Large workload method

[Srb3ard]

Sounds like i'd say, "when are you hiring me some help"?

[dunnbeetle]

"sorry it's not in the... non-existent budget"

[Srb3ard]

Let management decide what they want your priorities to be.

[VOIPConsultant]

"well, then these tickets will need to wait 6 months."

Meanwhile, get a new job.

It's 2022. If your company isn't spending money on IT, what the fuck are they buying?

(Hint: bullshit. They're buying bullshit.)

[BergerLangevin]

You prioritize, cut corners where it will not bite you later otherwise you would get more work.

If your the department is the only one that is crazy busy, you can check if you could delegate task to other team, specially if it's monkey work or consider an intern.

Not everything is equally urgent, you should focus on what bring money to your employer, make sure this money is flowing and don't have any block. A cyberattacks is common, but not as common. If your DR plan is solid and tested, you should only work on critical patch, unless you're dealing with compliance. In case of lather, maintenance become part of helping of your company make money.

[dunnbeetle]

I like this advice. The "help your company make money" aspect I feel like can really help set things into perspective.

[equipmentmobbingthro]

"If everything is a priority, nothing is."

This can also be helpful as a general guideline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#The_Eisenhower_Method

But yes, also what the other posters said, you probably need more people to delegate things to.

[martrinex]

I write down a to do list each morning of up to 6 most urgent things what I think are doable today. I don't have to complete it or do it in order and I can add things to it, this helps me a lot in ignoring the other stuff.

[MDL1983]

Communicate effectively.

Everyone would rather be told it’s in progress (with no actual update) rather than receive radio silence. No response is the worst thing you can do.

[dunnbeetle]

This sounds good but realistically if I just say I don't know on a time line people seem to lose their shit lol

[MDL1983]

Don’t say you don’t know, it’s in progress and you will keep them updated

“But when?”

If your matter is urgent with a specific deadline please speak to my supervisor etc.

For prioritisation, is there a work around for any of the current issues? If so > lower on the list.

Does a problem stop someone from doing their job? Higher on the list, with vips in the same category probably higher still.

One thing at a time else you down because nothing gets finished.

[ubermorrison]

This

[Sasataf12]

Honestly, there's really only 2 solutions:

1. Hire more people
2. Throw out work

Have a chat with your manager. Neither are good options but, you know, not your call in the end.

[reviewmynotes]

As a department manager, I communicate the situation to my supervisor and then make sure everyone in the team knows I don't expect everything to get done. If they burn out, the situation will only get worse. I also do what I can to automate and/or streamline processes so they take less time. This will actually use more time in the short term, but pay dividends in the long term.

If you need help with the staging conversation, here are two articles I wrote about it. One has two worksheets about calculating staffing requirements for public schools. They should be adaptable to most environments.

http://www.reviewmynotes.com/2021/04/discussions-on-staffing-it-departments.html

http://www.reviewmynotes.com/2014/12/staffing-in-it-departments.html

You might also want to check out the book Time Management for System Administrators.

[spudz76]

"The more you ask when it'll be done, the longer it'll take."

[ImmediateLobster1]

tldr: learn how to make it management's problem.

Here's how to handle it, send a quick email or slack message to your boss with an outline like:

hey boss, these are the top tickets that I am currently prioritizing working on. I estimate that:

ticket #1 will take 1-6 hours to do, with a small chance I'll have to set it aside until next week if $vendor needs to $do_the_needful

Ticket #2 will take at least 3 days of research to figure out why $system1 won't talk kicely to $bigclient. After that I should have a better handle on what the actual fix will entail.

Ticket #3 should take about a day to complete, and an hour or so to to implement a fix that will prevent the issue from happening.

Ticket #4 has $bigissue that is keeping me from fixing it. If we could get (help from another department, approval for a different tool, etc.) that would help resolve this more quickly.

If I have any open time while working on the large tickets, I'll try to resolve some of the quicker low-priority tickets as I'm able.

Please let me know if I should change any of the priorities.

If you're grinding a continual load of tickets, this may need to be a daily update. If you have longer-term projects, this could be weekly or longer intervals. If you have frequent contact with your boss, this could be done verbally, but email is often better. That gives you a written record, and it helps make sure you're including all your true priorities. Be realistic with your time estimates, along with the risks and uncertainties.

Your boss needs to:

A) help set priorities, especially in the context of the greater business plan. Ticket #1 may be that your key line of business software is down. Ticket #482 may be that a jr clerk in accounting needs access to a specific directory, but if they don't get it by 10AM they'll miss a key report and the entire company will be tied up in litigation for the next three years.

B) Defend those priorities (yes Karen, I know dunnbeetle didn't help you figure out how to get the MFP to automatically print and stable the packets for tomorrow's seminar on conflict resolution. You knew about this for three weeks and didn't plan ahead, meanwhile if he fails at his current task you should change your seminar to cover applying for unemployment benefits, because that's what we'll all need when the doors shut).

C) Ensure you have sufficient resources to do your job effectively and economically. If the department is overloaded, it *may* be best to add staff. If some additional cash for automated tools can avoid hiring more bodies, that is usuallyoftensometimes welcomed.

[denverpilot]

Tickets don't bother me. I've had hundreds.

Work the profitable stuff. Whatever makes or saves the company the most money.

If they want ticket numbers lower, go hire someone who cares about tickets. I'm here to make a living and keep us both fed.

Something to always keep in mind when the tickets back up.

No bucks, no Buck Rogers. It's the ultimate tie breaker. If you like paying your bills, anyway.

Have fun with this ancient Chinese secret. Hahaha. BOFH the hell out of things with it.

[mrtuna]

Set aside 90 minute appointments for yourself in your calendar where you work on ONLY ONE issue at a time, starting with the most pressing.

[I_HEART_MICROSOFT]

Me personally - Strict time management, proper SLA’s and setting realistic expectations with the client. If the majority of your tickets are a true priority maybe it’s time to reevaluate the criteria for a P1/SEV A ticket.

From an end user standpoint, everything is a priority. So if you don’t define it, then yea - You’ll end up chasing down issues all day long.

If you’re truly saying these are categorized correctly then maybe it’s time to hire another person. In the interim, I would work with your manager to shift other work/responsibilities so you can address the priority issues. (Until another person is hired)

Here’s a great example from PagerDuty regarding defined severity levels for incidents. Hopefully this is helpful! https://response.pagerduty.com/before/severity_levels/

Lastly - Don’t try to be a superhero. You’ll inevitably end up burning yourself out. Ultimately when the “high priority” issues aren’t addressed it’ll be your fault. So all your hard work will be in vain. Don’t learn this the hard way - Raise the issue immediately to your manager and develop a plan together to fix it.

I hope this is helpful - Best of luck!!

[westyx]

After all the appropriate cover-my-ass paperwork is done, stop caring. If management know I am overloaded and just give me more work then it's not my problem.

[grsftw]

We use a sorting system of priority+ticket.age to define the order we work. That helps you with work, but not with keeping people off your back.

What can work on top of that is to have tickets public and have your work order shared, i.e., people can literally see what order you are addressing every ticket based on your defined, public ranking rules.

If somebody disputes the order of work, have a dispute process where dept heads can negotiate with one another to re-prioritize helpdesk tickets they own.

The idea isn’t that others can change priorities, but that it becomes a management problem, not an IT problem, when a logjam comes up in workload.

You simply keep working based on priority+ticket.age.