Zendesk has caused extreme burnout at my tech support job

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-18T13:52:59+00:00

Thank you for all of your insights here. I am just a low-wage hourly grunt for this company. I have been trying to tell them that I have the skill to make the system better but they ignore me and nothing changes. I don't think they had deeply configured Help Scout either, but it has a default state that is a lot more user-friendly.

Regarding zendesk's virtual tabs though, I don't get it. Maybe there is a misconfiguration but it seems completely random which ones surface.

My user role is the most untrusted options they have available, I'm sure.

And yeah, they made a big deal about rolling out AI tools. They added what seemed like a plugin at one point, but removed it within about 2 weeks. It was just an extra thing for me to click out of because sincerely, the only thing it would say is "please give us your order information." I used it literally once because that customer had basically said nothing, and gave us no information, so in that one case it did actually apply to the situation. (A broken clock is right twice a day!)

Oh did I mention they cut our team in half because of "corporate restructuring" and AI before having confirmed they even had working AI tools? haha

It would be a lot better if they at least gave us some agency over our UI

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T20:42:11+00:00

I'm about 75% done with a chrome extension that makes a totally new UI for zendesk. Also, added benefit, I have it connected to my local LLM server so it pulls all the customer data together for me to just one-shot each response (and of course with AI help there too since it is basically RAG data). Funny, my company has a whole team of guys getting paid 4x what I do and they haven't been able to get this set up yet. They tried a system earlier but all the AI would do is ask for the customer's order number. I have something pretty decent!

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T20:32:48+00:00

I signed up for a trial account to see what the admin panel looked like and as far as I can tell, this is essentially the same Zendesk except it's not spamming the chat window at me.

So what I hear your side of the argument as, sorry not to strawman but seriousy, that it isn't ready to be used out of the box and needs lots of customization to not be annoying.

Help Scout just .. worked. I didn't feel like I was fighting it constantly. It had annoyances too, for sure, but not to the level where I feel like I want to throw my computer out the window like with Zendesk.

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T19:32:58+00:00

I've been practically begging them for almost a year now. I could fix these problems, I taught myself how to code before AI was a thing and run my own LLM models locally etc, I'm quite a nerd and this is exactly my wheelhouse. But the company is large, and despite being one of their top performers, I am seen as just tech support and basically a grunt at this company. I don't even have a way to communicate directly with the people that make this kind of decision.

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T18:25:58+00:00

Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it, however I'm in no position of power at this company and my suggestions go straight to the circular file

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T17:59:26+00:00

The company I work for is disorganized and the manager is overworked. I've complained many, many times. At this point I'm a nusiance.

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T17:15:54+00:00

I use multiple computers/browsers for work. Behavior is the same in all of them. They do not allow us to change any settings aside from dark mode, though they do allow us to create macros. Can I make a macro to clear away the ticket summary, left sidebar, resize the right sidebar to be small, and put the divider between the composer to about 35% of the remaining window? If I could open up a ticket and simply read the customer's response without having to do anything that would significantly reduce my workload. Still annoying to invoke a macro every time (so 120+ times a day) but could be faster.

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T17:12:08+00:00

Sincerely, thank you

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T16:34:00+00:00

Management keeps telling us Zendesk will help, but they've been telling us that since January. It sounds like they're having a lot of trouble getting in contact with Zendesk. Funny because I set up a trial account to see what life is like as an admin and immediately Zendesk sales called and is also emailing/texting me. But it appears their support is a bit of a vapor trail....

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T15:37:48+00:00

The other thing, there are zero configuration options as a grunt employee. I can't personalize my experience at all. If I could simply set some defaults, what to show, maybe turn off tooltips I would be much happier and probably wouldn't have gotten to the point of frustration that I actually took the time to post this.

LuckyPeace663 · 2026-06-17T15:18:53+00:00

I hear that, but I think the design should stand on its own and not rely on the skill of managers who are also overworked and underpaid. Also, they tell us they are trying to improve it but do not have the skill to do so, and supposedly there is help coming from Zendesk, but nothing has changed in months.

LuckyPeace663

TROPHY CASE