First thing IT managers do in the morning

There is this hilarious article on slashdot today about what IT managers do first thing in the morning. It has it's posts that are informative, and the rest is just hysterical.

http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/07/07/08/1959203.shtml

So I pose the question to everyone else:

What do you do first thing in the morning at work?

Doing it now.

olllllo said:

Doing it now.

Click to expand...

ditto, followed by digg

bradsul said:

ditto, followed by digg

Click to expand...

ditto as well

digg, engadget, gizmodo, tgdaily

And several stops in the restroom

And I can't go on here at work (home at a lunch break) because of the filters and I am too lazy to put in all the addresses manually to get around it

well, I'm no IT manager but my morning ritual is:
1. Coffee, usually picked up at dunkin' donuts since the office coffee is crap
2. Check personal email, respond to HBT threads as needed
3. Check fantasy baseball scores/stats/injury reports(during baseball season)
4. Check work email, extinguish fires and/or deal with incompetent employees as needed
5. Read the various news wires and espn.com, print out a nice long interesting article for proper completion of step 6.
6. Spend some time in the "Executive Lounge" aka the 2nd floor men's room that has a lockable door... cuz perfection requires privacy...

I'm not in IT, but my vote is ... go pee!!!

No IT management skills here (see avatar).

Relieve someone from the offgoing shift. Get coffee. Hit the head. Check email.

I do the same.

I could get up. Have breakfast use the loo then go to work at around 8,00 but I go in early, have breakfast coffee and use the rest room at work then go home early to make up for the time.

I always make sure I reply to one easy email at around 7.15 so I always have a log of how early I was in just in case any one has an issue wih how early I leave.

Was an IT manager & I'm a morning person.

Voice mail
Coffee
e-mail
NOC (network operating center) Talk to outgoing shift.

Anything important, I'd have gotten a page real-time.

For me lately it has been:

1. Coffee
2. Get on the phone to try and coerce symantec/veritas support into solving my product problems....
3. Beat head against desk out of frustration caused by step 2

symantec sucks.....I hate them

98EXL said:

symantec sucks.....I hate them

Click to expand...

5 open issues with their Backup Exec SR product, 2 of which I have had to solve myself and the other 3 are outstanding on servers in production. If it were truly a DR situation, I would be ready to jump out a window.

when I was in IT (not a manager) my day was:
1. Wake up at 5:00 am
2. Swear and glare menacingly at alarm clock
3. Turn computer on
4. Log in to work network
5. Start 3 diffrent jobs on the AS/400
6. Start Coffee
7. Nap for 35 min
8. Wake back up.. Shut off computer, get coffee, drive to office

I loved working from home.. beats waking up at 4 so i could be into work by 5 to start the morning processing..

SpamDog

Open thermos and drink coffee (damn engineers make the crappiest coffee)
Go outside to smoke my pipe and watch other folks come to work
Wait until reville (can't spell that) to sound (I work on a military base)
Go see what's going on that day.

I am in IT:

1. Check to see if my sick server has locked up.
2. Make coffee. (No one else knows how apparently)
3. Log-in and check user friendly comic strip and Calvin and Hobbes.
4. Cruise Slashdot.
5. Check email. (personal first.)
6. Refill coffee and have smoke.
7. Head call. (former Navy)
8. Cruise HBT and cigar forums till everyone else gets here.

I'm not a manager but I work in IT and I'm NOT a morning person.

1. Alarm goes off at 6:30, hit snooze until 6:50 or even 7:00.
2. Get up, shower and get dressed. Downstairs by 7:15.
3. Coffee maker went off at 6:30 so grab one cup at home and fill my travel mug.
4. Throw lunch into my cooler and out the door by 7:30-7:45.
5. Get to work by 8:00 (sometimes) 8:10 (most days).
6. Throw laptop in the docking station and power it up.
7. Head to a brief meeting with our engineers that occurs every morning.
8. Get back to my desk, check email, check HBT and attempt to be productive all the while just waiting to get home and do something homebrewing related.

I'm not a manager, but I am directly responsible for 21 computer labs at my university. My process is something like this:

1. Walk through door; hold breath to see if creepy-as-hell boss is waiting at desk (he is 50% of the time). Breath sigh of relief if he isn't, curse life if he is.
2. Check email.
3. Check for fires in ticket queue.
4. Check for fires in printer status program.
5a. If creepy-as-hell boss is present, ask if there's anything he needs me to do, suggest over following 15 minutes of awkward silence that we get to work instead of him staring at me (in nice words)
5b. If creepy-as-hell boss not present, go down the hall and up the stairs to coffee.
6. Get down to business putting out fires around campus, if creepy-as-hell boss not present take quickest path away from the building. When fires are extinguished, find a remote lab to hide in and check forums.

All of this can take 10 minutes if I'm alone, or up to 45 minutes if creepy-as-hell boss is with me, depending on if he's using my computer when I arrive (he's actually pretty computer illiterate) and how long he stares in uncomfortable silence.

Another day in the life.