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After about a month at my new job, my manager bumped me from the 9-5 shift to a 10-7 shift. I didn't argue about it; an extra hour's sleep can make all the difference in the world. Plus, it means I now avoid the insanity that is the DC Metropolitan Area morning rush-hour, for the most part.
Anyway, one of the things I do in my job at the IT service desk is unlocking users' accounts when they've mistakenly entered the wrong password three times. It's one of the simplest tasks I can do:
- They give me their identification number.
- I take their user ID (which comes up when I enter the ID# in the system)
- I open up the little admin control panel my job uses, a few clicks later, they're unlocked.
Very simple. Sometimes more complicated, but it's rare.
A couple of times since the switch from 10-7, I've had to stay a little bit longer while a coworker is running late, or if there's a hiccup with their accesses. There's a part-timer who works in the cubicle catty-corner to me who doesn't have all his accesses yet, and so I sometimes unlock accounts for him.
Twice now (two separate shifts) he's handed me a pad with a user ID on it and asked me to unlock said user's account. Second time, I recognized it vaguely, but thought nothing of it. That time was on Wednesday.
Thursday evening, I get a call from a user for an account to be unlocked. I recognized that user ID. It was the same user. I frowned a little bit at this, but unlocked it without comment.
After she hung up, however, I looked over her history in the system. There were easily more than sixty tickets resolved for her, and with maybe one or two exceptions, they were ALL for account unlocks.
I really hope she's just typing her password too quickly or something. But, really, you'd think after the first three call-ins, you'd learn to type your password more slowly. Or come up with a better mnemonic device to remember it.
(Possibly not really her fault. The rules for password strength where I work are quite stringent, as they should be, given the nature of the employer.)
Anyway, one of the things I do in my job at the IT service desk is unlocking users' accounts when they've mistakenly entered the wrong password three times. It's one of the simplest tasks I can do:
- They give me their identification number.
- I take their user ID (which comes up when I enter the ID# in the system)
- I open up the little admin control panel my job uses, a few clicks later, they're unlocked.
Very simple. Sometimes more complicated, but it's rare.
A couple of times since the switch from 10-7, I've had to stay a little bit longer while a coworker is running late, or if there's a hiccup with their accesses. There's a part-timer who works in the cubicle catty-corner to me who doesn't have all his accesses yet, and so I sometimes unlock accounts for him.
Twice now (two separate shifts) he's handed me a pad with a user ID on it and asked me to unlock said user's account. Second time, I recognized it vaguely, but thought nothing of it. That time was on Wednesday.
Thursday evening, I get a call from a user for an account to be unlocked. I recognized that user ID. It was the same user. I frowned a little bit at this, but unlocked it without comment.
After she hung up, however, I looked over her history in the system. There were easily more than sixty tickets resolved for her, and with maybe one or two exceptions, they were ALL for account unlocks.
I really hope she's just typing her password too quickly or something. But, really, you'd think after the first three call-ins, you'd learn to type your password more slowly. Or come up with a better mnemonic device to remember it.
(Possibly not really her fault. The rules for password strength where I work are quite stringent, as they should be, given the nature of the employer.)
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