IT office, do you share or have a dedicated room?

[benjaminstevens93]

Started a new job last week and I'm kinda liking the setup we have here. We share a room with the resources manager and school events manager. The room also has the photocopiers in it. Can get busy at times with staff coming in to photocopy and to speak to other staff, but it's friendly and vibrant. There is a hatch that students go to, where they can ask for assistance, staff just come into the office.

 

At my last school we had our own office, where staff and students weren't allowed in and had to come to the 'hatch' if they needed assistance.

 

What do you do at your school?

[FN-GM]

We have our own office, although 1 person from outside the department lives there. I would rather live in the main office with none the IT staff to be honest.

[Edu-IT]

We have our own office, although 1 person from outside the department lives there. I would rather live in the main office with none the IT staff to be honest.

Do you not like your colleagues in IT then?

 

We have a couple of offices and they're used just by IT staff.

[6Foot2]

We have a dedicated office next to The Server Room. However we were told yesterday that The Head might move us over to the other side of the site. Our office might be occupied by our Reprographics Department.

 

Upside: Lots more room in the new location

Downside: Remote location away from the servers [i know that it is done elsewhere it's just that I haven't worked like this before]

[benjaminstevens93]

Yeah we have to remote into our servers, they're on the other side of the site as well. It's never really been a problem and gives us have a reason to disappear for a bit

[Bananas]

As DM I have my own office, I'm moving in with the IT guys in September for me it's a huge pain because i find I'm easily distracted especially when I have a complicated task I don't want to do in front of me.

 

It's nothing personal against the IT guys, also I know if they're both out I'm going to get dumped on too hence why I'm out asap.

 

I can see both sides being all on one office with staff in/out could make you all more approachable. Whereas if you have your own office you have the space to work in peace.

 

I'd prefer IT guys in their own office.

[rad]

We in IT are in an ex classroom, 4 staff. The ICT classrooms are on same corridor. We have a knock and enter policy which gets confusing cos other offices have a knock and wait. Anyway, students and staff come in and some make it more like a second home but that's possibly because we are chatty which some like, we do ICT homework club (open ict room before school and at lunch) and some keep popping in to say hi.

[3s-gtech]

We have a separate office on the other side of the school to the server room. Used to be next to it, but volunteered to move to help another department and got a bigger room as a result. Knock and enter for us - only thing I don't like is my back is to the door due to desk layouts etc - would prefer to face people as they come in.

[FN-GM]

Do you not like your colleagues in IT then?

 

We have a couple of offices and they're used just by IT staff.

 

Its not that, I just like a mix of people. I prefer to be in a big office with loads of people. In my old company we had 200 in an open plan office, i liked that.

[Jasbo]

We have one office for techs and sys admin all facing door and a counter facing the door with a PC users can use etc to demo issues / test fixes, there's a door at the back going into the nm office that I share with the it director (deputy head) and theres a half high wall and a door from there into the media techs office which has its own entrance as well.

 

I have always favoured a knock and come in approach with a physical help desk barrier that suggests people stay that side of the fence... But we are a friendly bunch,

 

we have media and DT rooms next to us and store room, server room and it suites a short distance away.

 

I like having everyone in the same space, it helps to build a sense of team. I like to be able to see and shout at everyone at the same time. Everyone can see how I treat everyone else, And I am available to them and they can see how hard I work ( I hate those disappearing manager types... ) we can all easily share knowledge by working together and it's great sharing with my boss we get on great and he has real insight to just what we are doing all day and we get all the over view info from him.

 

It did take 2 years to get all that space in one place and I did get resistance from some of us, but now everyone is generally happy...

[CESIL]

You don't know you're born you lot...an office pah!

 

I get a bench in the corner of the library...and I am grateful for it...

 

Mind you at the last place there were fourteen of us all huddled together...etc etc 😊

Edited June 8, 2014 by CESIL

[6Foot2]

You don't know you're born you lot...an office pah!

 

I get a bench in the corner of the library...and I am grateful for it...

 

Mind you at the last place there were fourteen of us all huddled together...etc etc 

 

There was a time when my technician and I were shoved into The Server Room [very cramped, hot and noisy] So I think we have done our time here. In some ways I am looking forward to the new location [hope it comes off...]

