This is so my life right now:

Writers, vote yes, PLAZ.

I wants my teevee back!

BTD: the problem is, when it comes to "touchy-feely", our IT dept falls short. They're too short-staffed and too busy with big important projects to make themselves accessible on the ground level. Our agents need their hands held and their egos stroked, and there's no one to do it. And when they need something to work, they need it NOW, not in a few hours when IT gets around to it, or a few days, or however long it takes. Plus they have no faith in the system. They need a human being on the other end to tell them their voice is heard, and when their problem will be fixed (and if not right away, WHY it won't be right away). Many of them are not even tech savvy enough to fill out a support ticket (which are online and not difficult at all), they just know they need their phone to work immediately. And while in most corporations you could shrug and say they need to just deal with it, this is an industry where our employees are our customer, and if we can't keep them happy, they will go elsewhere and take their commission splits with them. So in the interest of retention, I try to be the go-to guy so the agents feel like someone cares about them and wants them to be as productive as possible.

Then you're putting yourself in that spot. The issue with IT should be taken up with their IT managers. I know if we pulled that crap our asses would be handed to us on a silver platter, from either end.

yes, it sounds hard-nosed but you took that responsibility off the IT department and upon yourself. There is a department that is supposed to take care of those things but why should they when you are. As long as they don't know you're doing all this stuff for them they'll never do it. And you'll continue to be going nutz.

Taking the IT issues out doesn't clear up much anyway.

Honestly the problem is that my "job" is three different jobs, depending on the time and day, and it's just finally getting to be too much to stay on top of.

Gah, caffeine shakes!

Just to be clear, which one are YOU?

That'd be Dilbert.

Morrigoon - I recommend Outlook. It's keeping me sane, and I'm in a similar situation as you (transferred to a diff dept due to need, given random admin-asst jobs, deadlines and appointments and follow-ups). You should already have it in your Office suite, it's easy to get started, and very addicting. Those alerts keep me on track. Start inputing things and see if you can stop!

I use Outlook. But up until last week when I finally messed with the accounts on the NB computer, I could only use all the functions I needed when I was in AV. Trust me, it's still only *so* effective when I'm in two completely different citites depending on what day it is.

I didn't want solutions, I wanted sympathy. The only true solution to my problems is an improved real estate market where I'm making enough money to quit my other jobs and focus on what I actually want to do, which is selling houses.