Humans are Funny
Apr. 7th, 2016 11:18 amOf late, I've noticed that the work tickets submitted to my team at the office follow trends.
A month ago, the common theme was asking for impossible things: 35 servers, all equipped with 4GHz CPUs, 10TB hard drives & 128GB of RAM, to be ready in 24 hours. That kind of thing.
Last week, the trend was for the author to identify the precise problem, state exactly what team should address it --then send the ticket to my team which isn't related to any issues mentioned. I received so many networking, database and MS Exchange tickets last week; the first few I directed appropriately, but after that, I just sent them back to the author asking them why they were wasting their time sending it to my team when they already knew we couldn't help them.
This week, it's all about not even trying. I've received several tickets this week which mention casually a problem somewhere but make no effort at all to indicate where the error may lay, how to recreate it, the precise error itself, or what they'd like to do about it. Just a "Hey, something is wrong somewhere" message.
Imagine your emo teenage son walking into the house, saying "Something is wrong with the car," and then disappearing into his room. There are two cars in the driveway. Which car? What "something"? Was there a noise? A leak? An explosion? Was it related to the engine, the body, the tires? Was there really a problem or did just not like the colour of the seats?
I'm sending the vague tickets back to the author with a template for clarification. Most haven't responded back yet, probably because it's too difficult to think about such details as how to replicate the error.
And last night, I discoverd one of our senior software developers has no idea what the difference is between RAM and swap space. Not a clue.
Here's what I'd like to have happen in the next sixty days:
1. I want a major company to buy out my employer.
2. My share options get translated into real shares and I cash out.
3. A massive recession sweeps through Silicon Valley. Everyone is laid off.
4. The remaining firms regroup and hire only those with skills from the talent pool.
5. Everyone else returns to writing bad emo poetry while living in a shared flophouse above a meth lab somewhere in the midwest.
Please make it so.
A month ago, the common theme was asking for impossible things: 35 servers, all equipped with 4GHz CPUs, 10TB hard drives & 128GB of RAM, to be ready in 24 hours. That kind of thing.
Last week, the trend was for the author to identify the precise problem, state exactly what team should address it --then send the ticket to my team which isn't related to any issues mentioned. I received so many networking, database and MS Exchange tickets last week; the first few I directed appropriately, but after that, I just sent them back to the author asking them why they were wasting their time sending it to my team when they already knew we couldn't help them.
This week, it's all about not even trying. I've received several tickets this week which mention casually a problem somewhere but make no effort at all to indicate where the error may lay, how to recreate it, the precise error itself, or what they'd like to do about it. Just a "Hey, something is wrong somewhere" message.
Imagine your emo teenage son walking into the house, saying "Something is wrong with the car," and then disappearing into his room. There are two cars in the driveway. Which car? What "something"? Was there a noise? A leak? An explosion? Was it related to the engine, the body, the tires? Was there really a problem or did just not like the colour of the seats?
I'm sending the vague tickets back to the author with a template for clarification. Most haven't responded back yet, probably because it's too difficult to think about such details as how to replicate the error.
And last night, I discoverd one of our senior software developers has no idea what the difference is between RAM and swap space. Not a clue.
Here's what I'd like to have happen in the next sixty days:
1. I want a major company to buy out my employer.
2. My share options get translated into real shares and I cash out.
3. A massive recession sweeps through Silicon Valley. Everyone is laid off.
4. The remaining firms regroup and hire only those with skills from the talent pool.
5. Everyone else returns to writing bad emo poetry while living in a shared flophouse above a meth lab somewhere in the midwest.
Please make it so.