Days that drag on

Cerulean

Cerulean

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
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I work at a wholesale company as a network administrator.

Is it normal for some days just to drag by, and feel like you're running out of work to do or that there isn't much work to do (which would sort of translate into 'using time inefficiently, wasting time and thus company money, etc')? :(

How do you get by on days like this? What's normal?

(EDIT: Maybe it has something to do with laziness, or not exercising, or not eating enough, or lack of overall energy / feeling worked or burnt out..)
 
[H] is here to fill your time. ;)

theres a saying among state workers; "dont kill the job". it means dont work so fast that you run out of a job to do.

having your network running so well that it doesnt require you to do much means you have done your job well. if you need some fun, go break something and then fix it.
 
I think I train people too well on how to not screw up their computers or not repeat problems and then I end up getting less calls.
Maybe roll out some new software to keep the users on their toes.
 
write some shell scripts...stuff is going on that you possibly don't know about! Read some syslogs then write shell scripts based on those too!
 
exchange keys said:
Maybe it's a good time to upkeep/update your documentation/procedures/inventory/etc...
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update resume maybe? haha

Play with nmap and do some pen testing? look at your broadcast traffic with wireshark, see if peopel are doing stupid things? set up a server running cacti and make some pretty graphs? set up a netflow analyzer and look at some of your flow sessions if you serve stuff publicly, it's sometimes fun to watch large search engines crawl my systems *shrug*
 
I just picked up the new JUNOS security book for SRX gateways. 815 pages of awesome, haha. I don't really have spare time, but if I get bored of doing real work, I'll crack open a work-related book.
 
Red Squirrel said:
pskill
psexec

On your coworker's PCs. :D
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Greatest entertainment ever... Along with TightVNC watching their machine. Online Forums usually pass the time for my day. About the time I really get caught up on forums someone calls and needs something done
 
I used to be like you, OP. I had plenty of free time to catch up on [H] threads and play around with new software that I wanted to test.

We were recently bought out, and now it's rare that to have even 10 minutes of free time per day. I constantly feel like I'm paddling upstream, and that there's not enough time to get everything done. I no longer have the time to play and test. I'll get calls or emails from my director wanting me to do X, which makes the two or three things I'm currently working on have to wait. When I get up to take care of those tasks, I'll come back to several more voice mails and emails from users.

I like the fact that my workday goes by so fast, but it sucks to leave knowing that you weren't able to get everything done and that even more will be waiting for you the next morning. There are many days when I wish I had the time to sit down and figure out how to streamline some things or make them run more efficiently...but with people always needing something, that's way easier said than done.
 
There are always improvements to be made.to the network infrastructure. Go clean a wiring closet.
 
imyourzero said:
I used to be like you, OP. I had plenty of free time to catch up on [H] threads and play around with new software that I wanted to test.

We were recently bought out, and now it's rare that to have even 10 minutes of free time per day. I constantly feel like I'm paddling upstream, and that there's not enough time to get everything done. I no longer have the time to play and test. I'll get calls or emails from my director wanting me to do X, which makes the two or three things I'm currently working on have to wait. When I get up to take care of those tasks, I'll come back to several more voice mails and emails from users.

I like the fact that my workday goes by so fast, but it sucks to leave knowing that you weren't able to get everything done and that even more will be waiting for you the next morning. There are many days when I wish I had the time to sit down and figure out how to streamline some things or make them run more efficiently...but with people always needing something, that's way easier said than done.
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You need a ticketing system. Something to say: Wait your turn in line.

EDIT: It's also possible whatever you're fixing could be avoided with better design and reporting. Xymon, Cacti, etc. Saved me plenty of times.
 
O2Flow said:
You need a ticketing system. Something to say: Wait your turn in line.

EDIT: It's also possible whatever you're fixing could be avoided with better design and reporting. Xymon, Cacti, etc. Saved me plenty of times.
Click to expand...

Yup. We were using an old version of GWI, but stopped using it as we were told that we would have to start using the corporate help desk (Remedy) and instead of someone calling and us taking care of the issue right then, we would create a ticket and it would get prioritized. We haven't started using Remedy, but naturally I try to prioritize tasks anyway. It's just that there is so much work to do, and a lot of it time consuming, that even if I have a ticketing system that tells them they are going to have to wait the fact remains that we could use another body (and preferably brain). I've got people wanting me to set permissions on shared folders and help them convert documents and all kinds of silly things that could be handled by a help desk tech or one of our app analysts, while I have "real" stuff to do like set up a spare server and do a backup and restore on it or work on scripting to make AD stuff more efficient.

I'll look into Xymon and Cacti, thanks.
 
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