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Support hours for remote staff
What are organizations with small or one-person IT staffs doing with remote worker expectations?
Folks who are working at home are working “whenever,” which might be great for their effectiveness. But if they lock themselves out of an account at 9 o’clock on a Saturday night, or lose a file at 7 am on Sunday morning , the person they email first is their IT person—who would like some time away from thinking about work.
How are your offices managing staff expectations and IT support limitations?
JustKeepSwimming
33
10/20/20 at 8:51PM UTC
IT Support is a 24/7 activity, and it was so, even before the pandemic. (I did tech support for a newspaper publisher in the early 90s, and spent many a late evening talking writers off a ledge because they’d lost a file or couldn’t connect in order to email a story to their editor.) Companies need to account for this by staffing appropriately in shifts, or contracting with an outside 24/7 help desk to solve basic problems during off hours. For companies on a budget, another option is to offer asynchronous support via email, but staff needing support will be unhappy, even if they hear back within a few hours. Because deadlines are what they are, and don’t move conveniently when a technical glitch arises. This is why tech support staff typically last around 2-1/2 years in the direct support field. For people who don’t thrive in high-demand work, it can be very stressful.
© 2022 Fairygodboss. All rights reserved.