When I was told what would happen I was somewhat amused, since in my last post I complained about the state de local network was in at work xD
But here it goes. It just so happens they – that’s the IT department – installed Squid, a web caching proxy. But something went awry, since some of the tools we need to use were blocked.
During the day we received customers’ calls and we agents were unable to run tests on phone circuits nor check guides that help us do our job. For those agents that have been working for a while it wasn’t too hard, but for those who are training… let’s just say we had to really use our imagination. I’m just thankful that during the first part of training we were taught all the right stuff, so we didn’t get lost during troubleshooting… but sometimes you just don’t know what to do and need help.
There is a bigger reason why squid was installed on the network:
They’re about to block the internet at large.
What does that mean for us agents? It means we can’t use google to find problem descriptions, solutions for those problems, installation guides, etc etc. It means we can’t use sites like wikipedia or ask.com. Since they use domain privileges to control the network, in the ‘start’ menu links are being added to router manufacturer pages, telephone companies and more will be added in the future… but for me that’s not going to be enough. It’s easier to use a guide like this one to install a router than to look for the router’s manual in the manufacturer’s page and from there help out the customer. That’s if the customer even knows the router’s model, of course.
To begin with it takes longer, and in a place like Telvista, where you live and die by the Average Handling Time. This could make calls that before took 10 minutes now take an hour.
Somebody told me that the most visited pages from Telvista’s network are:
That order isn’t too hard to believe… and coupled with the fact the biggest search engine ranks 5th place it isn’t hard to suppose somebody in a managerial position said ‘they’re abusing the network’ and decided to close access to the internet at large from the internal network. I do think the IT people bent over… there’re are far more effective ways to monitor bandwidth use and hold people accountable for their actions. Disallowing access in this manner is an incitation to challenge this new policy. This situation is not good for the company nor the employees.
But what’s done is done. We’ll have to see how long until they let us use the internet, won’t we”. Meanwhile, I think the use of cellphones in operations will be going up…