Simple Question, Not-So-Simple Answer.
Okay. So here’s the question I pose to you, the reader.
As some of you know, I am a web designer working at a midsize web shop in Denver. We have a CTO, a VP of Technology, and a Network Admisitrator. Now, the Network Administrator has had a number of servers (Sun and otherwise) delivered to him to set up, and an entire TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED server room built for him. So far, no problem. Where the friction starts is here: over half of our staff uses Macintosh computers, in some form or another (iMacs, G3 PowerBooks, G4 towers, etc.), and all of the aforementioned technology people have ZERO experience either maintaining or using Macs. I’m surprised the network admin even knows what one looks like.
Fully half the office needs to use a piece of shite software to connect to the filesharing servers, and the one that most of us work from is a tiny PC-shaped box. It isn’t even rack-mounted. It just sits on the floor and takes our abuse. Now, Dave (conveniently the name of both the SMB software and the network admin) is very unstable and crashes our computers often. And besides that, as most casual Mac users, the designers manage to get their machines in horrible states of crash and sub-crash, and guess who comes to the rescue? Me. Because our tech people could give a shit about us or our OS.
I’ve always been the person in the class that the kids come to instead of the teacher for computer help, from elementary school on up through college, but right now, I’ve got other shit to do. How come I’m the only one the designers trust to set up a new machine that comes in? I don’t get paid to do Mac support, but my question is, should I? I mean, I love doing it (most of the time), but sometimes it’s just a bitch to do, and I could be doing other things. The admin and myself tend to butt heads on a lot of issues, and I’ve just kind of given up on trying to be cordial to him. I mean, I understand that an OS is not nearly as important as another human being, but he honestly pisses me off sometimes. I’ve often thought of just ignoring the cries of my co-workers, and sending them over to have the admin help, but I know that if I were to do that, he would just come back to me with a question, and undoubtedly anything he did would have to be undone and done right by myself. And I would do all that, too, because I care that much about people having stable Macs to use. So there’s the second part of the question: Are he and I destined to be mortal enemies? Let me know what you think.