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If you've ever worked in IT support, you know that the ticketing process is about the only thing that keeps the idiots at bay, spamming support directly with th

• korlja 4y ago
  Yes and no. I think at least a part of that problem is that the usual support ticketing process infantilizes users. If you call in and the first question is along the lines of "is it plugged in? have you tried turning it off and on again?" then of course your next ticket will take that level of questioning into account. And call in even for a switched off monitor next time. Because they wouldn't ask that question if that wasn't their job to fix, right? Also, of course users will try and fail to fix issues themselves. They should be applauded for the intent and empowered to be successful next time (if possible). Instead they are usually berated for failing and breaking stuff along the way. Which leads to the usual sheepish "I didn't do anything, I didn't touch it, it always was broken like that". Of course there is a minimum number of imbeciles. But most people can be educated and empowered, so they do behave like adults when dealing with problems. "The system" just has to give them that chance.
  • Agamus 4y ago
    I agree entirely, and thank you for providing a more thoughtful analysis. My experience: when tech support are (very) competent, (very) patient, (very) people-loving people, left to do their work in a low-turnover place with no ticket system, it is (very much) more efficient in the short-term, and absolute magic in the long-term.
• jedberg 4y ago
  I worked in IT. I had two techniques for people with inane questions -- number one, acknowledge their request and tell them they are in the queue, then follow up the next day asking if they still need help. Usually they had either figured it out or asked a friend by then. Number two was to just teach them where to figure it out for themselves as a ticket update, and then close it out the next day. If they actually came by, we would just help them and then file a ticket for them to track our work. There is no reason to force people to file tickets before you help them.
  • rrrrrrrrrrrryan 4y ago
    They absolutely should force people to file tickets before helping them, if the IT department is understaffed (which is an entirely different problem).
    • jedberg 4y ago
      Understaffed or not, if you want to be perceived as a cost center that gets in the way, sure require tickets to do any work. If you want to be seen as a force multiplier for the business that helps people get work done quicker, then actually help people and do the record keeping on your time, not theirs.
    • Gibbon1 4y ago
      Yeah so you have people doing primary business work[1] doing the work of support people[1]. [1] Primary business, the shit the makes the money. [2] Support, shit that is done only to support #1.
• poink 4y ago
  It's been a long time since I've worked in a support-adjacent role, but IME it was always less about "keep[ing] the idiots at bay" and more about covering the ass of the help desk. Things that take a support person 5 minutes are the bulk of the job, and those things have to be accounted for. If you slack on that, people will make their own determination of what constitutes a "simple" issue, you'll wind up with most of the issues the help desk solves not showing up in their metrics at all, and it looks to the higher-ups like the support people are just lazy. In the places I've worked, support always _loved_ the "idiots" because their problems were simple. Being able to resolve a ticket by putting in a single screw, telling the person to turn on their computer, or initiating a password reset was the easiest kind of win you could get.
• deleted 4y ago
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