I was one click away form being the "asshole tech" today... (longish)

[draggar]

To say my department (IT) has had its share of cutbacks and staff reductions is an understatement. My direct team has gone from 5 people to 2 and we've picke dup several more locations.

My supervisor has gone from 25 techs covering most of Florida to 14 covering FL, AL, MS, LA, and PR / USVI (Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands).

What was over 2100 strong (not including contractors - who have all been let go) is now just barely over 400 nationwide.

I'm personally doing the work that over 3 people used to do.

Yes, I'm busy.

The only tickets I've closed on time over the past month were ones that people came to me about when I was at their site (or in the office). I'd say 75% of my tickets are late - 50% are late by several days.

With a new hyped product launching all of my retail stores are logging tickets left and right demanding I replace their old computers (I'm lucky if I get 1-2 computers a week to replace older machines). They're all demanding that I me there as soon as they hit the "submit" button on their ticket - quite often escalating even though there is no need and escalating it up to the district manager (not my boss). Everyone is demanding to be up and running 100% which is not going to happen. Everyone things they are the top priority. That aren't.

I also have office and people at other sites demanding my attention just as quickly.

Software support is almost non existent so I have no one to send tickets to when things don't work perfectly.

Add in several projects, system upgrades (non-computer), decommissions, conversions, etc..

Factor in I have a very large area. If I started to drive form one end of my area it would take me over 6 hours to reach the other end so field visits often turn into day trips.

To say I'm busy is an understatement.

Add in the stress of someone who decided to escalate his issue to my boss' boss, having a manager demand that I save 4GB worth of personal pictures (which aren't supposed to be on his computer) and horrible traffic, my stress level was though the roof today.

I get in an email from someone, her wireless card isn't working and it is "imperative" that I fix it ASAP.

I actually had the reply typed up "You and everyone else within a 150 mile radius - you'll need to wait like everyone else".

Of course I didn't send it. I shook my head and closed out that email (I didn't even send a reply).

God I hope I'm not becoming one of those techs. Maybe it's time for a new job - what I get paid (and no pay raises last year or this year) isn't worth the stress.

[draggar]

Now I have one of my users telling me that they don't trust what I do because they were working with another tech who is A+ certified. He knows much more than me because he's A+ certified.

I needed to go though this tech because he's A+ certified.

So I contacted the tech and he proceeded to tell me that he is A+ certified a few times in the email.

Yeah, those who brag about an A+ certification mainly tells me that they're insecure and can only brag about the A+. Big whoop.

(No offence to anyone here who has their A+, I doubt you brag to everyone about it all the time).

The last person I worked with who bragged about his certifications argued with a user for over 15 minutes (and then hung up on them) because "they were too suypid to know what operating system they were running". (They were running Windows 3.1).