I’d say the largest portion of my tech support role is to make technology tools actually perform the work they are designed for. I use the word “coax” a lot. But I’d suggest a good second portion of my work is noticing and correcting adjacent and related issues.

Today I found that a network printer in a walled office had been plugged into a jack that formerly was used by a laptop docking station. The docking station network cable was not removed, just left hanging from the dock—unbeknownst to the office occupant, whose laptop was on Wi-Fi. Could be worse, but should be better. I went to grab a small, unmanaged switch to enable a second LAN connection in the office, but subseqently observed a second network port right next to the first.

A quick trip to the network closet revealed that the port was already cross-connected to a network switch, so simply plugging in the hanging cable into the second port was all that was necessary.

I am sometimes so disappointed. I try to understand what and why and I just can’t. I like to believe the people I’m working with are not just trying to close a ticket, but also trying to prevent more calls. Evidence suggests I am wrong.