[laserblazer]

There's only just enough room for me in my office. Luckily, the SENCO lets me spread out at the back of the Learning Resource room, which has loads of bench space and sockets.

[apearson]

The server room is my office, which I share with my 1 IT tech. Reasonable space, noisy, but thanks to air conditioning, not hot. Knock and enter policy.

[elsiegee40]

Over the years my office has been the school library (quite nice actually - it's quiet), the ICT Suite, a tiny office known as "the cupboard" which I have shared with the registrar, the H&S manager and the Music Teacher (successively, not all at once). On one occasion, I arrived in work to find I had an office I didn't share, but the desk and PC had been removed because the registrar was moving in to the school office. I kicked up a bit of a stink about that!

 

You shouldn't be sharing your space with racks of servers and switches due to the noise. However, those of us working in smaller schools work wherever there is space to accomodate us; you have to be tidy.

 

The servers in my current school are in a cubby hole which also used to house the photocopier. The copier has gone now and chairs are stored there. Fortunately, we can remote in to the servers for 99% of things.

[seawolf]

We've had a dedicated IT office and adjoining working space (benches, storage) for several years now.

 

The Library staff office is next to us though, and the Head Librarian and I want to knock down a couple of walls, commandeer another office and turn a more open working area into a shared Library/ICT Office with a Help Desk window for IT and service window for the Library. With all of the integration of IT into the Library and the fact the Head Librarian is also the school's eLearning coordinator it makes a lot of sense. It also gets IT more face-time with teachers and students because it will make it easier and more inviting for them to come for assistance (rather than the "IT is back there behind the Library" that happens now).

[witch]

I too have a small bit of bench in the library - behind a half-wall.

In my other school I have a windowless office that is so small I can almost touch all four walls if I stretch my arms out

[Abaddon]

We have two dedicated offices, and are getting a big extension to mine, so that we can all be together in the same place.. the new one will be about twice the size of the other two put together. We are blessed!

[robjduk]

got a couple of offices next to my server room. One more as the face of the department with 1 tech in to do most the student walk ins and the other with me and my more techy tech in to work on projects.

 

If it wasn't for the way I don't think sod all would get done if I wasn't there to moan about it I would ask to move to a little office miles away from other people.

[dhicks]

What do you do at your school?

 

I have an office next to the server cupboard, with sound-insulated sliding doors separating the office bit from the server cupboard bit. It's compact but perfectly adequate, and comes complete with a close-able door. @rickjames gets the bit downstairs where I used to sit, next to the photocopier outside the junior toilets. It's a bit busier, with people coming to use the photocopier and lots of noisy children queing to use the toilet, but it's about the only space we had free.

[hallb15]

I too have a small bit of bench in the library - behind a half-wall.

In my other school I have a windowless office that is so small I can almost touch all four walls if I stretch my arms out

You have four arms?

 

I share my office with the server cabinet.

Last week I had air conditioning fitted as part of the whole school heating and lighting refurbishment (LED lights everywhere!)

Its lovely in here now - if you don't mind the noise of the servers and switches...

[abillybob]

My Office is in the Server room it's a fair size, though can get very hot, having Air Con installed this summer as the health and safety person had a look around and recommended we get Air Con... YAY! Juts me on my own in here, but I don't mind it that way I dislike people!

[witch]

You have four arms?

 

 

You mean you don't? I thought it was a requirement for IT. It may be because I am an electronics engineer at heart and you always need 4 hands when soldering anything to anything

[Jamman960]

I originally had my own small office then moved the servers in(they were on/under a table in a tiny cupboard) and then eventually managed to get a bigger office elsewhere. I wouldn't mind sharing an office and having a tech bench elsewhere, it gets a little boring being so far from all the other offices/classrooms.

[BKGarry]

The technical guys have their own office, and I am in a shared office with the Exams office, 4 Assistant Headteachers, 1 member of our Secretarial team and an AST.

 

Needless to say, sometimes I go down to the technical office because its not as busy, or go hide in the server room, which is 2 doors down from where I am.