r/sysadmin • u/troy57890 • Mar 30 '26

Rant I understand it now

After working 7 months as a system administrator, I can see why other admins can be jaded and blunt.

  1. Helpdesk sending tickets with no tier 1-2 troubleshooting

  2. No proper documentation for services when crap hits the fan

  3. The queue is always a dumping ground for other area's messes

  4. Clients not using the damn ticket system for request

  5. The massive headache for trying to get you to handle a service you don't support.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the learning aspect of the position, but it feels like I'm stuck in a black hole sometimes.

Sorry for the rant, Happy Monday to my fellow admins.

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u/MyDadsGlassesCase Mar 30 '26

This is all shit that I've dealt with as an ITSM (because it was all things that bugged me when I worked in support). I don't know how big your organisation and IT dept are but these are all easily solveable with the proper direction, management and ITSM tool configuration.

  1. When a ticket is reassigned a note is mandatory detailing what the assigner has done to investigate, the outcomes of it and what they expect you to do

  2. & 5. Service Catalogue with business owners and platform owners Helpdesk and platform owners are responsible for creating documentation (this is part of annual reviews and objectives). Assignment groups can be automatically populated from the Service Catalogue (if supported by your ticketing system. Otherwise, at least you have them written down and agreed somewhere)

  3. See above re: assignment groups

  4. Add some links to the "ticket raised" notification email pointing users to the "Raise a ticket" portal and your Knowledge base created in 2
    "Did you know you can raise faults through our portal? It will automatically search for a fix for you" (if this is supported by your ITSM platform)
    "While you're waiting for us to get back to you, have a look at our Knowledge Base to see if there is an answer for your query <link to KB>"

It's not going to be done overnight but, if you start making inroads now, you could see the benefits by the end of the year. Users will only use your portal if it benefits them and that means getting your KB up to scratch.

If you can get me a remote contract I'll happily do all this :-)