever comes close to me again, I will punch his lights out.

The beginning of the end

He took me out to dinner last night.

I can't actually remember the last time we had a proper going out alone dinner.

But this one marked the start to new beginnings. We talked about work, when I was going to buy my own apartment and him moving out to a 1 bedroom or studio apartment. How we were going to split our pets and other assets. When the bill arrived, he realised he was $20 short, so I told him we'll just split it and I'll pay for my part. Some things never change.

There was no 'Maybe-we-can-work-this-out' talk.

We got home, said good night and both went back to our own bedrooms.

It was so civil, it actually felt normal. Like thats how we always were.

Its still funny how we manage to keep up appearances with our mutual friends. Last week one of his close friends I bumped into at a bar came up to talk to me. His first words were...

'Normally, I only say this to the boys... but don't you f*** this up, Pete is a really nice guy'.

My only reply was just to laugh and buy him a drink.

I guess after we do move out separately, all of our friends will eventually figure it out.