Give us the cheat codes to your industry/place of work!
From when I worked in IT:
-In your ticket, do not give a vague description and a time you want the problem fixed and then expect anything to get fixed. Often times we very much need to work with you directly to understand your problem thoroughly to investigate and fix it thoroughly.
-If you have some weird problem, it might be just as weird to us when we first look at it. We are not omniscient. What we are good at is researching possible fixes, applying them, and measuring the effect they have in actually solving your problem.
-If we didn’t install it, don’t expect we know anything about it. You might really like to install and use Fusion 360 over AutoCAD or something, but that doesn’t mean I know where Fusion 360 is storing its configurations, or that I have a phone number to call to get support from that company as a vendor, or that I have ever troubleshot this application.
-If you’re really nice to us, we might be able to offer you suggestions for problems on personal computers, but sorry, we cant usually touch it, especially if we are outsourced IT. The moment we touch your personal computer it opens us to a shitload of liabilities and it could lose me my job.
-We understand very much that typically the only time you’re talking to us is when you’re mad because some shit is preventing you from working, but we don’t want that either so don’t be mad at us about it, we would prefer you never had to put in a ticket for anything except configuration change requests.
-Pay attention to our recommendations. If we say you have to have your laptop on at a certain time of day weekly for updates, we aren’t just asking for our benefit, we’re asking this because if you ignore it, eventually when you power on your laptop, windows is going to force all those updates to push at once and suddenly you’ll be without your computer when you’re supposed to be doing an important presentation because its going to take 4 hours for a years worth of updates to apply. We have little control over this.
I do concrete work. Every video you see of someone or something walking into super wet concrete it really doesn’t matter. That’s a 5 minute fix. Cars going into it though you have to figure out how to get the car out.
I’m really surprised by that. The last guy I worked with made such a big deal about putting up temporary guards. I think he just wanted to get in another hour or so of work.
Normally when you finish placing the concrete you always have extra in the truck. So we pour out a pile or fill up the wheel barrow with extra. So say a dog walks in it and the concrete is still really wet. You just grab some of the extra concrete with a shovel, toss it out into the holes, and run the bull float over it again. Concrete guys are really good at tossing something from a shovel and hitting their target haha.
Barricades are nice to just stop people from doing it in the first place but unless you’re doing some solid barricades you always have someone who ignores them.
When the concrete is pretty hard but still wet enough to leave tracks is when it’s more difficult to fix.
Can’t give specifics, but regarding enforcement work: We know who’s breaking the rules, but we let them get away to prevent exposing our methods.
Mall cops recording video in the washrooms. I knew it.
I work in the magical world of ISPs. If you’re having an internet issue, reboot your router and/or modem before calling in. It may not seem like much to you, but many background processes happen when you do so. This can be useful to troubleshoot where the issue lies. There’s a reason why techs will make you do so when calling in. And yes, they can tell on their end if and when you do so. So don’t bullshit them by saying you already did it if you didn’t.
I feel like some people “lie” about rebooting their modem simply because they don’t know how to reboot it
- Unplug the power
- Wait ~30 seconds, just to ensure it’s good and off
- Plug it back in
Fortunately there are no commands to enter or buttons to click. They’re designed to handle losing power.
Yeah, but we all know that no matter how many times that I have already done, tech support won’t talk to me until we do it again together
If I had a nickel for every time a full power cycle fixed it all, I’d be rich. However, if you did power cycle before and call in again, often it’s an issue that needs deeper investigation. In that case, the tech can likely watch the process of your equipment coming online in realtime to see where the issue is happening. Network entry, authentication, package application, DHCP, it can often be monitored as it’s happening. A reboot while on the phone starts the process right from the beginning so it can be monitored to determine what happens immediately and what happens after it sits for a while.
IT guy here, it is fairly common to make a change in the system™, and need to reboot the device for the change to take effect.
I work in tech support. An error I haven’t seen doesn’t exist. So yes, I’m going to re-trace the trouble-shooting steps with you.
90% of the people who call in haven’t done it, but claim they did. Because they think I have a magic tech wand that can find and fix all problems, and that I just make them go through the motions because I’m lazy.
Concerts, the rooms are always tuned visually and sonically for about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back on the floor. If you care about audio or visuals this is where you go. If you can’t afford the floor, anywhere in the center will still be a good experience, avoid the sides unless you don’t care about visuals or audio. We literally call those the bone seats, because they have no substance to them.
If they’ve got a control booth in the middle of the venue, that’s usually where I want to hang out. Best audio/visuals right where the guy engineering it is listening to it
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I’m a waitress. It never hurts to say it’s your birthday or better yet, anniversary. Birthdays get free dessert most places but anniversaries get free bubbles. It costs me nothing to give it to you.
Just make sure to tip on the pre-discount amount and it’s all good.
