long time reader, first time posting.. having trouble communicating with recent my boss, owner of a small MSP <300 end points, has a big help desk so.. I'm supposed to be a T2 eng I guess, not really official, the only thing official is 10hrs a week W2

I know all my problems are all my problems :-)

Ya may want to skip to the next story, I've read others, watched YT about similar situations, folks burnt out etc.. idk why i'm sharing I guess hope that just writing this might help, thankful for any comments.

I've been doing Desktop/Deskside support since upgrading 286s to 386DX/40mhz were a thing, I saw Win2,0, touched an AT&T 8086, mainly worked with helping end users, I've built a few servers here and there, did what I could to keep them and the networks alive, was never a "Server or Network" admin, I liked helping end users.. and still do, just after 36.5 yrs, tired of it.. never needed a cert, almost had A+ Cert once but missed taking the 2nd test and never needed it, didn't really have the desire either.

(Company A)I've worked mainly on small <25 tech help desks, or small <2500 end point MSPs etc.. small tech companies, worked in a NOC that supported Network Solutions Email & Web, Towerstream, Brassring, lots of different stuff, I don't know a lot, I just remember things

recently I worked for a small MSP, 5-8 techs, I was their first remote tech working in the office, was at times the only person in the office, at that time they had 3 senior techs, been around long time, getting old, used to doing stuff onsite, didn't know how to do stuff remote. By this time I did about 20yrs of onsite, never really did remote, but I was able to picture things and had 4 hrs of Soft Phone Training at the NOC, so I guess I became good at sitting in the chair, and quickly resolving issues. I got tired of the chair wanted to go back to doing in person, so I left to go work @ MITRE ( Company B), hopes of helping folks in person, well.. it ended up being 2.5% in person, I was interested in their "gaming" but.. not having a degree in painting well.. pretty much can't get any other job there, and I was like OK.. I'll get a degree.

then my daughter moved away to Missouri, and needed help, so my wife and I had to move to help, I put up a shingle on Linked, old Company A boss said lets talk, went back for same pay, and was able to work remote, we moved and I worked 3' from my bed. during covid, I was the only one covering afternoons.. but it was slow, wasn't bad.. post covid, wife of 25yrs died, next thing ya know I'm moving out cuz I only had 2 dogs and my daughter and her wife more, it was just easier..

with that and now empty nesting, depressed, drinking, gummies.. general not happy.

scope of work @ company a, loss of clients, less work, everyone picking and grabbing what they wanted to work on, up until dec 23, I had closed double the tickets of 2 juniors (I have a screenshot)..

lots of changes, from what I saw, with less clients, we had less todo, they tried to have everyone help out cleaning up no-contact pc's, get AV, Cisco DNS, Zorus, etc.. stuff updated, I tried pointing out hey.. lots of SentinelOne end points need to be updated.. " oh we have that handled.. " etc.. OK..

just work what you're given, work from your calendar, ok, I'm working stuff quickly and sometimes before they give it.. they can't see what I work on, what I've done and the available time I have open.. if they have something they'll assign, but between the 3-4 people taking turns assigning, still not much there..

(not real names).. hey.. "BOB (me)".. you dont have much posted.. sure "Mary (powerless super)" .. ya, well, give me more.. I'm thinking.. I see "Rick and Tom" dont have much either for work to do or done.. not keeping up and not updating their tickets etc.. but.. I am focused on me..

well.. I was being paid probably what Rick and Tom was combined and here I am T1 ( everyone is T1 lol ), everyone is a Server and Network Admin, everyone is a SentinelOne or Zorus and Threatlocker SME..

I forget if it was last week of Sept or OCT.. but on a Monday, I'm having internet or pc issues, idk, trying to login to stuff and try to start the day. I'm in Slack saying trying to login, boss ( not owner ) is like "I'm trying to call you.. you're not phone's not online.". yes I'm having trouble, gonna restart and retry etc.. so she calls my phone which is odd.. says "I'm here with Barbara (owner, not real name).. " effective immediately we're terminating you, we think you need to take a vacation and get better".,.

I said, " Oh, um, OK.. (my anxiety shoots up, heart starts fluttering etc).. I have to wonder if there's some other reason.".. they gave me a months pay, I was told I could keep the laptop (decent i7 16GB 512gb Lenovo worth about $200)..

