Technical support - hit and miss

I have made this observation in the past, but the various helpdesks that I have at work suck. I dealt with one guy who was incredibly useless.

In a particular software application, there is a field called Area. It's essentially your department's name. I clicked the dropdown field and none of them matched what I belonged to. On top of that, the documentation had a broken URL to the application, so I had to ask about both issues.

I got the proper URL. The guy told me to select one and let my colleagues know what I had selected. Huh? He was so out of it that I asked if I could connect with a subject matter expert instead. I did (at least he got that right) and she was a ray of sunshine. She answered my questions and created an area just for me with all the proper access rights.

It's nice when I go from frustrated to happy. That guy needs to go, though. Even the woman told me that!

Ten-year work anniversary on a Sunday

Yesterday marked my ten-year work anniversary. It was quite the unexpected milestone.

I used to be the person who held a job for two to three years. At this company, there have been many ups and downs that I have experienced and that I continue to endure. I am still kicking around.

I feel that I have stayed on for this long because my role seems to change every year or two. I also have established myself as a competent, reliable employee that I'm comfortable and my manager feels the same way about me. I also continue to pick up new skills and my job is still interesting to me.

Reaching this mark makes me look forward to a week more of vacation.

Interview thoughts, work, and taxes

The student interviews on Friday went well. We have three extremely good candidates. My boss and I need to choose one of them for the upcoming work term.

Frankly, it would be great if we could ditch the incompetent employee that we currently have for any of these three. They are far more on the ball that she will ever be!

My weekend has flown by. I spent a couple of hours doing some work. It wasn't difficult, but it did take up some time.

I also completed filing tax returns for my parents. It's nice that I got everything over by the end of March. I am a month ahead of schedule. Miracles do happen now and again!

I hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Losing colleagues due to no work

Work is getting dark. I learned on Friday that we have lost a good third of our department of writers due to a shortage of work.

It's sad. I am sad, as I trained the majority of them when they first joined the company. I do hope that they can find employment elsewhere.

It's sad that the news was delivered on a Friday, just before starting the weekend. When I got laid off a couple of times in my life, the news came down on Monday. I felt that it was a bit easier to digest, but not a whole lot.

I still feel that I am safe. I am the most competent person in my department. I am also the longest serving one in my group. All of that helps me out. We'll see for how long.