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Ask Slashdot: Do Older IT Workers Doing End-User Support Find It Gets Harder With Age?
Longtime Slashdot reader King_TJ writes: I've worked in I.T. for almost 30 years now in various capacities, from bench PC technician to web page designer, support specialist, network manager, and was self-employed for a while doing on-site service and consulting too. In all that time, I've always felt like I had a good handle on troubleshooting and problem-solving while providing good, friendly customer service at the same time. But recently, I've started feeling like there's just a little too much knowledge to keep straight in my brain. If I'm able to work on a project on my own terms, without interruptions or distractions? Sure, I can get almost anything figured out. But it's the stress of users needing immediate assistance with random problems, thrown out willy-nilly in the constant barrage of trouble tickets, that I'm starting to struggle with.
For example, just this morning, a user had a question about whether or not she should open an email about quarantined junk mail to actually look through it. I briefly noted a screenshot she attached that showed a typical MS Office quarantined email message and replied that she could absolutely view them at her discretion. (I also noted that I tend to ignore and delete those myself, unless I'm actually expecting a specific piece of email that I didn't receive -- in case it was actually in the junk mail filter.) Well, that was the wrong answer, because that message was a nicely done phishing attempt; not a legit message -- and she tried to sign in through it. Then, I had to do a mad scramble to change her password and help her get the new one working on her phone and computer. With more time to think about what happened, I'm realizing now that I should have known the email was fake because we recently made some changes to our Office 365 environment so junk mail is going directly into Junk folders in Outlook -- and those types of messages aren't really coming in to people anymore. On top of that? We're trying to migrate people to using two-factor authentication so I was instructed to get this user on it while I'm changing her account info. Makes sense, but I had to dig all over to find our document with instructions on how to do that too. I just couldn't remember where they told me they saved the thing, several weeks ago, when they talked about creating the new document in one of our weekly meetings. Am I just getting old and starting to lose it? Is everybody feeling this way about I.T. support these days? Are things just changing at too quick a pace for anyone to stay on top of it all?
I mean, in just the last few weeks, we've dealt with users failing to get their single sign-on passwords to work because something broke that only an upgrade to the latest build of Windows 10 corrected. We've had an office network go berserk and randomly drop people's Internet access, ability to print, etc. -- because one of the switches started intermittently failing under load. We've had online training to set up a new MDM solution, company-wide. And I had to single-handedly set up a new server running the latest version of vCenter for our ESXi servers. And all of that is while trying to get in some studying on the side to get my Security Plus cert., getting Macs with broken screens mailed out for service, a couple of new computers deployed, and accounts properly shut down for an employee who left, plus the usual grind of "mindless" tickets like requests to create new shared DropBox team folders for groups. It's a LOT to juggle, but I was pretty happy with my ability to keep all of it moving right along for years. Now -- I'm starting to have doubts.
For example, just this morning, a user had a question about whether or not she should open an email about quarantined junk mail to actually look through it. I briefly noted a screenshot she attached that showed a typical MS Office quarantined email message and replied that she could absolutely view them at her discretion. (I also noted that I tend to ignore and delete those myself, unless I'm actually expecting a specific piece of email that I didn't receive -- in case it was actually in the junk mail filter.) Well, that was the wrong answer, because that message was a nicely done phishing attempt; not a legit message -- and she tried to sign in through it. Then, I had to do a mad scramble to change her password and help her get the new one working on her phone and computer. With more time to think about what happened, I'm realizing now that I should have known the email was fake because we recently made some changes to our Office 365 environment so junk mail is going directly into Junk folders in Outlook -- and those types of messages aren't really coming in to people anymore. On top of that? We're trying to migrate people to using two-factor authentication so I was instructed to get this user on it while I'm changing her account info. Makes sense, but I had to dig all over to find our document with instructions on how to do that too. I just couldn't remember where they told me they saved the thing, several weeks ago, when they talked about creating the new document in one of our weekly meetings. Am I just getting old and starting to lose it? Is everybody feeling this way about I.T. support these days? Are things just changing at too quick a pace for anyone to stay on top of it all?
