Hi, I work for an IT department for the federal government in Tier II, onsite support. I get paid very well to do this job so maybe I don't have room to complain, but IT work makes me incredibly unhappy so I came her to vent my antiwork.
I used to be Army Guard doing IT so I have already been doing IT work for almost 6-7 years. I joined this IT job a couple years before I got out of the guard, I got fun double-fisiting for awhile.
When people think of what IT work is about or like, they usually think of funny ha-hah memes like, “Did you turn it on and off again?” and “You don't know how to open a PDF?!”.
But I think a lot of times, no one talks about how mentally taxing it is. Everyone you work with, co-workers, managers, and customers, are all different. Your co-workers and bosses work between either being total shitbags, “super-hooah” or laid back. Your customers could be so nice and refreshing that they make your day and shower you in candy. And some of them are the deciding factor on how crappy you are going to feel until you punch out. The best and worst customers are the ones who are doctors or high-ranking (or high priority) people.
Just yesterday, I had a customer who caused me to stay 30 minutes late after my shift at 4:30 PM. (Yeah I know, I could have it harder, I know some of you had stayed much longer after your shifts. I understand.)
So our policy is that we only work on equipment IT or the department provided. We have a strict NO POE troubleshooting policy. The exception is if they use a POE computer with a virtual desktop, it goes to a separate IT group we don't touch. But this guy put in a ticket with issues with his USB-connected camera. In his ticket he did not mention anything about his camera being personally bought. So I exhausted everything I could think of. Often times, we run into a wall where our government computers are just so locked down that drivers just break and refuse to resolve. At this point, I say we should look into other options and the customer admits that he bought this camera with his own money because the gov takes too long to procure them. Unfortunately this triggers our POE rules.
So I instated those rules and what we can and can't do. Of course, this makes him upset and he starts debating with me, saying I can replace the camera or still fix this issue. Even going as far as telling me to give him recommendations of a new camera to buy, which we are also not authorized to do.
I finally am able to get him off the phone once I said I will bring my boss into the equation to see what he says. I was hoping at this point the boss would hear my word of the day, POE, and talk to him to get him off my back.
Unfortunately that's not what happened. Instead of following our rules, he went the opposite and bent them and reached out to the user saying I would further help him revert some installs and run some things to see if those fix the issue.
I know that IT is about customer services, but how do I provide GOOD customer service when my bosses just one-up me when I followed the rules I was told to follow? Now I just look like an ass for doing what I was told and the customer is going to turn around and be like, “See, she CAN do XYZ. She just doesn't want to!” and this teaches customers that they can get what they want by being louder.
Nothing good came out of it.
- The customer was mean and resistive
- He got what he wanted because of his title
- My manager did not back me up
- The treatment towards me was not addressed with the customer or their boss
- Now I look like an ass
- Now I have I have to keep working with a guy who treated me poorly
I fucking hate IT work. I just want a happy little existence gardening, anything with plants really, or something artsy. I don't have the room to be risky, have job changes or go to colleges because I am the head of household and my job does not support partial work-weeks for college (because you should already have a degree to work here).
So if any of you are working with IT for some reason, whether it be at your job or at home, please think about the impact of your words. I've talked to some internet reps for my home internet and some of them were so grateful for my patience that I was actually given prorated bills for internet because they were just relieved to have a nice customer for 30 minutes.
Again, I know I am fortunate to have a good paying job, but that does not mean I am happy. I do not need to hear the “Welcome to adulthood” BS. Being treated like shit is not in my job description. And I am so socially anxious. I WANT to make the customer happy. But when I know they're not going to be, I struggle and feel awful.