Help desk

Everyday we send fund information to NASDAQ. It's my job to save the information to a floppy disk, physically transport that disk across the floor to the NASDAQ terminal. There, I transmit the information to NASDAQ. Today, it didn't work.

The network was down. This is a big deal because not only our funds need to go to NASDAQ, but all the funds that the company holds. So I got on the phone.

I spent ten minutes jumping from help desk to help desk (mutual fund, security, network...) and finally got a contact number for NASDAQ. I talked to Laurie at NASDAQ. She didn't solve the problem, but she got me a new number for my IT department.

So I called our IT department with a new name, and was on the phone with Louie for the next... four... hours.

Louie, in IT, conferenced in Darren from the firewall division, along with Sean, the NASDAQ netowork guy. FOUR HOURS.

This phone call was so long that Sean's shift ended. At three o'clock Sean was replaced by a new NASDAQ network guy, Bill. AT four o'clock Louie decided to send a technician down to physically look at the terminal. It was clearly not a network problem.

I hung up with them at four-thirty. The problem hadn't been solved. They kept working.

Four hours on the phone at the NASDAQ terminal. This was not the best day at work.
-t