Looking through you

I’m on hold with the help desk. It could be a while.

It seems they never pick up the phone for password support. Blown passwords, setting up new IDs, and login help are tough to come by.

On the other hand, if you’re calling for hardware support, like a printer that’s gone down, they’re all over it. They’ll pick up the call after ten seconds on hold, and have a guy down here in ten minutes to fix the printer, or to replace an old hard drive, anything. And at any time of the day. Call them at noon, they’re not out at lunch, call them at five-thirty, they’re on the job almost at once, making sure no one misses a deadline.

But a new ID for the UNIX system? Well, it’s been about ten minutes now. Pre-recorded “all of our representatives are still busy…” and two minutes of silence; repeat; repeat; ad infinitum.

It’s all fine though, I don’t have anything else to do while I wait. Because THEY TOOK ALL OF MY FUNDS!

That’s right, I’ve now moved into full-blown, all-out, senior-in-training mode. No more funds, now it’s just learning all the end-of-the-night stuff that keeps managers here until six-thirty or seven every night. Nothing to do for long stretches in the day except troubleshoot the newbies’ funds, and then very important stuff to do at the end of the day. So, while my time commitment has dropped considerably since last week (when, you may recall, I was super busy; so busy, in fact, that I only had time to post things like “I CANT BELIEVE HOW BUSY I AM ALL THE DAMN TIME” and that was it).

But, as my time commitment has decreased, my responsibility has increased, and increased dramatically. If I screwed up before there was a senior or a manger that would catch it, fix it, and then give me a hard time about it the next day. Now, if I screw up, the transfer agent, and the client are the ones who’ll see it, there’s no umbrella. It’ll all fall on me.

Which I’m totally ok with. Because I’m good at this. (That’s not to say I understand it, but I’m good at it.) And, if it turns out I screw up irreparably and get fired, well then, I’ll have tons of free time to drive places and see people, right? It’s win-win.

Ok, I’m still on hold, but my shoulder’s getting tired from holding the phone up to my ear while I type…I’m going to take a break.

BAM!
-tom


recommended downloads:
The Beatles, I’m Looking Through You
Fountains of Wayne, Leave The Biker, and Maureen
and Rhett Miller, Hover