Where do you all work?

[Norbert]

Our SLT are having a rearrange when we move sites and appear to be wanting to move our team of two from a secure (small) office environment that we have at the moment into an open plan area in the new library. We do have the server room and a general store cupboard for the day to day junk that we need to keep and we've wrangled those out of the new building, albeit smaller but manageable.

 

I've got various concerns about this - physical security of assets, GDPR concerns surrounding privacy, confidentiality and commercially sensitive matters that I have to deal with, constant phone calls, difficult calls to suppliers who I am politely giving a dressing down, handling CCTV, the ability to concentrate whilst dealing with complex problems - the list goes on. We have a small workbench area where we do development and faultfinding and quite often have thousands of pounds worth of kit like laptops, chromebooks, cameras and server/network kit out. No ral provision is being made for a development area or work room.

 

I wondered where you were all sited within school and what the pros and cons you have found of your environment are.

[ThatBoringBloke]

I sit in an office on my own all day.

It's a nice big office with air con, servers, switches a repair bench, some comfy seats (for guests) a fridge and kettle. In fact its the biggest office in the school and its all mine, but it does get lonely at times.

[Rob_D]

Here, there's 3 (sometimes 4) of us sharing a 3x4m (ish) office.

At my last place it was just me, and the IT office was a converted shower cubicle. It still had the tiles on the walls and everything.

At one point, there was talk of us offering a drop-in helpdesk in library at lunchtime.

[witch]

Server sits in the IT suite. No protection, no nothing. It got moved there during a very hot summer as the IT suite has the only aircon in the school.

My office is about 1.8m wide and about the same long. It has worktop which has just about enough room for my pc and one broken one. currently the media storage and the on-site portion of the backup are on my worktop as well

All my kit is in an open cupboard in the IT suite other than my own tools which are kept in my office

TBF we haven't had any issues

[kingoranks]

One old office with paint falling off the wall lol(I did offer to paint but school refused)- 3 of us sharing.

[Guest Guest]

Mine is about 3 meters by about 2 meters and is locked room off our staff room which has a Paxton lock. The servers are also in there

[hardtailstar]

Current place (secondary school) we are in an office with a work bench, cupboards and server/switch racks and air con. We also have server rooms in every building.

 

At my last school (primary school)I shared an office with the bursar but all my equipment was stored in unlocked cupboards in the IT suite and any big projects I had to do in the IT suite as was more room.

[6Foot2]

Three and a half years ago we were moved out of our office next to the server room. We were moved across the site to a bigger (l-shaped) office.

 

Over the summer break last year we were moved back into our original office next to the server room and Finance were moved into the l-shaped room.

 

We were never interested in moving in the first place. With proximity to the server room, while not a requirement, I feel happier.

[CHiLL]

I share a pretty small office with my network manager, it's approximately 5x3m. This is our workbench area and also our store area for commonly used items. We also have a server room, which also doubles as a store room for the larger or less commonly used items. The office is pretty central to the school and opens onto the corridor, which gets very loud when kids are around. Heating wise, it's not great. The radiator cannot be controlled other than being ON or OFF, meaning the office is boiling when it's on or freezing when it's off. We do have a window, but it's only a horizonally opening window that's about 1x0.5m and it opens mayble a few inches? It's awful in the summer because we have to have that open and the door to create a draft. However our office is also opposite doors that lead onto the yard, so it can get cold pretty quickly when the door is open.

 

My previous school had a nice large, airconditioned, quiet/secluded office. The school before that included an office moves; the first office just off three open plan IT suties and was two rooms joined, a store cupboard with benching installed and some false walls. Probably about 10x4m, housing 4 of us. We then moved into a nicer office, which was about 10x4m, housing 5 of us...and that was just an office...no storage, there were a couple of store rooms around the school. My first school, where I did my apprenticeship was litterally in the basement that students weren't allowed in because it was too dangerous. The ceiling was probably about 7ft and there were a lot of gas pipes and stuff. It was an enourmous office though, it was an L share with probably a 6x8m area with an extra 3x10m length. That room had everything and it was so islolated from everywhere else.

[LTurner3692]

Large open plan office, it has its pros and cons.