Even if my wife and I get our meal fully comped because the kitchen messed up or it took a long time (has happened a few times, college town. We never complain or get upset, the managers just come over and apologize then comp it), we qt least tip as if it wasn’t comped, if we liked our server and/or the food a lot (both, most of the time) then we tip the full amount of the comped meal. Without fail the servers have been surprised that we tip at all when that happens
Corporate IT: I see nearly everything you do on your computer. I can see exactly how long what application is open. If I ask you to restart your computer, you don’t, and you somehow get me in front of it, restarting it better not fix it or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what. If you want in with IT, always open a ticket and include as much info as you can clearly convey. Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
I’ve dealt with my share of PC issues and apart from digging in and writing scripts, I’m an advanced end user. One time le tired IT guy needed to remote in for some issue I didn’t have appropriate access to deal with. He seemed rather startled when I opened notepad and said “Hi!”
I also swear I began to get more difficult to recognize fake phishing attempts shortly after.
Dave, if you’re reading this you never caught me with one! Gotta try harder!
Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.
Always ask the person you are trying to bribe what they like to be bribed with.
Can you hijack the camera and see us too?
No and if I found a way I would file a report against any other IT agent who did. That’s invasion of privacy IMO. Microsoft can tho, remember the Kinect?
Yes, of course. Though your camera light would alert you of the usage, unless of course, your IT guy ordered a camera that can deactivate the light via software (or simply opened the camera and yanked the light)
or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what.
That’s childish and won’t ever cause a change in their behavior.
Bonus points if they show management the ticket that’s stalling a project from progressing and has been sitting on your desk for 2 weeks.I will prioritize nicer clients (assuming the issue is equal as fast to solve) if they are more pleasent to work with.
Stalling a ticket here means a day, not two weeks. I have 72 hours to respond at a maximum before I get penalized. We are worked so fast here the skin flies off your bones.
You say that like it’s the one “high priority” ticket that the one big project is waiting on. In a sea of backlogged high priority issues attached to critical projects, being an asshat means that yours will be at the bottom of the 100 other super-important, my job-is-special tickets.
BUT MY SLIDE DECKS
IT - if you have an issue with an application, give us step by step instructions on how we can repeat your issue like we are five years old. We’ll get it fixed more quickly that way.
As an IT director, I encourage my techs first action to be to connect to the clients machine and ask them to “show me what’s happening.” Then they aren’t to interrupt the user until they complete their explanation except to ask for clarification.
You can see all the steps leading up to the error, the users workflow, typically the desired end result, and the error message.
You also are building rapport with the user making them feel listened to. Far too often I see techs assume something else is the issue, “fix” that, call it done and the user gets frustrated.
Even if you can’t fix it, like so many user issues, at the very least the support experience is a positive one for the end users. Sometimes it’s just that a specific preference isn’t in an applications options or they need to change a step in their workflow. But at least the end users was listened to and their experience and frustration was validated.
If you have metrics or surveys, it’s always interesting to hear a user write in that the issue was not resolved, but they were extremely satisfied.
I’m doing that and generally the next step after that is : “OK, can you do it again and this time DO NOT CLOSE THE ERROR POPUP so we can get information on what is happening”
Also a restart really does fix a big chunk of problems. An app not working right? Force quit & reopen the app. Problem solved. Phone or computer bugging out? Reboot. Problem solved.
I have great service with IT people because I do this by default. I’ll have already tried some steps myself, so I’ll give them info about what exactly works, doesn’t work, and things that I can or can’t do that might be related to the main issue.
They really appreciate the detail.
I feel bad that my old job’s IT department would never trust me when I listed this amount of detail, so I stopped putting in the extra effort.
My ticket: I am not able to login using the standard portal. The error I recieve is X. I have already tried rebooting. I have confirmed that everything was fully plugged in and that I am on the correct network. I also already went through the normal recovery process which did not work. Here is the result, [X].
The first response from IT: Why don’t you try rebooting and then let me know if it’s working. If not, go through the normal recovery process.
Like, I get it, you’re being thorough and don’t want to just blindly trust the user, but I’m only talking to you because I already tried your quick fixes. Please understand.
Reasoning: For everyone one You, we have a 1000 not-You. But the other 1000 say almost the same as you.
Once you experience that you become jaded and assume they are either lying or tell or miss some details. But we know our usuals and if we notice the name we might assume you know x and y more than the usual.Please dont stop putting in the last mile :)
Yeah, I get that. I think it’s partially to do with how rarely I’ll have an actual issue. Also with their turnover rate, I rarely interact with the same tech twice.
I still do all the legwork to figure out if it’s something I can fix myself and always put specifics (Repro steps, Error Codes, etc.), but pulled back on listing every other step I’ve already tried.
Software Engineer:
Make a junk email for junk signups and accounts, if you can. Don’t accept the cookies. If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the tab you just accidentally closed.
