Its not all bad....

[truebluesteve]

Sometimes we get a lot of stick in our job and have to deal with very rude and unreasonable colleagues. However its not always like that and yesterday at lunch a teacher was talking to me and said quite unprompted that he thought IT support at the school was the best he'd ever encountered (and he's worked at a lot of schools). He went on to say other very positive things about the team and the system in general, all of which made up for what was a bit of a nightmare day!

 

Obviously he's on my christmas card and laptop upgrade list :-)

[nikaso]

What does he want.........? Or is that my cynical head on!

[Miscbrah]

What does he want.........?

 

http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ipad-mini-3-review-15-600x356.jpg

[truebluesteve]

What does he want.........? Or is that my cynical head on!

 

:)I know this particular teacher quite well and his sincerity isn't in doubt. But I take your point!

[Grey-gear]

It's always nice to have good things said about your job.

[sonofsanta]

One of my favourite moments in this job:

 

In the middle of three horrible days, where the bandwidth to the Smoothwall was being throttled horribly to the point that domain users couldn't use the internet. Struggling to work out if it's the Smoothwall, the ISP, or the core switch that connects them both. Feeling lost and confused and overwhelmed.

 

Teacher comes in with a pack of shortbread.

"What did you want?" I ask.

"Nothing. I was in Asda and figured you were having a horrible day, so thought I'd bring something to cheer you up."

 

They're good 'uns here, they are. I am spoilt

[Oaktech]

I'm still working on the principle that if no one comments on your job, you are doing your job well.

 

[witch]

I'm still working on the principle that if no one comments on your job, you are doing your job well.

 

 

Except of course they are probably commenting behind your back

 

 

Anyway, other people are always being handed praise and stuff, so why not us??

[X-13]

Anyway, other people are always being handed praise and stuff, so why not us??

 

Because we're support staff, not teachers.

[NB9457]

I've had one person say to me since we took over their school, the IT Support and system have been miles better. Made my day a bit as not many people appreciate us, just rant and rave when somethings broke and then no thank you!

[Oaktech]

Except of course they are probably commenting behind your back

 

 

Anyway, other people are always being handed praise and stuff, so why not us??

 

This lot seem to not be able to manage behind-back b*tching... They are too up in your face about everything for that.

 

Also, around here, everyone gets praise or no-one does. Its a, err, feature, of management.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Oaktech

[Quackers]

I've got a bottle of wine on my desk from a teacher who i guided setting up Outlook on her Mac over the weekend because she had deleted the 'Microsoft User Data' folder from her documents whist having a clean up.

 

Christmas time is bonkers, my desk slowly gets filled up with goodies as teacher after teacher sends students with gifts for us.

[X-13]

I've got a bottle of wine on my desk from a teacher who i guided setting up Outlook on her Mac over the weekend because she had deleted the 'Microsoft User Data' folder from her documents whist having a clean up.

 

Christmas time is bonkers, my desk slowly gets filled up with goodies as teacher after teacher sends students with gifts for us.

 

Now, that's just showing off.

 

[Grey-gear]

get biscuits sometimes of one of the IT teachers, I guess that counts. and the same a @Quackers at Christmas the IT team gets a few boxes of chocolate .

[mthomas08]

Sometimes we get a lot of stick in our job and have to deal with very rude and unreasonable colleagues. However its not always like that and yesterday at lunch a teacher was talking to me and said quite unprompted that he thought IT support at the school was the best he'd ever encountered (and he's worked at a lot of schools). He went on to say other very positive things about the team and the system in general, all of which made up for what was a bit of a nightmare day!

 

Obviously he's on my christmas card and laptop upgrade list :-)

 

Been there my self, you don't hear it often but there are occasionally a few. What I usually respond with is "Here I am listened to, I am able to provide you with what you need. In our job those above tend to ignore us but blame us for the problems. If you have your hands tied in your job all day, how do you teach?". I also add the fact that yes some people in my job don't care, don't make the effort and simply want the most amount of pay for the least amount of work. Some are also clueless.

 

Still they get a drink from me when they throw us that type of a compliment.

[claireadams]

Because we're support staff, not teachers.

 

We don't even get included as staff here.

'All staff go to a lunchtime meeting' we turn up and get told not us

'All staff half day at Christmas' but not us

'free tea/coffee for all staff Friday break' yea, you get the idea, not us...

[Arreks]

We don't even get included as staff here.

'All staff go to a lunchtime meeting' we turn up and get told not us

'All staff half day at Christmas' but not us

'free tea/coffee for all staff Friday break' yea, you get the idea, not us...

 

No wonder you're looking for another job..

[claireadams]

No wonder you're looking for another job..

 

Yep, the best we had was the site team got to go home half day (lock up the site and set alarms) but we couldn't, erm, how's that work?

[X-13]

We don't even get included as staff here.

'All staff go to a lunchtime meeting' we turn up and get told not us

'All staff half day at Christmas' but not us

'free tea/coffee for all staff Friday break' yea, you get the idea, not us...

 

Oh we get that here, too.

 

"All staff" actually means "teachers".

 

And "support staff" oddly never really includes IT.

[SovietRussia]

It's always nice to get praise! #unsungherosoftheschool #ifwewerenothereeverythingwouldcrumble

[Arreks]

Oh we get that here, too.

 

"All staff" actually means "teachers".

 

And "support staff" oddly never really includes IT.

 

I've had to ask SLT to be more clear on this sort of thing, I've gone to a lot of "Staff" meetings which "Support Staff" don't need to go to. We now have either "T&L Meetings" or "All Staff Meetings".. which is how it should be in the first place..

[yugo]

Just got a bag with two packets of buns and a packet of scones for helping out with leavers assembly, not bad!

[Arreks]

Just got a bag with two packets of buns

 

Burger buns? without burgers? that sounds like torture.

[howartp]

Apart from the 'Full Staff' meetings on training days, our pattern is that the week after every 'Staff' meeting, there always follows a 'Support Staff' meeting where we get the cut-down version of the former meeting. Everyone who is 'Support Staff' knows they are (and that includes IT) - everyone else goes to the former.

[unixman_again]

We don't even get included as staff here.

'All staff go to a lunchtime meeting' we turn up and get told not us

'All staff half day at Christmas' but not us

'free tea/coffee for all staff Friday break' yea, you get the idea, not us...

This reminds me of one place I worked when I was a programmer. The chaps were told they could only remove their ties in the hot weather, when the female office manager said it was OK. One day, I whipped my tie off and there were murmuring amongst the other chaps. I queried this and they said "We haven't been given permission", to which I replied "What are they going to do, fire all of us?" at which point all of the ties came off and the manager sat there looking much less smug. Shortly after, they introduced an optional tie policy to keep her quiet.

 

Where I work now, all compulsory staff meetings are held twice. One during school hours, which is mostly full of us support staff and the other after school, which is all teachers. There are also teacher meetings after school. Support are invited, but no of us go.