 

are servers are currently in another building 3 miles away! (i work in the private sector), The office is a swanky new build. we are currently looking at trying to move the servers over however due to the way the building was done, we are struggling with this!

 

Much prefer to be in our own little office where we can actually mention things without causing fear in the room!

 

(Currently undergoing a pen test, trying not to let everyone know this!)

[3s-gtech]

I have a lovely, messy, quiet office which is a decent size. All on my lonesome.

 

I used to have a small, noisy, pokey office - SLT were trying to figure out where to use for storage for the department nearby, and I offered up my old office. They accepted, and offered me an old unused photography room, freshly decorated, carpeted and wired as an alternative.

 

One of the best things I ever did.

[mavhc]

Ask them what they want you to do about each of your concerns, and do it one at a time, people seem to ignore lists of 10 things.

 

"With reference to your proposal for me to work in the library, how do you wish me to do the task of checking CCTV without the possibility of revealing sensitive information to pupils or other unauthorised staff members? Will there be a different room to do this in?"

 

2nd week: "With reference to your proposal for me to work in the library, how do you wish me to do the task of repairing equipment without the possibility of pupils or others stealing, injuring themselves, or breaking the equipment? Will there be a different room to do this in?"

 

3rd week: "With reference to your proposal for me to work in the library, how do you wish me to do the task of working with PII without breaking GDPR guidelines, this includes talking on the phone and in person about private matters that are not allowed to be overheard by others"

 

100th week....

[Ditto]

My last support role, we had a very large office (8m x 8m) shared by NM, Senior IT tech, deskside support, me for online services/technical support and an apprentice. Servers and printer stuff store in a separate room. This was a near 2k pupil secondary including 6th form. It worked fine and we had no GDPR concerns. Previous, role as a technician it was almost exactly the same as @witch. A couple of desks in the corner of the ICT suite, with a couple of servers sitting underneath. A sizeable, lockable storage cupboard also present. The room was only used a small percentage of the time, so I was rarely interrupted. No concerns there, but it was primary with very well behaved pupils - I don't think it would be so fine if secondary. Before that as a Data Manager - err, I never actually got a permanent location! For the confidential work, I'd often work from home as we were fully cloud based. This school did eventual get a technician to manage hardware - they were given a converted single cubicle toilet - which I guess trumps the converted shower room, but I think they removed the tiles and other 'furniture'! As for the muppet that thinks putting you in a library is a good idea, I presume they have absolutely no idea what your job entails. I'm wondering if you complete a DPIA that it would be a good vehicle to record the concerns in a structured and formal way. I'm not sure it was planned for your scenario, but I think it would work and you can cover the points raised by @mavhc Edited February 5, 2020 by Ditto

[Areku]

easy 10mx10m room with benches down two sides, and mine and a technicians desk the other sides.

server room is seperate, and thats 5mx10m, with air con etc, and that backs onto our main room.

[chaplic]

I get the desire to be hidden away in a cosy office, and there's clearly a need for lab space, but I think in today's world anyone in an IT support role should be 'front and centre' and easily accessible. The apple genius bar is a cliché, but the thinking is right

 

Ultimately, IT is a cost centre and we'd all be sacked tomorrow if possible, but in the same was as fire prevention is a key part of a firefighters job, user adoption of new technologies and the understanding business practises is key too. People shouldn't want to come to IT just because their Excel is broken.

[lears]

Always had an IT Office space, typically the issue is keeping it secure as some teachers manage to get a key that gets in so they can help themselves to things.

 

 

Currently at my main site i share an office with the Head of Trust IT Services and fellow technicians.

 

Also very lucky that at other sites they are happy to provide an IT Office space (albeit small) even though we aren't there 24/7!

 

We explain that it's important that we can have somewhere to jump on a computer or make repairs, especially as some of our schools are special schools so its a huge no-no to take anything apart in a classroom!

