The 10 Labors of the IT Professional

The 10 Labors of the IT Professional

by Eric Lundquist

‘Whats my password?’

This is usually asked via a phone call around 3 a.m. Despite all the investment in IT, recovering lost passwords is still the major help desk activity.

‘I think someone stole my password and hacked into the system.’

This is usually followed by finding out that the hapless caller used—you guessed it—”password” as the password.

‘I got some free software and when I installed it, my system crashed.’

Or maybe it was clicking on a link for a low-cost mortgage or free baseball tickets. Untangling a free software package is not fun and often means reinstalling.

‘Were going to outsource IT. Could you train your replacements?’

I can’t think of any other industry where you are supposed to train the people who will be getting your paycheck.

‘Instead of the software that you tested, did the ROI for and are ready to deploy to the whole company, were going with the company where my brother-in-law just got a job.’

Enough said about that one.

‘My son needs a job so I am going to put him in charge of IT, OK?’

The boss wouldn’t put him in charge of finance or manufacturing, but IT is fair game.

‘Ive approved the upgrade to Windows 7, but you cant buy any new hardware.’

Why bother?

‘Hey, we got this letter from the SEC. They want all our e-mails for the past five years. You have them, correct?’

The variation on this is you are supposed to search but are unable to find the e-mail that may send your boss to the slammer.

‘Make sure no one is wasting company time on Twitter, eBay, etc.’

This usually leads back to the boss’ son.

‘Were cutting back on the help desk. You dont mind taking some calls once in a while on the weekend, do you?’

Mr. IT 24/7, that’s you.