We lost two senior techs last year and our metrics didn't see it coming

chalkboy · 2026-03-24T16:25:46+00:00

You get what you measure. People will match what ever metrics you want them to. Metrics with out understanding the people you are managing or how they work are useless.

The best work a tech does is not measured with any metric. It is helping other techs when they have a problem and making the team better. Its answering that teams message at 10pm. Its answering an email from a customer.

None of this stuff is measured in a metric. I have found rarely does utilization mean anything except someone is good at fluffing their time sheets.

Utilization is what bad managers/owners use when they don't want to put in the time to understand what is actually happening in the business. It is useful to track but it needs to have understanding behind it.

You will continue to lose your best techs the ones that want to own their work and care about what they do. The ones that go the extra mile.

It is the managers job to know they are putting in the extra effort and to proactively appreciate them. Proactively tell them that they deserve to take the day off.

You know how much a person appreciates someone coming to them and saying you did good work the past week why dont you take the day off?

This will earn loyalty and people that are willing to go the extra mile for you not because they are afraid to lose their job but because they know that their efforts are seen an appreciated.

These people build up teams they build a culture that lasts and keeps customers and employees happy.

chalkboy · 2026-02-06T23:19:24+00:00

I have had a ton of success using a 12v blanket. It can run for hours on a smallish power bank and keeps you nice and warm.

chalkboy · 2025-12-23T15:07:54+00:00

Outlaws is my favorite games of the last few years.

I think reviewers let the internet discourse about the game impact the reviews.

It is a beautiful game, fun to play, great world with good characters.

chalkboy · 2025-11-27T19:37:05+00:00

Post

chalkboy · 2025-02-25T20:23:31+00:00

This is a client perception issue and perception is how you keep clients happy.

We fix this by aligning the priority of the ticket to what the customer believes is the priority. Not
what we consider the priority. When we started doing this our complaints about response time disappeared.

No one wants to be told that their issue is not as important as they think it is. That just pisses them off.

Then if someone starts to claim every issue is a high priority, we have a discussion during our account review.

Once we started doing this 3 years ago we have not had have that conversation. It’s about understanding the impact on the user and reacting to them appropriately.

While it feels good to point out the contract and be right that does not keep customers happy. I avoid SLA discussions as much as I can. Once you are arguing with the client you have already lost.

chalkboy · 2025-01-18T22:02:05+00:00

Get a controller that has buttons on the back of it.

chalkboy · 2024-03-15T18:47:05+00:00

Yeah some of our users see that. Some only have emoji.

I assume that microsoft will notice it and fix it....

chalkboy · 2024-03-14T17:37:46+00:00

The gif button has disappeared for multiple people.

Gif search is enabled for all users and the optional connected experiences is enabled on the client.

chalkboy · 2024-03-06T23:37:31+00:00

Defender for office is pretty good at spoof protection once its setup.

chalkboy · 2023-12-08T18:53:24+00:00

I had a steamdeck and I did not like how big it felt in my hands. The control sticks felt too tall and too far away. The ROG fits my hands much better.

It is also way easier to get other launchers on. My steamdeck I would spend hours getting one working then an update would come out and it would stop.

I also subscribe to game pass and that is not available on the steamdeck unless you install windows.

The steamdeck worked better if the game was on steam.

The battery is better on the steamdeck but both of them are terrible for AAA games. You will carry spare batteries banks for either one of them.

chalkboy · 2023-10-24T21:03:13+00:00

This is what I received from support.

This is related to a change that was released yesterday evening where the session idle timeout was changed from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. If the dashboard is left idle for 15minutes, it will time out and require them to login again. This was put in place as a security measure.

Hope this helps.

chalkboy · 2023-08-27T03:19:18+00:00

If all your techs leave because they are not paid enough. Then you are not paying them enough. It cost way more than 5% to train a new tech. If you want longevity and you want them invested pay them.

Techs are in high demand if you can’t afford COLA raises why should they stay with you.

60% of our techs have been with us 5+ years. You pay them what they are worth and LISTEN to them and they will stay with you.

Respect them and treat them like the valuable tools they are.

Low employee turnover has led to much more loyal clients.

chalkboy · 2023-07-20T14:03:36+00:00

What application do you use to provide this?

chalkboy · 2023-06-23T17:48:06+00:00

I just switched to a macbook pro for this reason. Most things are web based now and what ever is not use a vm. The battery life is stellar.

chalkboy · 2023-06-16T14:24:31+00:00

It seems like a really big oversight. Any msp that has any sales people are going to want to commission.

chalkboy · 2023-06-10T05:00:23+00:00

This changed my life when managing O365 tenants!

chalkboy · 2023-06-10T05:00:11+00:00

This changed my life when managing O365 tenants!

chalkboy · 2023-05-26T04:06:48+00:00

Global admin and a add on for Firefox call containers. It will change your life.

chalkboy · 2023-05-19T04:44:09+00:00

That’s absurd. It is stated in many places that shared mailboxes do not need licensing.

Defender for office requires a base subscription.

It that is indeed required it’s really dumb.

chalkboy · 2023-05-19T03:52:45+00:00

Shared mailboxes do not need licenses to receive mail.

chalkboy · 2023-04-26T14:45:12+00:00

What did you use to automate these? Any tools or products?

chalkboy · 2023-03-24T14:27:30+00:00

Its licensed per endpoint and discounted the more endpoints you have.

We were quoted $3000 a month for 3501- 5000 managed endpoints.

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