Edited February 5, 2020 by lears

[bald_pig]

I get the desire to be hidden away in a cosy office, and there's clearly a need for lab space, but I think in today's world anyone in an IT support role should be 'front and centre' and easily accessible. The apple genius bar is a cliché, but the thinking is right

 

Ultimately, IT is a cost centre and we'd all be sacked tomorrow if possible, but in the same was as fire prevention is a key part of a firefighters job, user adoption of new technologies and the understanding business practises is key too. People shouldn't want to come to IT just because their Excel is broken.

 

The genius bar doesn't have your mac in pieces on the desk though - it goes "out back" to be fixed. Furthermore, we aren't locking ourselves away and hiding, our doors are always open for people to come and talk.

 

 

I work across 2 sites, at one I have an office/server room, at the other I have nothing, so sit wherever I find a seat.

[localzuk]

We have 2 offices (in our 2 biggest schools). The office that my technician and I are based in is shared with one of the finance team, the caretaker, our part time data manager, and our CEO's PA. Children do not come here. The other office is for our senior technician, for them only.

 

I can actually see some logic, if you have a reasonable sized team, in having a public facing space for your technician - easy for children and staff to approach etc... But, I wouldn't put the entire team there - you'd never get any work done.

[Cat_Jam148]

A 2.5m long x 2m wide cupboard with a workbench, located right at the front of school next to SLT offices. Shelving takes up most of the room. Does get hot in the summer, but it's better than sitting in the IT Suite. It's amazing to think that there used to be two of us in here

[caffrey]

We have 2 offices (in our 2 biggest schools). The office that my technician and I are based in is shared with one of the finance team, the caretaker, our part time data manager, and our CEO's PA. Children do not come here. The other office is for our senior technician, for them only.

 

I can actually see some logic, if you have a reasonable sized team, in having a public facing space for your technician - easy for children and staff to approach etc... But, I wouldn't put the entire team there - you'd never get any work done.

 

True, I share a 3m x 4m office with a technician and we are front facing - the constant knocking on the door is very disruptive. I also have no decent workbenches, server room is next door in an old cupboard but it has air con

[lears]

We have 2 offices (in our 2 biggest schools). The office that my technician and I are based in is shared with one of the finance team, the caretaker, our part time data manager, and our CEO's PA. Children do not come here. The other office is for our senior technician, for them only.

 

I can actually see some logic, if you have a reasonable sized team, in having a public facing space for your technician - easy for children and staff to approach etc... But, I wouldn't put the entire team there - you'd never get any work done.

 

Exactly the same issue we have here, the Head of Trust IT Services, IT Services Manager (myself) plus all technicians are in the same office. - Can't do any of the "management" bits because of the constant interruption by students/staff. Although the technicians handle the foot traffic/phone traffic brilliantly, inevitably if you are in the room you can't get away!

 

Although sometimes i admit it's nice to do a bit of helpdesk to bring things back down to earth!

[HarryMonkey]

We (3 of us) moved into what was an IT classroom last summer as our new office. The pic below shows about half of it. Previously we had a small office with no windows and two huge cabinets. Now we have loads of well lit space with windows that we can open and the server room as a room off of our office. There's a storage area and a small meeting space partitioned off. We have also commandeered our old office as a store.

 

Happy days.

 

[Ditto]

We (3 of us) moved into what was an IT classroom last summer as our new office. The pic below shows about half of it. Previously we had a small office with no windows and two huge cabinets. Now we have loads of well lit space with windows that we can open and the server room as a room off of our office. There's a storage area and a small meeting space partitioned off. We have also commandeered our old office as a store.

 

Happy days.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56629[/ATTACH]

The lights are on, but nobody is at home

[HarryMonkey]

The lights are on, but nobody is at home

 

Yep, just a normal day in IT Support

[MatthewL]

I've worked in various open plan configurations over the years, then when I moved offices I was lucky to have an office out the back which us tech's shared then that became a store room, nice big room out the way.

 

Open plan does work depending on your environment, IT was sectioned off by a partition but still open with the rest of the other departments on the floor. First job again was open plan but literally just IT everyone kept to their side of the building when it was opened up.

 

I find in open plan situations there is never proper work bench and store facilities, desks becoming a bit of a dumping ground with kit as it comes in or getting ready to go out. It doesn't bother me too much these days with lot of my work been servers/networking I just sit there working away, mainly been none education in my roles.