I reset Win11 on it and just sat there

A week later, I got a call from my nephew, I let him know cuz I worked for him PT a few years back and well, hoped maybe I might be able to work for him, try to help him out, he's had his own MSP <200pc's for about 15yrs. I didn't ask, but he offered with his wife also on the phone, said.. we believe in you, we trust you.. you got this. I'm not an expert in MS365, AWS, Firewalls, Servers, heck I'm not an expert in anything, I've seen a bunch, try not to break anything I can't fix and try to fix anything I do break, try to fix stuff even when I'm not sure what the fix is.. I've seen known good CAT5s just fail to just getting DHCP, rare from what I've seen, but a month after mentioning to a good junior tech it helped him.

Finally to the Prime Rib: Sure, about 6 weeks ago, I was "working" for my nephew I borked 2 things recently, .. " here's a ticket.. hey go on AWS and delete the server" No mention about the server name, or don't touch that other server.. well.. I've logged into AWS <24times.. fixing VPN and spinning up a server or two, Ok.. I'll give it a go.. well, I think I deleted the static IP that also provided access to a VOIP server..

we're in a Teams chat

he was like.. what do you see ? .. um nothing

is there a recycle bin ? .. no

what do you see ? .. nothing

omg you're not helping !! .. there's nothing there

show me what you're seeing !!.. there's nothing there

( like nothing about share your screen, nor invites to a meeting to share my screen..)

( I'm thinking.. like.. get off your ipad and login for yourself or.. be a bit more specific.. )

( ok, shits hitting the fan.. but um.. we're clearly related neither does well at communicating)

you're done for the day !! .. I signed off, tried chatting in teams, tried texting him.. even texted his wife, NEITHER responded (wow.. ok)

I accepted part of the blame, and tried to get him to respond, he NEVER mentioned anything about it..

he would call me once a week, a couple weeks we talked 2-3x a week, he'd send me emails and tickets to work, I'd grab tickets that I thought I could help with, or that just needed to be closed, backups that need to be checked.. we had tickets that said the Acronis Backup completed.. except Onedrive wasnt' backed up..

OK.. I knew we were excluding it, but I had NO awareness they were working on fixing other things, I closed the ticket, backup completed, aware of Onedrive.. .. " he said "hey stop closing those ".. I said.. "um .. OK".. he said "we're working on fixing those..", Oh, Ok.

recently he said, " only work on what I send ya.. ", OK :-)

I've been trying to get his RMM and PC's updated to Dell Command 5.4 and to not keep trying to reinstall it, and not error out, uninstall other versions if need.. and well today I was following up on that, had an issue where I accidently installed it on an HP server... he said, and thankfully the client didn't see, OK.. and he uninstalled it before I signed on for the day, said he closed the tickets, but they re-alerted cuz.. software changed on the server ( it was uninstalled ) so I closed those alerts.. ok. moved on, oops.

he said dont work from JOBS or ALERTs, check out "Filters", Ok.. so today I took a look at them, tried to setup a filter to see where the software was installed and not installed, and told him that.

verbatim including typos

me: I said hey.. did you see the college has APs down ?

boss: tunnel is down, mansion IP changed, need to go to FortiGate and tell it new one, the APs are up, just a tunnel bately used

me: learning about filters, what it can and can't do, you got something for me to work on ?, trying to figure out if Dell CU is install on all LTs/DTs.

boss: Yes, I just forwarded 2 emails to tickets about a clientname windows 11 upgrade.

me: not getting the results I want. ok.

boss: need to see if never got a job I set for the Win 11 block or something else

me: I think I need userdefined field.

me: need to see if never got a job I set for the Win 11 block or something else ??? huh ?

(now reading this and shaking, now I understand.. but like.. wtf)

but then, still not understanding..

boss: I sent a RMM Job to all client machines for a Win11 Block (component), it should show in the activity history on the device page.

me: (reading the tickets and still not understanding him. I know we were helping folks to upgrade to Win11), I said "so do you want me to contact those folks and upgrade them ?

boss: Noooo

me: k, then I read the ticket and saw where the client said " can you look at our settings, I thought we locked down Win10, so it will only prompt to install Win 10 updates ".. I said" I see that, understood"

boss: supposed to be blocked but some reasont wasnt.

me: (I checked his recent job, it says it was successful.. but never understood he wanted me to diagnose why it didn't before.. and for some reason I was not understanding what he was not saying and what he wasn't saying, wasn't making sense.

boss: Okay, try to figure out then, let me know when determine it, no details need till then.

me: are you using speech to text, sorry, kinda not following that statement

boss: Jetlagged

me: np

boss: just let me know at the end when figure it out

me: oh if they reply to the emails? .. I see you sent 2 emails about Win11 to PSA.

