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usagibryan
Toucan
Toucan

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Joined: 13 Jul 2020
Gender: Male
Posts: 273

28 Nov 2022, 9:01 am

Rant incoming.

I work as local tech support for an inner city middle school. It's a very loud and chaotic environment. I know the teachers are stressed and have their hands full with students, but it makes absolutely zero sense to me that I could send out multiple emails about the same thing, over the course of months even, and get zero feedback. When I mention the thing in front of a teacher they act like it's the first time they ever heard it. If they insist they never got an email I will show them how to search their email by name or keyword and they react like it's magic. It seems the only way I can relay or get information to and from staff is to physically go to their classroom or office and hope they are there, and talk to them individually, which is horribly inefficient especially if it's something ALL staff need to know or info I need from ALL staff (I've tried surveys and forms for gathering data but they mostly ignore them).

When I need to communicate with any one individual, doing so by any digital or remote means yields an incredibly low chance I'll get any response. I've learned I have to seek them out, knock on their door and just hope they are there and not busy. They do the same thing to me, instead of emailing me or submitting a ticket, they will choose to knock on my door. It kills my workflow and drives me up the wall.

Not just the students but the teachers and staff like to yell all the time. Not angrilly, just loudly talking. If they see me all the way down the hallway they will shout my name, I guess am expected to shout back? I DON'T want to do that, so I just awkardly make my way toward the person. I try to keep out of the hallways (I do inventory on teacher work days or early in the morning) so that I am not bothered and constantly stopped, my inbox and ticket queue are radio silent but if users see me suddenly they have all these problems and choose to verbally relay them to me on sight, and I have to whip out my phone and jot them on notepad. I try to encourage staff to submit tickets (which is what they are SUPPOSED to do) or at the very least emails but it seems everyone wants to do everything vocally and face to face, which is much harder for me, my memory is garbage and I manage and keep track of information more easily through tickets and spreadsheets. When someone tells me their issue in passing I am more likely to forget it, I've said this over and over but they get offended if I forget their issue anyway. Sometimes I will get a ticket or email after being insistent, then they will seek me out or knock on my door to tell me they submitted a ticket, which is horribly redundant.

Very often I will get a call or request to go to a room with no explanation, either on the radio (supposed to be only for emergencies but staff uses them for tech support requests), from the front office, or a teacher acting on behalf of another teacher. I'll ask what the problem is before going but I never get a straight answer. Most often I get there and it's something I could have fixed remotely (if I tell them this they again react as if I mentioned magic) or CAN ONLY fix remotely, like an account related issue. If it's something I can fix by physically being there I usually need to leave and come back with something from my office, and would have saved a trip if they had just given me the reason for the summons in the first place. It's like they think I can fix any issue by just physically being there with no prior information. If I tell them I'm busy and to submit a ticket if it's not an emergency, they say "OK" and I never get a ticket, then time passes and they ask for a followup and I have no clue what they are talking about because I've completely forgotten, which can result in drama.

What is even the point of all this technology if no one uses it? Am I the weird one for wanting to handle things digitally and by the book instead of kinetically and verbally?


_________________
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age"