I mean, in just the last few weeks, we've dealt with users failing to get their single sign-on passwords to work because something broke that only an upgrade to the latest build of Windows 10 corrected. We've had an office network go berserk and randomly drop people's Internet access, ability to print, etc. -- because one of the switches started intermittently failing under load. We've had online training to set up a new MDM solution, company-wide. And I had to single-handedly set up a new server running the latest version of vCenter for our ESXi servers. And all of that is while trying to get in some studying on the side to get my Security Plus cert., getting Macs with broken screens mailed out for service, a couple of new computers deployed, and accounts properly shut down for an employee who left, plus the usual grind of "mindless" tickets like requests to create new shared DropBox team folders for groups. It's a LOT to juggle, but I was pretty happy with my ability to keep all of it moving right along for years. Now -- I'm starting to have doubts.
I saw a couple of responses so far that seem to be saying the same thing....
I guess I didn't explain my career history quite well enough, or perhaps I really did screw up somewhere along the line by not trying to something different in I.T.?
I'm not sure? But the short version is, I've never really been able to find employment where user support wasn't rolled in as an expectation. I've always been hired by smaller companies -- not big corporations with thousands of employees and big departments that segment up the I.T. When I started out working in I.T., it was back in the late 1990's, working in the back room as a technician for small computer resellers or "mom and pop" type computer stores. From there, I progressed to a 7 year long stint for a mid-sized manufacturing firm that had a small department for software development (one in-house app they used as kind of an ERP system, customized for their industry), and the other small department I was employed in as "PC Support Specialist". We took care of everything that wasn't software development - including server backups, networking, maintaining the phone PBX, new deployments, customizing drive images for the workstations, etc.
After that, I helped an entrepreneur try to get his idea off the ground to refurbish older/vintage Macs as first computers for small kids. We installed a bunch of them in daycare centers and sold others at trade shows and advertisements. I was pretty much THE guy who did all the technical work, and much of the work developing sales brochures and marketing materials for that one. After a year or two, it was clear it wasn't profitable for the owner and I ducked out when it turned into a "free for all" of him trying to get me to do all sorts of odd jobs related to anything he needed or could come up with. That gave me a really good handle on Macs though, as his office machines were modern OS X machines and I worked with those a lot too.
I spent some time after that doing on-site service work for an old friend who had a business venture doing that and grew it enough to need a helping hand. Then, I spun that off into my own consulting business. But again, the corporate customers truly wanting consulting work on anything more technical wasn't enough to pay the bills. A big part of my income there was always the home user, wanting a virus or malware cleanup after little Johnny visited porn sites or hacker sites again on the family PC.
I kept that as a side job while accepting a position as "Network Manager" for a steel fabricator (again, kind of a small family owned company). The only people I really managed, though, were the outside consultants they called in occasionally, for a few hours or a 1 day project, here or there. Everything else turned into expectations I'd do all the end-user support, day to day, along with reporting to the CEO and V.P. with annual budget proposals, plans for upgrading their infrastructure and network, etc. I honestly hoped that position was going to finally be my "launchpad" into some kind of management position and out of the daily grind of end-user support -- but it wasn't to be.
At present, the company I work for has a focus on marketing, but more the internal aspects than marketing products or services to customers. The user-base is a mix of creative types, sales types, and of course your Finance staffers, managers, and H.R. They run a mixed environment that's about 50% Mac and 50% Windows 10. They have offices nation-wide and a highly mobile workforce, so we use a lot of cloud technologies -- but still have some infrastructure in house.
I've seen far too many people try to "advance their career" out of this type of work, into project management, and then whither and die on the vine doing it. I don't look forward to sitting in meetings all day, dealing with people problems and losing my ability to do I.T. hands-on. But I think I really WOULD like to get to where I could specialize on projects themselves. Things like setting up new servers for such things as system backup
Sample bias right there, though. The ones who are still "quick on their feet", both mentally and physically (since the two usually go together), won't be letting anyone stick them in a nursing home.