Oh.. do you want me to help with the 3 HD tickets.. seems HD company hasn't reponded.. or should I leave them.

boss: should be 1 ticket. And then investigate and tell me.

me: which ticket, I see the one about headphones, teams and one other ( not realizing he's talking about the Win11, which where was TWO of those.. but OK.. )

boss: just stop for the day then.

me: I'm here to help, but um, which one or all ( still talking about the HD tickets sitting for over an hour ).. I can take all 3..

boss: No, my tier 2 engineer is the issue

me; user is having a teams issue, you told me you were going to assign me tickets, kinda not clear what you want me to do or not.

boss: I'm being clear now, done for day.

me: what am I doing wrong ?

I signed off, and having his cell and trying to figure out wtf just happened I text him.

the desert:

he didn't reply to my text, uses droid and I'm on apple, so I have no idea if he read or not or if I'm blocked.

idk why but I felt the need to login to my VM and check teams..

boss: Done Stop texting me.

fine'

um.. wow.. ok, seriousa anxiety and heart fluttering, like.. wt heck.

ok.. so, I'm writing this and reading back the team chat..

I just read through and now understanding what he wanted..

so.. "off the clock" and only having now 17hrs in for the week, I logged in and checked the job, and the output..

sent him this:

I've re-read thru your chat, sorry, I was not understanding the task and what you were trying to ask of me.

I do not have company email or Teams on my phone, I only saw that you said .. stop texting you.. cuz I had an inclination, idk why, to check Teams.

I reviewed the job you pushed on 12-17-2024, jobs report success, same as the ones today.

because these are not Win Enterprise.. this is a cat & mouse game with MS on how to block these, there is no clear cut way that've I've heard, not that I've done much research on it.. never needed to ..

earlier I did look on the web, there are scripts, but, who knows if they work today or will tomorrow.

your job results on 1 pc, of the 16 that reported success:

JOB: Block Upgrade to Windows 11 [WIN]

The operation completed successfully. (doesn't show it, but this is the result of adding a reg entry)

The operation completed successfully. (doesn't show it, but this is the result of adding a reg entry)

The operation completed successfully. (doesn't show it, but this is the result of adding a reg entry)

Please note that if this device has feature update deferrals set (perhaps via a Windows Update Policy), this blocking action will override them to put the device on the version specified in TargetVersion.

Closing:, a couple weeks ago, I said I was a bit worried about hours, I really need 20-30 hours. ( no reply )

my GF and I discussed the situaition the other day, cuz well.. while I dont owe or have much for bills and sure we both make $37hr (she now makes .65 more :-).. I'm paying about $650 a month for my daughter to have a car, cuz she can't afford it and needs one, paying $90 for their City Water & Trash, our thankfully cheap rent of $650, $150 a mo for elec, $350 month for Car INS for my daughter to have a car, and for my GFs car, and try to help with food, fuel, food for 3 dogs, we share most costs, take turns lunch or dinner @ Sonic, McDs etc..

I want to help him with his company, his dad passed 6yrs ago

I think he offered a job to help me

I've said many times, I'm grateful, and trying, and when there's been a couple issues like this he's blown up like that, and my duties and tasks are unclear, his explaining is as bad as mine.

master of none, lost interest in anything tech, and lost interest in a LOT of things

trying to find what I like, what I want to do, and before I was 25, I had 25 different jobs

I thought about doing various things I did in the past

being in farm country thought about doing that, but I've got nothing $$ and no exp

I started refired up Twitch and Youtube streaming, but I'm not entertaining, not into details about games, just want to login.. shoot and blow stuff up.. and try to have fun, happy to try and help folks, just not interested in explaining, plenty of content out there gets into the guts of things.

I've never posted anything like this, doubt I would again, and I doubt if anyone would read to the end, I doubt I would've read all the way through.

I felt if there was anywhere I could post something like this it would be here, I've read <250 posts here.. spent a day reading one's similar.

I hope you have a great day .. hopefully this doesn't make you're day worse, I think mine will be better..

I'm gonna let the dogs out, check on the oven cleaning, grab an adult beverage.. try to log some hours on Twitch...