VNC was a good idea at the time, but has made me the first troubleshooting point of call
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I'm a developer in a small deversified business. As a result my job description is also IT maintenance. We have sites in multiple towns and multiple locations in each town. So I decided to install VNC on each machine so I could access them via our VPN at anytime. The staff have caught onto me doing this and now whenever anything (and I mean anything) goes wrong the first thing they do is call me and tell me to fix it. Classis example today and yesterday was a staff member ringing me up saying they have no internet (they actually meant they couldn't see their homepage in IE). We run VoIP because of our distributed nature so I asked them if you don't have internet how are we talking. All the problem was is that the site they had choosen for their homepage was down and they hadn't even tried opening the site they actually wanted to go to. Long story short, since I have easy access to everyone's computer now they don't even think anymore. Instead they make me do their thinking for them. I am seriously considering removing VNC an telling everyone "No I can't see what you are doing you are going to have to explain it to me". That might get them thinking again about what they are actually doing. Just a rant I had to get off my chest.
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I'm a developer in a small deversified business. As a result my job description is also IT maintenance. We have sites in multiple towns and multiple locations in each town. So I decided to install VNC on each machine so I could access them via our VPN at anytime. The staff have caught onto me doing this and now whenever anything (and I mean anything) goes wrong the first thing they do is call me and tell me to fix it. Classis example today and yesterday was a staff member ringing me up saying they have no internet (they actually meant they couldn't see their homepage in IE). We run VoIP because of our distributed nature so I asked them if you don't have internet how are we talking. All the problem was is that the site they had choosen for their homepage was down and they hadn't even tried opening the site they actually wanted to go to. Long story short, since I have easy access to everyone's computer now they don't even think anymore. Instead they make me do their thinking for them. I am seriously considering removing VNC an telling everyone "No I can't see what you are doing you are going to have to explain it to me". That might get them thinking again about what they are actually doing. Just a rant I had to get off my chest.
You absolutely have to address this issue, as it takes you a definable amount of time to get back into the zone for developing the cost of this idiocy is going eat all of your productivity. Push it up to management and then start billing the office/department/idiot for support calls. Cost should be 1 beer per call with a stupidity and repeat offender penalty. Penalty to be an escalating quality/cost of booze, stupidity to be determined by yourself. There is no need to be greedy here you are initially going to get more booze than you can drink.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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You absolutely have to address this issue, as it takes you a definable amount of time to get back into the zone for developing the cost of this idiocy is going eat all of your productivity. Push it up to management and then start billing the office/department/idiot for support calls. Cost should be 1 beer per call with a stupidity and repeat offender penalty. Penalty to be an escalating quality/cost of booze, stupidity to be determined by yourself. There is no need to be greedy here you are initially going to get more booze than you can drink.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
I like this idea. Very much so.
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I'm a developer in a small deversified business. As a result my job description is also IT maintenance. We have sites in multiple towns and multiple locations in each town. So I decided to install VNC on each machine so I could access them via our VPN at anytime. The staff have caught onto me doing this and now whenever anything (and I mean anything) goes wrong the first thing they do is call me and tell me to fix it. Classis example today and yesterday was a staff member ringing me up saying they have no internet (they actually meant they couldn't see their homepage in IE). We run VoIP because of our distributed nature so I asked them if you don't have internet how are we talking. All the problem was is that the site they had choosen for their homepage was down and they hadn't even tried opening the site they actually wanted to go to. Long story short, since I have easy access to everyone's computer now they don't even think anymore. Instead they make me do their thinking for them. I am seriously considering removing VNC an telling everyone "No I can't see what you are doing you are going to have to explain it to me". That might get them thinking again about what they are actually doing. Just a rant I had to get off my chest.
Mathew Crothers wrote:
I am seriously considering removing VNC an telling everyone "No I can't see what you are doing you are going to have to explain it to me". That might get them thinking again about what they are actually doing.
Seriously? You think? Not in my experience! Having sat through a 10 minute conversation with the user telling me there was 'nothing' on the screen, and finally finding out that they'd just managed to auto-hide the taskbar, I fear user descriptions of screens are not worth the proverbial 1000 words! Best solution I had was to book a time with them when you will be able to help. Amazing how they manage to fix it themselves when they have to wait an hour or two.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I'm a developer in a small deversified business. As a result my job description is also IT maintenance. We have sites in multiple towns and multiple locations in each town. So I decided to install VNC on each machine so I could access them via our VPN at anytime. The staff have caught onto me doing this and now whenever anything (and I mean anything) goes wrong the first thing they do is call me and tell me to fix it. Classis example today and yesterday was a staff member ringing me up saying they have no internet (they actually meant they couldn't see their homepage in IE). We run VoIP because of our distributed nature so I asked them if you don't have internet how are we talking. All the problem was is that the site they had choosen for their homepage was down and they hadn't even tried opening the site they actually wanted to go to. Long story short, since I have easy access to everyone's computer now they don't even think anymore. Instead they make me do their thinking for them. I am seriously considering removing VNC an telling everyone "No I can't see what you are doing you are going to have to explain it to me". That might get them thinking again about what they are actually doing. Just a rant I had to get off my chest.
That mirrors exactly my own experience. When I worked at Ace Hardware, I was content to just fix any computer problem I happened to encounter while doing my job, even other employee's problems. No problem - it was a simple DOS-based system. But after the owner learned what I can do, and I was made Computer Systems Manager, every other employee suddenly became terminally stupid. Every trivial error resulted in a phone call to me for a fix, instead of using a little initiative and knowledge to diagnose and solve the tiniest of problems. Helping people is great fun, but allowing them to become dependent on you sucks, and it doesn't do their brains any good, either. Delete the VNC crap - it's making your people retards, and driving you crazy. It won't get better, trust me...
Will Rogers never met me.
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You absolutely have to address this issue, as it takes you a definable amount of time to get back into the zone for developing the cost of this idiocy is going eat all of your productivity. Push it up to management and then start billing the office/department/idiot for support calls. Cost should be 1 beer per call with a stupidity and repeat offender penalty. Penalty to be an escalating quality/cost of booze, stupidity to be determined by yourself. There is no need to be greedy here you are initially going to get more booze than you can drink.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
That's a 'way better answer than mine! :-D And very practical, too...
Will Rogers never met me.
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That's a 'way better answer than mine! :-D And very practical, too...
Will Rogers never met me.
It actually works if the boss buys into it, the dullards initially don't believe you will charge them a beer until they get a demand for #n beers on the first Friday. Those genuinely wanting help do not begrudge the beer anyway.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH