More Training

So we had some of our newer guys covering most of the helpdesk responsibilities one week. They had to ask lots of questions and looked lost most of the time. It was not a total train wreck but it was not pretty. When you have been on a helpdesk long enough you know that you just cant teach it all. We have a general training program that is at its best just a refresher on some networking and system administration.

We put our techs right in the middle of things. Getting right in there and going hands on has been successful for us. They answer the phones, or shadow on tickets, sit down and drive the keyboard in the Server with proper supervision. Our training documentation is about 80 pages of things to learn. If I were to even attempt to try and fill pages and pages with everything we have ever done or will do then this training book would make war and peace look like a Dr. Seuss book.

There are too many possibilities There are too many things that were just magic. They either stopped working just cause or started working because moon beams bounced off moon gas from Mars and hit the monitor and just started working again. So for you to ask me to make a training program that takes everything a helpdesk tech should know is...well....just ridiculous. Thank you for making my brain hurt. Thank you for asking me if the guys who can barely stand the helpdesk could write the training if I was busy.

Many things can be taught in a class. Lots of things are great in principle. But there is no replacement for great on the job training. Putting your hands on the computer and looking for problems. Clicking through Outlook to find why things are not working. And all of this is backed up by having senior tech helping and being shadowed on various things. And then when I try to explain this you will not listen. You know better. Of course you do. People in charge always know everything. I mean you obviously get paid more because your better at it then me.