It should come as no surprise that the same people who wait until the last minute to request VPN to work from home are also the most clueless individuals in our organization.
Those higher up the IT chain have decided that in the interest of corporate security, they need to lock things down a bit, so as of last week we were no longer able to request VPN access for users who were using their personal computers to get on the enterprise network via VPN. Makes sense, considering how vulnerable to attack the vast majority of home PCs are.
So the new protocol requires getting the name of the enterprise PC the users will be taking home, their personal cell number (for 2-factor authentication required for the initial install of the client), and a list of applications they need to access that would be inaccessible if they weren't granted VPN access. Simple stuff, right?
In theory, yes. But then I end up with users like the guy I had today who was requesting VPN for three of his direct reports. First email request asking for these three items was returned with only the PC name for one of his reports. Second was only the list of applications that the three employees would be using. Finally, when I told this user his request could not be fulfilled without the other PC names and cell phone numbers did I get all the info required. "I guess you guys are really busy right now, huh?"
Why yes. Yes we are. Because of people like you who can't read an email all the way through.
After the accounts were created, I sent out emails to the employees, telling them they were set up on the back end and providing instructions on how to install the client on their company devices. As a courtesy I cc'd the guy who'd put in the initial request for them.
I immediately get an email from the genius saying, "[Employee Name] isn't in the office today."
So? SO? How does this affect ANYTHING I just emailed you?
But you know what irritates me more than this generic brand of cluelessness? It's the people that somehow think everything is still business as usual and can't understand that certain things they used to take for granted simply cannot be done at the moment.
No Karen, you can't just "stop by and pick up a projector for a meeting."
Firstly, there's a skeleton crew in the office to begin with and absolutely no one in I.T. is onsite, and secondly, who are you scheduling a meeting with considering no one is in the office?!
SMDH.