What do you do when you feel overwhelmed and under pressure? 9

[surferdude949]

I'm in a new IT position (3 months), dealing with multiple issues that are challenging and needed to be fixed "yesterday".

How do you folks deal with this type of situation? I try writing things down, create a plan of action, this helps a little.

 

[edfair]

Get your users to set priorities from their end and filter in your capabilities to come up with a joint plan for action.

No matter how bad it gets, the sun will come up tomorrow.



Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Welshbird]

SurferDude - I'd echo edfair's thoughts.

When I have conflicting priorities, and I can't possibly do everything at the time when everyone would like I take all of my workload to my boss and ask for his help to prioritise. He then discusses with the other people involved, and that way I was never me who refused something - simply the way the company needed to best use my time.

Fee

"The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinesen

 

[bigchiefdan]

one thing to remember in addition to prioritizing is to communicate effectively with the "victim" of the issue. This can be a quick call or email, just to let them know that you have not forgotten. that was my biggest challenge in health care in that the MDs and nurses would not hear from my department for days at a time unless it was a major problem (because we were swamped with more pressing issues).

It helped with morale and complaints TREMENDOUSLY and it did not add more then 5 or 10 minutes to the day.

 

[kmcferrin]

I usually drink in that situation.

OK, just kidding. You need to have a record of outstanding issues and the relative importance to users. If you ask the user, most likely a significant portion of them will say it is the highest priority. This is where having a ticketing system and company policies around prioritization will come in handy. In mot companies, the priorities are:

3. Outage or issue that is inconvenient or has a workaround available.
2. Outage or issue that presents a single user from doing their job.
1. Systemwide outage or issue that prevents multiple users from doing their job.
0. Oh my god, the datacenter is on fire!!!! We're doomed!!!

Then you usually work them in order or priority. In some cases you may have different groups of people working different categories of issues so that low priority items do get handled when something bigger is going on.

Beyond that, reach out to your supervisor for assistance in prioritizing your work. You need to focus on what is most important to the company rather than what is most important to a single user who may or may not be a pain posterior region to work with.

You also might want to check out a book to help you. I personally enjoyed "Time Management for System Administrators."


________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
MCITP:Virtualization Administrator 2008 R2
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator

 

[SQLSister]

Do nothing without an official work ticket. If you don't have a ticketing system in place, that's the very first thing you need to do. Even if the ticketing system is an email or a handwritten piece of paper, first you need to document what you have been asked to do. It is likely that the urgency will go down once they can't just catch you inthe ahll and manipulate you into doing something. Also your boss may well feel that certain tasks that they very loudly want are not a good use of your time.

Once it is in place, you and your boss can look over the backlog and prioritze based on company needs. This can also be used to justify the need for a second person.

"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[DTSMAN]

Depending on the number of issues that are consistently open, you could use a large dry erase board, Home Depot has 4'x8' sheets that work in the lumber area. We use one for scheduling customer installation with status columns. Works great for prioritizing. Created rows and columns with electrical tape. Otherwise you will need a CRM software like SQlsister is talking about.

Or you could just see an OcupationalHypnotherapist for those stress issues.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[kjv1611]

Easy - don't stress. Just look at is as "job security." In our current day, that's a much more important factor than in the past. Otherwise, do prioritize, and document - documentation is really helpful in so many ways we can't even imagine. Here's a few:

1. Record for you - if you record the issue, who requested, and in the end, how you resolved, it'll give you a historical record. When the same issue is brought up in the future, you'll be able to look back and say, hey, this is what worked the last time. Also, if you have a problem user, you'll have documentation to back-up any complaints you might need to make to management IF and when necessary.

2. Record for your boss - "Yeah, I've been working, and here's what I've done."

Well, not the best organization here, but it's there. If the company will put up the money for it, a "help desk" type software would be good.

One fairly quick and easy method you could do yourself, assuming no hiccups along the way, and for free, would be to set up a Drupal based website (

http://drupal.org)

and install the Storm module, along with any required modules for it - it'll tell you if something is required. It's a project-management suite built into a web application. So, if you have a server on which you can run Linux (it may run on Windows, but I'm not sure), then you could install this... then again, since you've never used it, you especially don't have the time.

Well, use the ticket system if possible - email, whatever... you could take the emails, for now, and just stick them in a folder either in your file system, or within your email application... maybe have a "to do" folder, and a "done" folder, rather than just delete... then when things are more calm, you could go back and build a history off of that..

Okay, no more rambling from me this morning..

 

[SF0751]

I'll echo SQLSister's advice; do nothing unless the request is in writing. I still have people stopping me in the hallway with requests, I listen and tell them to send me an email with the details, and copy our Help Desk (so they can put in the official ticket). Sometimes, if the change is easy and/or small, I'll process the request before I receive the help desk ticket - but never before I have the email in my inbox.

Of course, if the problem is at a rating of 1 (according to kmcferrin's scale), I'll send my own email to our help desk as I am working on the problem. But there is always a paper trail!

Susan
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
Then, when you criticize them, you are a mile away ...
and you have their shoes.”

 

[hjgoldstein]

tell them to send me an email with the details

Unless the problem is "I can't get into my email"

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[SF0751]

Oh sure, put logic into the equation!

Susan
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
Then, when you criticize them, you are a mile away ...
and you have their shoes.”

 

[hinesward]

Find a new job.

Or, even better, find a new career.

 

[carp]

Along with working out a prioritization that you, your boss, and your customers can live with, you might also look for a small job that you can bang out pretty quickly. This shows people that progress is being made, something is getting done, and the list is getting shorter. It also makes you feel better because there's less to do and you have forward momentum. It can also help to show your customers what you have whenever you get to a milestone - again, so they can see that their project is moving forward.

As for dealing with the stress of multiple deadlines and changing requirements, good general approach is provided by Rogers and Hammerstein:

Whenever I feel afraid
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect
I'm afraid.

While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows
I'm afraid.

The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people
I fear I fool myself as well!

I whistle a happy tune
And ev'ry single time
The happiness in the tune
Convinces me that I'm not afraid.

Make believe you're brave
And the trick will take you far.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are

 

[hinesward]

I once used some help-desk software. I found that I liked it a lot.

 

[gbaughma]

One thing that I found helps.....

Have a white-board in your office, with all the "tasks" written down on it.

This does several things for you.

1) It keeps track of the tasks you have to do.
2) People coming into your office see that their task is on the list.
3) People coming into your office see all the other tasks, and realize that you're quite busy.
4) You can ask your boss, if necessary, to prioritize the tasks on the list, then people don't get upset with YOU that their task is a lower priority.
5) Keep the tasks on there, and put a checkmark next to them as they're completed; this shows progress, and also looks good when the boss looks at it (that you've been working, that you've been actively solving problems and performing tasks in measurable ways)



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[lionelhill]

everyone has made good suggestions, but here's a bolt-on that should be used with the previous ideas:

Develop a sense of irresponsibility.

So long as you are making a good effort while at work, to work your way through the problems in order of priority, you are NOT responsible for everything that is left undone at the end of the day. Practice telling yourself that it's someone else's problem. Don't let yourself think about it when you should be doing other things (having a shower, doing the shopping, going out with friends/family). Good people always feel responsible for too much.