If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.
Even paid services can and usually will sell your information, so just assume that everything that you enter is considered public information from that moment on
Looking at you, Adobe
Isnt the reopen tab CTRL SHIFT T?
My god, I hadn’t even noticed that autocorrected to “Tab”. Fixed it, thanks for the call out.
I just started using Proton mail’s aliases for that and love it. If I see a bunch of spam coming to one particular alias, I’ll just delete it and make a new one. So far, it’s been great
That’s how I started as well, I’m at 418 aliases now. 99.9% of my online account use an alias with my custom domain.
Adding onto this, either have a temp mail addon, or have one such site bookmarked on your browser.
ITT: shit tons of IT people. does anyone on lemmy not work in IT? yikes
I’m not saying I’m in IT, but I’m tired and read the question and thought, “Why are they asking about printers?”
I’m in IT also.
IT folks are exactly the people who will be early adoptors of technology. If lemmy can start growing to something approaching an early majority, then we’ll see a big shift in the demographic of the user base. Unfortunately, that’s a huge gap in expansion.
Well, I’m just an anti-capitalist non-tech person. I barely know anything about what most people seem to consider basic tech knowledge. Fuck that weird pedo ceo of Reddit, fuck that company, fuck corporate greed in general. I’m just here to avoid being forced to take ankther company’s vampiric bullshit.
Fair enough, glad you’re here!
The big populating event was Reddit shutting down API service (about a year ago, happy first cake day to me). Most people don’t know what that is. A lot of people don’t get what federation is, either.
I fully hope and expect that normies will appear as it grows, but for now it’s people nerdy enough to know why we should care.
Set lighting technician here
I’m currently in the medical field but “IT” is one of my nicknames 💀 every new place I work I try to hide it but I just impulsively fix shit and then end up being expected to fix shit
Geologist checking in.
Although, I don’t know what LTP means in this context. In my world, it’s “Long Term Planning”.
Life Pro Tip.
I’m one of the few that don’t work in tech but it’s arguably the hobby I spend the most time (and money) with so I’m not sure if I really count. I work in emergency management & specialized response services.
Fancy way to say you’re on a peak truck!
Brewer
HVAC: Don’t shut your air vents to give you better heating or cooling in certain rooms/floors. You’re adding pressure to your system and reducing its life. If it’s AC then you’re turning it into a freezer. That’s why doing so freezes the coil, not enough air flow to move the cold air out and keep it from freezing. For heat it literally can overheat the control board frying it since the blower also helps cool the electronics. If you have hot and/or cold rooms (this is normal per floors) ask about adding dampers. Most of the time it’s not possible without major drywall rework and it isn’t cheap. Your builder sucks (basically). A lot of companies won’t quote the work because it can’t be guaranteed. You’re essentially stuck with the crappy design the builder got approved. One potential is minisplits. Again, not cheap per room and not pretty but they will fix your issue.
I looked up dampers, and I’m confused about how they are functionally different than closing/opening the vent? I’m sure I’m not understanding though. Is it just about the location?
Proper dampers redirect airflow, not eliminate it. Again, see, your house builder sucks.
They don’t operate differently. Also he is assuming your ducts are designed and balanced properly to begin with. Most in residential homes aren’t.
While shutting off a lot of vents can cause problems. Shutting off an unused room isn’t going to hurt anything. Or partially closing a vent because a room gets too warm/cold. Because like I said they do fuck to balance systems in residential homes.
HVAC: mini splits
black mold forms and causes breathing problems. Clean aircons (air conditioner) every 6 months - 1 year.
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
A mini-split is chosen to meet the needs for one room. Some folks, and can’t be convinced otherwise, think an aircon can cover the entire universe. And to prove it, they leave all the doors open.
This is proof we live in the matrix. It’s completely unsolvable issue without self closing doors
If water is dripping from the outside unit, your aircon is lacking gas. Making it into a giant fan.
Water dripping means the cold side coil is cold enough to condense water out of the air. In what way does that suggest it is not working?
Some, especially newer units are designed to evaporate most of the condensate (water). That being said many will still drip water depending on the humidity (high) outside and also inside. And it be perfectly normal.
Are you in the industry, 'cause that doesn’t ring true to me. Why would you spend the energy to evaporate water when it’s so cheap and easy to dump the water on the petunia patch?
Refrigerators collect waste water in a tray on the assumption that the indoor climate will be dry enough for the water to ambient evaporate
Air con is incredibly popular in the tropics where it’s dropping 100% RH to 30% and making a lot of water
Yes 15 years, because it saves energy by making the system more efficient.
Window units design the fan to throw the water onto the condenser this evaporates the water AND cools the freon in the condenser coil. Commercial stand up refrigerators often run the condenser line through the condensate pan for the same reason.
They don’t “spend” energy doing it, they save it.
