I've worked places where the desktop/helpdesk to user ratio was like 4-500 and it worked out fine.
But that included stuff like fully staffed departments of dedicated sysadmins and network engineers, a guy whose sole job was managing inventory, and departments of users on zeroclients with virtual desktops.
But managers be like "I heard this one company had a 400:1 ratio so clearly my three employees
who run all of IT are just lazy"
Aioua on
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
+4
Options
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Going for an interview tomorrow at a place where it would be me, a helpdesk guy, and the IT director, managing a 450-user network.
Huge potential to do cool projects, looks like a ~20% raise, but also huge potential to be a nightmare.
Lmao, yeah, nah. Good money, but upping my commute by 10 minutes to sit in a dirty, windowless IT room is not the move I was looking for.
Plus that ratio of support to end user does not sound manageable by any stretch of the imagination. My previous place was supporting about 250 users and even at our "highest" where it was 4 of us and our boss, we struggled to keep up between day to day ticket handling, projects, telephony, random disasters etc. Then the company kept cutting staff, and even continued to cut after I quit last year for health reasons due to the unbearable stress. (Yay Blood Pressure meds at 30!)
They're now down to 1 help desk guy who came on right as I was leaving in November, the main phone guy and some Network Engineer they hired 2 weeks ago after they shitcanned the engineer who had been around forever and actually BUILT the goddamn network. When I left our ticket queue was cracking over 1000 backlogged cases, and when I talked to the new guy a few days ago, it's now hit over 1400.
And apparently they don't want to hire more people. Granted, maybe because we worked in a travel call center that depends on critical SLAs that the tempo was so brutal, but I can't even imagine trying to support double that with what you're describing.
At least the # of users on their site included people who work at locations not serviced by the main office IT - their department only has responsibility for ~150 right now.
0
Options
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
They just hired a new helpdesk guy after the previous one quit after a year. The guy before him quit after 2 years, and before him, 4 years. I joked that if I stayed on 6 months, I'd be making quota under that pattern.
The IT director laughed, but also turned pretty red.
Explaining that they've had that kind of turnover, without a follow-up about what they've recognized to be problems and what they're doing to fix them?
I've worked places where the desktop/helpdesk to user ratio was like 4-500 and it worked out fine.
But that included stuff like fully staffed departments of dedicated sysadmins and network engineers, a guy whose sole job was managing inventory, and departments of users on zeroclients with virtual desktops.
But managers be like "I heard this one company had a 400:1 ratio so clearly my three employees
who run all of IT are just lazy"
Yeah I think that was the crux of our issue. We were forced to wear so many hats that we didn't have a chance to train for, nor had any solid documentation to learn from.
At one point during last year I was doing:
-Senior Case handler for incoming tickets
-Main person in charge for imaging new machines for new users. (it was all done manually, we didn't have the time to set up WIM environment)
-Main person tasked with figuring out how to deploy a WIM environment.
-Main user in charge of employee onboarding (setting up ad accounts, install software etc)
-Main person in charge of inventory tracking everything that we maintained in a shared excel document.
-Assigned to try and figure out how to re-wire and re-set up the conference rooms with Telephony/Video/Computer/TV
-Wire up 85 desks with Power, Internet, Cable Routing. Unpack all the included cabling and wire the desk harnesses
-Oh and deal with multiple building and department moves that were all being pushed on us at the last minute that also included new hires with no proper warning/advance notice.
RandomHajileNot actually a SnatcherThe New KremlinRegistered Userregular
We support ~700 people with a staff of 6 including our supervisor and it’s a nightmare sometimes. We’ve been heavily investing time and money into security lately, but none of us can really pick up the slack because we’re all busy with our daily stuff and yearly projects.
Regex question related to BGP AS path filtering...
So, ^$ (aka start, end) is the correct expression to denote a null string -- which in the case of AS Path would denote a locally originated route.
I found a router that has this mistyped as $^ (aka end, start). I'm not 100% sure what I would expect this to do, but I wouldn't expect it to parse the same way that ^$ does...except, if I check, that's exactly what it does. Using "show ip bgp regexp ^$" and "show ip bgp regexp $^" return the exact same routes.
So this is mostly an academic question for me, but are ^$ and $^ actually functionally identical (even though the latter doesn't really make sense)? Or is Cisco's implementation just forgivingly allowing something that doesn't really make sense? Or am I straying too far outside my expertise and missing something entirely?
It makes sense, technically they mean "at the start/end" so:
"Am I at the start, then am I at the end?" True for an empty string.
"Am I at the end, then am I at the start?" True for an empty string.
"Am I at the start, then is there a character, then am I at the end?" True for a string such as "j".
"Am I at the end, then is there a character, then am I at the start?" Never true.
Thanks for this!
0
Options
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Thinking of putting in my notice at my current job before I have something else lined up. I have a year's salary saved. Is it really that much harder to get a job when you don't already have a job?
Thinking of putting in my notice at my current job before I have something else lined up. I have a year's salary saved. Is it really that much harder to get a job when you don't already have a job?
