Helpdesk support hours

[enjay]

Can I ask what hours your helpdesk/core support is available, as I'm looking at the hours my new team work? Currently, I have one technician 7am-2:30pm and one 8am-4pm, school hours are 8:45-3:15. The 7am start can be useful if we have major issues overnight, in particular things affecting SIMS and cover, and it allows for quick "out of hours" jobs to be done within my team's standard working hours, but on the other hand, it means he leaves before the end of the school day, which can put a burden on my other technician in the rush immediately after school, or drag me into the day-to-day twiddles more than I'd like at this stage.

[CHiLL]

Our core hours are 8:50 to 3:10 (start of registration to end of last period). We are a fairly small school and there are only two of us, with us both working 8:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday.

 

At one point, we had been asked to provide cover until 17:00, so we used a shift pattern (one would work 8:00 to 16:00 and the other would work 09:00 to 17:00). This didn't really work too well because there was barely anyone in after 16:00 (this was brought in because someone high up stayed 'till 17:00 and needed support one time after 16:00. Because we weren't in, they kicked up a fuss and thus the new time pattern). The knock on effect to this was that we tend to find that 08:00 to 09:00 are much busier than 16:00 to 17:00 due to staff preparing for the day, and there only being one person available at that time (even worse if something does go awry overnight). We documented the lack of work after 16:00 and all the work before 09:00 and we managed to get our working hours changed back.

[TechMonkey]

Depends how good your school is with overtime/TOIL/out of hours work. If they are fine then I would say the 7am start, just in case, is overkill as you would generally know of a major problem from the night before and come in early to sort it. If they are rubbish then at least it gets you that flexibility. Nearly 2 hours is a heck of a just in case buffer though.

 

As CHiLL pointed out, have you looked at your teams workload? If the 7am guy is fully busy and getting plenty of calls and tickets during the early hours then it works, why mess with it? If he is sitting around doing busy work then he may be better applied. If the load after 2pm is massive then is it better to have that covered, in the middle of the working day, then for just the early birds to be covered and someone to have a slow start? Get some analyse done, call logs and tickets, and base your argument on that.

 

Previous school we were all 8 till 16.30 (16.00 Fridays), here we are 8 till 17.00. Being honest I would say that extra half hour only has benefit to me for meetings, not a lot happens during it.

[bald_pig]

Previous school was 8-4, one guy came half hour earlier and had a longer lunch break, rest of the team worked 8:30-4.

[NetworkServices]

Staggered start/finish times here with three of us. Means the office is manned between 7:30 and 17:00.

[Andycat]

Staggered start/finish times here with three of us. Means the office is manned between 7:30 and 17:00.

 

Exactly same here

[enjay]

As CHiLL pointed out, have you looked at your teams workload?

 

Not in any statistically sound way - pre 8am incidents are generally walk-ins not tickets, as are many of the ones immediately after school.

 

If ... it works, why mess with it?

Two reasons. One - the 7am person is a short-term contractor and we're looking to recruit a permanent staff member, so I'm thinking about preferred hours, willingness to work shifts, etc. Two - it has impact if the 7am person is out; should I ask the 8am person to come in early to cover? Actually, there's a third reason - I'm new in post here, and part of my responsibility is to review current systems and practices, and make recommendations for change as needed. Even if the current system works, it might be that a different system would work better.

[Sylv3r]

Generally someone is around the office / helpdesk unoffically from around 7:45 - 5:00. Officially it's 8:00 - 4:30 plus manned over the hour lunch break.

 

I generally find that the pre school and post school time is spent proactively preparing for the next day, getting into classrooms without causing too much of an inconvenience during the day etc.

 

We support 6 local primaries too, but they tend to work a shorter day so have very little tickets from them before 9:00 and after 3:00.

[keyboards]

8-4

 

Unofficially I get my emails on my phone and if it's a two minute task or someone I like I'll reply back, if it someone else I just do a scheduled email for the 8am the next day, feel like once you give the impression your contactable all hours, people will

[KevinB]

Officially it's office hours, so 08:00 - 16:30 but if any of us are in early or late we'll deal with anything urgent that crops up outside those times. If it's non-urgent then it waits until the next working day before getting any attention.

[Bionic]

There's two of us here; a staggered shift means at least one of us is here from 7:15am to 4:30pm.

[hardtailstar]

Two of us here at different times so we cover 7:30-16:30

 

Generally busy times are up till about 9am. I finish at 16:30 but normally use 15:30-16:30 to do repairs/checks around school unless ive arranged with a teacher to fix their laptop issue.

 

Here teaching staff seem to leave not long after 15:30.