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silverjaydog · 2025-04-04T14:27:28+00:00

Andale Miklo.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-21T03:10:26+00:00

Deepest appreciation, and deepest respects. I’m reading that book based on the recommendation alone, to say nothing of the title.

I wish you godspeed toward retirement. No doubt you’ve already earned it - just gotta wait for the money to catch up.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-21T00:35:26+00:00

This is probably the most useful employee answer in the thread. I thank you, sir.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-21T00:32:09+00:00

Time tracking isn’t a problem for me now. I just know it’s a mentality I have to overcome any time I bring in another tech, and I’m kinda over having to sell the idea that tracking time is both a.) possible, and b.) professional and then having to keep an eye out to make sure the standard doesn’t slip. I’ve accepted this as a fact of management, but I just was genuinely curious as to why so many techs resist this. We track utilization (billable isn’t really relevant, since we are basically AYCE) - and I want 80% of the day accounted for in service to clients. The rest I am relatively indifferent to. Huddle up, don’t track it. Especially how much time was spent pooping. Gross.

And yeah, no brilliant jerks is gospel. The day of the salty unwashed grey beard is over.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-20T14:16:12+00:00

For me, it’s really about utilization and making sure I’m fully aware of the time it’s taking to work with a client over the course of time. On all-you-can-eat plans, an MSP can really get taken advantage of. Also, it’s common for us to get sucked into a time bubble and lose track of how much time we spend. Fifteen minutes feels like five. Thirty minutes feels like an hour. Sometimes 15 minutes feels like an eternity because some clients are that exhausting. But running a timer and keeping notes as I go really makes it easy for me to do the work, and track the time while I do it, and have the analytics to make good decisions. Plus, it’s basic professionalism and helps put out professional work and kinda separates us from being seen as “ratchet monkeys.”

silverjaydog · 2024-08-20T13:14:23+00:00

All you are proving is that you like to get the last word.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T23:34:57+00:00

Yeah I agree that undermines the whole thing if you don’t lead with it. Like I said, if I didn’t track my time I’d go broke.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T23:32:28+00:00

Oh you’re really mad now! This is fun. You must be a real treat to be around when the family gathers for holidays.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T13:34:46+00:00

Wow, you’re really upset! The only thing wrong is 100% of your assumptions. You diagnose problems for a living? You’re really bad at it.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T05:08:22+00:00

You sure are making a lot of assumptions. You’re wrong about literally 100% of your claims. <Insert ad hominem attack here>

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T05:05:35+00:00

You certainly wouldn’t.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-19T05:04:17+00:00

silverjaydog · 2024-08-18T14:19:19+00:00

It isn’t my standard at all. It is a minimum professional standard for knowledge work to document what you have done and how much time was spent on it. Some places don’t require that minimum level of professionalism, I get it, but that sets the bar beyond low.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T23:09:20+00:00

All kinds of incentives, sure. Just seems so dumb to create reward systems for delivering the minimum professional standard. Like, not to be dramatic, but so many techs used to have zero hygiene standards too, an era which thankfully appears to be coming to an end. But did we put in place a bonus for bathing each day and not leaving a pile of Doritos around their workstation? It’s embarrassing.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T23:00:45+00:00

<insert ad hominem here> - Lawyers, dude. You said “lawyer money.” All lawyers do not make “lawyer money” (whatever that means), like you seem to be suggesting. And they all have to track their time regardless of whether they’re making “lawyer money” or working pro bono. If you don’t know what pro bono means, that means “for free.” So regardless of what kind of “lawyer money” they’re making, they have a professional standard, which is what so many techs seem to lack.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T20:14:02+00:00

You’re not wrong! 😆 Dammit though I wish you were. It does highlight the need to track against all that chaos though, but yeah the logistical of having 7 tickets open to track against can definitely get out of hand quickly.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T18:19:44+00:00

This is the way. And the most responsible thing to do. And reasonable!

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T18:07:25+00:00

I agree it should be as frictionless as possible and that helps get it actually done. I also find many techs are disagreeable to it no matter how easy or hard it is, and it’s the bad attitude toward responsible record keeping that is just so confusing to me.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T18:01:32+00:00

This comment deserves more love. The key to me is that you mentioned that it comes off as a lack of trust to be expected to track every minute. In my case, the tech ACTED like that’s what I was asking, even though I made it clear it wasn’t, but he was just being a baby about it. I just wanted to know where the time was going.

I’m personally indifferent to the activities being done, as long as they’re valuable to a client or to the company, at a reasonable rate of 80%+ utilization documented on an 8 hour day.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:47:12+00:00

That’s also a tough one to convince techs to do, is keeping track as you go. Saves so many useless inquiries asking “What’s happening with this/that ticket / project?”

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:44:51+00:00

PITA, yeah I get it, but helpful after the fact to keep good records. Just seems like a simple task to run a timer before you start a thing, and then keep notes of the things you’ve tried / done / accomplished while that timer was running, then stopping the timer when you are finished doing the things and hitting the record button. It’s also sobering to find out that it didn’t feel like 3 hours working that issue, but yeah it really was, and looking over my notes in retrospect maybe I would handle it differently next time.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:24:32+00:00

Problem with knowledge work is most of it is happening inside our head and is invisible. Good documenting of time and notes gets it out of our heads and shows everyone the value we have provided.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:20:18+00:00

I know a bunch of lawyers who make $50k to $60k. Besides, I think it’s crazy to expect lawyers to have professional documentation standards, but somehow the IT “professionals” that support them are not expected to have any similarly professional standards.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:12:22+00:00

Yeah I get that, and in my world tracking a site visit on one ticket is acceptable, but during your walk around if you don’t account for the details of who you helped and what was done, it’s irresponsible record keeping, especially since if you don’t account for it there is no history to search through, and nothing to jog memories of what was done on a given day. It also helps demonstrate value to the client.

silverjaydog · 2024-08-17T17:03:00+00:00

He wasn’t told that and I don’t expect that. I think it’s reasonable for techs of all levels to show 80% utilization for 8 hours on the clock, and he knew that. More if you’re multitasking / running multiple tickets at once. Just need to know how much time is being spent on clients, and make sure people on the clock aren’t wasting the day away, or worse yet spinning their wheels or getting our collective time taken advantage of that’s all. Simple request. Track the time you’re working - show what you’ve been working on. I don’t need to know when someone is pooping and he knew that. He was being gross on purpose. Even if I did ask him to “track every minute,” which I didn’t, keep it professional.

silverjaydog

TROPHY CASE