Being jobless tells an employer that either you're a quitter or a nuisance. Some will still take a chance on you, and you might run into someone who's also had problems with your current employer, but for the most part, you're damaged goods.
We can talk about how silly and unfair that is, but that discussion wouldn't help your job prospects.
I got an IT job when I had been fired from my previous one, and it was a fucking bitch, and I ended up getting a shitty Internet Help Desk position after leaving a Network Admin position.
Meanwhile, I got an offer less than a year ago for a 30% raise, and most interview questions were about my current job duties.
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Ughhhhh
I just want like 2 months. I wonder if I could swing taking the bad job for slightly more money and then pulling a "it just wasn't a good fit"
0
Options
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
Really, I had lunch with a former coworker who might be able to get me a really amazing opportunity and I'm just crossing all my fingers that that pans out
I knew a guy who took a year off from work and then went to go have his dream job. But he also networked like a sales guy. He knew everyone in a 50 mile radius. And when I say that, I mean I could casually drop his name at any place of business and people would know who he was, and they all liked him. Still can, actually. He's also the guy who tried poaching me last year, and will probably try again.
I don't know many in IT with that kind of social clout.
I just want like 2 months. I wonder if I could swing taking the bad job for slightly more money and then pulling a "it just wasn't a good fit"
I mean for real you can do whatever you want to do. 2 months is barely a blip and you can just say you took a sabatical for family reasons or something. But you might end up getting fucked if you can't find a job.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I always fudge my employment dates a bit so any gaps I do have go away.
You could probably go your whole life without getting caught but I fucking get nailed the second I breach the speed limit so I don't take any chances.
Resume dates are one of those things we're you can just go "yeah sorry I must've misremembered the date sorry" and no one cares. The real meat and potatoes about lying on a resume is actually making shit up. That'll get you shitcanned. But if you say like "April 2008" and it was actually "February 2008" no one will care.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I just want like 2 months. I wonder if I could swing taking the bad job for slightly more money and then pulling a "it just wasn't a good fit"
Other option is to get a job and then set the start date <n weeks> from whenever your notice ends at old job. A lot of places probably won't want to wait 10 weeks to onboard you, but you could definitely swing a month in most cases.
+3
Options
TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
I just want like 2 months. I wonder if I could swing taking the bad job for slightly more money and then pulling a "it just wasn't a good fit"
Other option is to get a job and then set the start date <n weeks> from whenever your notice ends at old job. A lot of places probably won't want to wait 10 weeks to onboard you, but you could definitely swing a month in most cases.
That would be fucking amazing.
0
Options
ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
I would absolutely kill for a month off where I don't have to do anything but had a job waiting for me at the end of it. T_T Starting to think I need to see a therapist or something.
The big problem there is (at least in the US) that you better hope you don't have any health problems in that month. Unless you want to pay out the ass for COBRA.
The big problem there is (at least in the US) that you better hope you don't have any health problems in that month. Unless you want to pay out the ass for COBRA.
The big problem there is (at least in the US) that you better hope you don't have any health problems in that month. Unless you want to pay out the ass for COBRA.
COBRA is retroactive.
You can pay for it after you need it and it gets backdated to your termination date.
So it's fuckall expensive, but only if you actually need to claim anything.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
90% of the time unless you get hit by a bus you can just tell the doctor or urgent care you're self pay and ask for a discount and it'll be cheaper than even just the cobra payments.
The only time it makes sense is if you're legit admitted to inpatient services.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
+2
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
90% of the time unless you get hit by a bus you can just tell the doctor or urgent care you're self pay and ask for a discount and it'll be cheaper than even just the cobra payments.
The only time it makes sense is if you're legit admitted to inpatient services.
Then pay $5 a month for the rest of your life and hope they don't ask for more because lol American health care.
90% of the time unless you get hit by a bus you can just tell the doctor or urgent care you're self pay and ask for a discount and it'll be cheaper than even just the cobra payments.
The only time it makes sense is if you're legit admitted to inpatient services.
Then pay $5 a month for the rest of your life and hope they don't ask for more because lol American health care.
Like self pay for an xray is like $100 versus $300 copay versus whatever the fuck cobra will cost you.
Just make sure you're like "hey I can't afford to pay a whole lot can you work with me" and if you're nice they'll give you how much it actually really costs if you go "I've had xrays done before they're not $700 can you accept $100?"
Yes it's awful but it's less awful than what cobra will cost you.
Walmart and Wegmans have cheap Rx for antibiotics and such too, like $15 gets you a 2 week supply.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Pagerduty alert that I'm being put on call on Monday. I'm going to need to mention to someone that while I may technically work for the company till next week, come Thursday I'm wiping my work PC and won't be coming back after the holidays at all, so it might be optimistic to think I'll be picking up my phone.
I miss having mentors. Pants-seat flying can be thrilling for a while, but half the time I learn a new skill just to let it languish because the next fire has erupted and I'm too busy learning skill 2 to properly train up and internalize skill 1.