Split units and traditional A/C will just drain or pump the water somewhere.
Thanks, that is pretty neat
Also, don’t use evaporated water for your flowers; there are no minerals in pure water and for them it’s like eating wallpaper paste
Normally the cold is carried by the gas to your room. The less gas you have, the less efficient this transfer is, and the colder your outside unit will be.
When the cold side is for inside air, I think you’ll find that the water it condenses from the inside air is piped outside
Rethinking so many life choices.
Thanks. I was thinking of shutting the vents of one room in the house that is empty and unused, but I figured just keeping the door closed would probably be better, right?
Shut it off, it won’t hurt anything. It’s only an issue if you’re shutting off a lot of vents. Now how much good it’ll do energy saving wise, depends on where the room is in the house and how old your house is. Newer houses with better insulation will see much less improvement.
Won’t it potentially cause humidity issues? The room does not get direct sunlight (faces south). It’s a new house with pretty good insulation (as far as I’ve experienced so far).
Without being there, I couldn’t say for sure., but I doubt it Personally, I would just use common sense. Shut it off and and just check the room a couple times over the next week or two.
I agree that shutting 1 vent isn’t going to kill your system. However, that one room isn’t insulated on interior walls. Best to leave it alone for overall comfort. You aren’t saving $ closing the vent. The system is going to run until the thermostat is satisfied no matter what.
Also, best thing for the entire building is to run the fan constantly (I forgot to mention this in the original). Balances the building much better than just the entire system kicking on and off every 15 min or so.
Can’t imagine this is relevant to a lot of folks here, but corporate event audio visual:
Don’t use the audio visual company that’s “in house” at a hotel. They’re paying nearly 50% commission for the privilege of being there and getting business shunted to them, so only half of what you pay is going to goods or services.
That said, make sure your hotel contract leaves you free to bring in an outside vendor without having to pay too many fees. Cross out any lines related to things like “load in/out liaison,” paying for polytak floor covering, or paying some percentage of your outside AV bill to the in house company. It might help to include a proactive clause like “client will not be charged any fees for bringing in our own audio visual partner”. Include a line that you won’t be required to pay surcharges like “event technical support” which is just a “we’re charging you a fee” fee.
You will still have to pay the in-house AV vendor for any power, internet and rigging. For internet, confirm what your rate will be before signing the contract. We see a lot of cases where they’ll say “the meeting room wifi is discounted (free) if you use us for AV too, but if you don’t it’s $20k” (actual number, and could be even higher) Once you sign without negotiating they’ve got you over a barrel.
If you already have a contract you may be able to mitigate these issues by leaning on your hotel salesperson. Trying to negotiate with the in house AV rep will usually be ineffective (sometimes they’re cool). The hotel is the in-house AV vendor’s number one customer, so if the hotel says they need to do something, they’ll do it. Usually leaning on your hotel salesperson after signing a contract only works if you have some leverage like potential for future business.
And to add to that an outside vendor will almost always provide a better result because they actually have to work for their jobs, rather than their jobs being given to them. They also have to work in more venues so they are more flexible and able to customize your AV to meet your specific needs. Many of these in house crews have only a couple setups that they will do for a room and if your setup doesn’t fit that preset, tough.
The only downside is, because their shop is not on site, last minute add ons are difficult if not impossible to do. So make sure you account for everything that is happening and communicate it with your AV company so they can spares for any last minute add ons you may want.
Good points! I know my last couple jobs have had “partner” companies that were similar to us in each major metropolitan area. So if we had a pop up request beyond the backup gear we packed, we could still get it from a warehouse less than an hour away. (And there’s always the wholesale rental houses like Rentex)
Yeah, the main company for most hotels literally got the exclusive contract by bribing the hell out of all of the hotel owners/executives. And they were so notoriously shitty that they bought a smaller company a few years ago, just so they could change their name to the smaller company’s name and attempt to sidestep lots of the bad reputation.
Tech, specifically AI automation. My LPT is that most services are just using GPT4 in some capacity. Automated workflows are not plug and play, credentials expire, variables change, limits are exceeded, etc. Rather than pay a random company to build and maintain something for you, you can save a shit ton by just hiring someone in-house who knows Zapier or Make and having them build the workflow you need.
So I typed out a long reply with helpful tips and everything but Lemmy broke and I couldn’t send that, and I really can’t be arsed again, this is already too much effort.
Massage/Wellness: your posture sucks and your back hurts all the time because you have a flabby gut and no ass. Get to exercising.
I work at a gas station—take note of your damn pump number.
Like everyone else, I get distracted and forget to do this. Then I look out at my car while standing at the register. Naturally, the numbers are not visible from this location…
Indeed.
Can you just check on the camera. Yeah, the blue car. No not that one, the other one.
“It’s the one at the end.”
Turns out it’s Pump #2, not Pump #1…