I feel like it's only going to get worse as all the olds take retirement, especially in the public sector. The next decade or so is gonna be a shitshow of unfilled positions and unfinished knowledge transfers.
+4
Options
lwt1973King of ThievesSyndicationRegistered Userregular
Why yes, VPN, the moon isn't full so why don't you establish for no apparent reason.
"He's sulking in his tent like Achilles! It's the Iliad?...from Homer?! READ A BOOK!!" -Handy
+1
Options
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I miss having mentors. Pants-seat flying can be thrilling for a while, but half the time I learn a new skill just to let it languish because the next fire has erupted and I'm too busy learning skill 2 to properly train up and internalize skill 1.
I feel like it's only going to get worse as all the olds take retirement, especially in the public sector. The next decade or so is gonna be a shitshow of unfilled positions and unfinished knowledge transfers.
The longer I work here, the more I appreciate the way this company is structured. Basically they leave you the hell alone to fly by the seat of your pants but there's about 6 people above me I can go to for help when I'm losing altitude.
Posts
But that included stuff like fully staffed departments of dedicated sysadmins and network engineers, a guy whose sole job was managing inventory, and departments of users on zeroclients with virtual desktops.
But managers be like "I heard this one company had a 400:1 ratio so clearly my three employees
who run all of IT are just lazy"
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
At least the # of users on their site included people who work at locations not serviced by the main office IT - their department only has responsibility for ~150 right now.
The IT director laughed, but also turned pretty red.
Yeah I think that was the crux of our issue. We were forced to wear so many hats that we didn't have a chance to train for, nor had any solid documentation to learn from.
At one point during last year I was doing:
-Senior Case handler for incoming tickets
-Main person in charge for imaging new machines for new users. (it was all done manually, we didn't have the time to set up WIM environment)
-Main person tasked with figuring out how to deploy a WIM environment.
-Main user in charge of employee onboarding (setting up ad accounts, install software etc)
-Main person in charge of inventory tracking everything that we maintained in a shared excel document.
-Assigned to try and figure out how to re-wire and re-set up the conference rooms with Telephony/Video/Computer/TV
-Wire up 85 desks with Power, Internet, Cable Routing. Unpack all the included cabling and wire the desk harnesses
-Oh and deal with multiple building and department moves that were all being pushed on us at the last minute that also included new hires with no proper warning/advance notice.
I'm so glad I'm gone of that place.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
-Al Gore 2016
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
Thanks for this!
Yes.
We can talk about how silly and unfair that is, but that discussion wouldn't help your job prospects.
I got an IT job when I had been fired from my previous one, and it was a fucking bitch, and I ended up getting a shitty Internet Help Desk position after leaving a Network Admin position.
Meanwhile, I got an offer less than a year ago for a 30% raise, and most interview questions were about my current job duties.
I just want like 2 months. I wonder if I could swing taking the bad job for slightly more money and then pulling a "it just wasn't a good fit"
I don't know many in IT with that kind of social clout.
You could probably go your whole life without getting caught but I fucking get nailed the second I breach the speed limit so I don't take any chances.
I mean for real you can do whatever you want to do. 2 months is barely a blip and you can just say you took a sabatical for family reasons or something. But you might end up getting fucked if you can't find a job.
Resume dates are one of those things we're you can just go "yeah sorry I must've misremembered the date sorry" and no one cares. The real meat and potatoes about lying on a resume is actually making shit up. That'll get you shitcanned. But if you say like "April 2008" and it was actually "February 2008" no one will care.
Other option is to get a job and then set the start date <n weeks> from whenever your notice ends at old job. A lot of places probably won't want to wait 10 weeks to onboard you, but you could definitely swing a month in most cases.
That would be fucking amazing.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
At least you can pay out the ass retroactively.
Damn, I thought you must be in your 50s
UGH
You can pay for it after you need it and it gets backdated to your termination date.
So it's fuckall expensive, but only if you actually need to claim anything.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
The only time it makes sense is if you're legit admitted to inpatient services.
Then pay $5 a month for the rest of your life and hope they don't ask for more because lol American health care.
Like self pay for an xray is like $100 versus $300 copay versus whatever the fuck cobra will cost you.
Just make sure you're like "hey I can't afford to pay a whole lot can you work with me" and if you're nice they'll give you how much it actually really costs if you go "I've had xrays done before they're not $700 can you accept $100?"
Yes it's awful but it's less awful than what cobra will cost you.
Walmart and Wegmans have cheap Rx for antibiotics and such too, like $15 gets you a 2 week supply.
I feel like it's only going to get worse as all the olds take retirement, especially in the public sector. The next decade or so is gonna be a shitshow of unfilled positions and unfinished knowledge transfers.
The longer I work here, the more I appreciate the way this company is structured. Basically they leave you the hell alone to fly by the seat of your pants but there's about 6 people above me I can go to for help when I'm losing altitude.
And it still isn't enough
Complexity + technical debt = oh god everything is always on fire
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.