Network Administrator or Personal Task Monkey?

At my last job, as manager of desktop services, I had an absolute rule, no home computers no matter what. We still had issues with senior managers using laptops at home, and lending them to kids who filled them with junk which caused many problems - standard solution to that is to backup the users data and reimage the machine.

A law firm is a little different - its the owners of the firm who decide the rules. Their argument is going to be that they do amount of work at home.

It might be fruitless to fight this on legal grounds - they will get rid of you if you do.

The best you can do is set limits - you only support the OS and business applications - you don't support Kazaa or any funky stuff, and if thats what causes the problem, it will be deleted from the box.

I will admit despite the fact I am a manager I fixed a VPs home computer recently, it was a former desktop from the company. It was loaded with spyware, but I did it at my own pace in my spare time - he understood why. I kept the machine for two days. I was very thorough. Very thorough. But my VP is pretty flexible and understanding. Your mileage may vary.

James

I'm not sure that it is completely legal.

If the computers at home are their personal property, I'm not sure that you can be required to fix them as part of your job. Your job description should cover company assets, not personal property.

You may have to support them for connection via a VPN or dial-up connection.

With that being said, if you wanted to do it out of the goodness of your heart....

I'm not sure that it is completely legal.

If the computers at home are their personal property, I'm not sure that you can be required to fix them as part of your job. Your job description should cover company assets, not personal property.

You may have to support them for connection via a VPN or dial-up connection.

With that being said, if you wanted to do it out of the goodness of your heart....

Lets see these junky lawyers partners that each make more money than you will see if 10 years of work (my cousins husbands a partner - make 7 figures) ...

And they can't afford to call someone else - I would be out looking for a job - so fast that their heads would spin... Let them suck your butt as you walk out the door.... With your talent and skills - you shouldn't have a problem ...

It appears they have no loyality to you - only to themselves - you need the same attitute... Tell them to take a hike - and find a good employement lawyer as well ...

As they say Lawyers are lower than Whale S.H.I.T. at the bottom of the ocean - What do you have when you got 50 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean - A good Start... Dirt Bags

I used to work for a financial systems integrator and they had an interesting way of preventing this problem. They had the company purchase several machines to be set up as "work at home" systems. These systems were supported by the central support department and let the users have access to all work related information from home through a secure VPN. You support those systems, and those systems only. Policies can be set up to prevent local storage of information. That way when something goes bust because of Jr. all you need do is re-image the thing and all is good.. Other non-work related systems are out of your jurisdiction, period. They most likely do not pay you to support home machines, whether you are salaried or not.
If the management committee says that they can require you to do this ask them, politely, where in your contract it says you have to support non-work-related machines. If they find a clause in the contract that says that specifically (and I mean that in the legalese sense of the word), well you signed it, good luck. Otherwise put forth the idea of a centrally controlled system like the one outlined above.
If they still refuse to see things from your point of view and work to an alternative solution, consult a lawyer. If he says you?re in the clear, tell your employers that you flat out refuse. If they fire you, it sounds like you?ll be able to find a better job. If they don?t, you still may want to start looking as it sounds like they have little regard for you as a human being.
Throughout this process, though, be polite and respectful, even if they don?t deserve it. Many problems can be avoided in this manner. It sounds like you tried it that way with the first guy and got screwed. Don?t stop being polite just because he was a jerk. Let everyone prove whether they are or aren?t. Confrontation is not a good way to start attempts at negotiation. Hopefully you?ll be able to come up with a nice solution to this dilemma. Let us know how it turns out.

For my company, if their home system and network was not purchased and setup by the company, it is considered non-standard and best effort. My company does not want to take the resonsibility for repairing damages to their system or network if something goes wrong. Long ago we had to replace a newly made driveway for a manager when the tech's car leaked oil on it. For company's owned computer at home, we tell them that they need to bring it in to office to insure that we have close access to servers, software tools, etc. Have home visit require a liability wavier (if you can, have it require a senior level signature). Will they provide a company phone to recieve these calls? Will they provide a company car? If not, will they provide insurance while you drive to their home? After all, they are asking you to do these as a employee, not as a friend. If they do not provide these, how will you be reimburst for your own insurance and the wear and tear of your car. What level of support do they expect? Issues of software licenses and hardware replacement, who buys? The firm or the partner? Ethical question, what happens if you find questionable stuff on the computer? Will they have a special accounting for this if you do charge accounting? Do you have a job description when you got hired/promoted? If it is not listed, it is beyond the scope of what you initial sign up for. If they do allow calls, keep track of when and the length to use later. Too many and too long can keep you from doing your regular work.
Bottom line: if it is going to cost the firm for this support, they will back away. You are an employee and such work must be business related.

ChuckyG

how long you have been with the company, or if there are any other members of the IT department. Do you have a manager to go to bat for you, or are YOU it? I don't see how, if you are salaried, that immediately qualifies you to go to someone's home to work on their personal computer. I too have worked in a law firm, but luckily, I had an excellent boss who went to bat for me if anything came up that was unacceptable to me.

The issue of personal computers did come up once...it's an interesting story... This one attorney had a very irritating, immature, and yes, crazy daughter (she was one of those teens with a dark cloud over her head, typical spoiled brat in my eyes)...well, in order to make her happy, this attorney wanted my boss to set up one of our old computers for her. My boss, being the saint that he was, agreed, he put AOL on it, and a few games. Well, this daughter was impatient, among other things, and she barged into the MIS office, and almost barged into my bosses' office while he was in the middle of a meeting (I was having none of her and stopped her dead in her tracks). I know that we gave her the computer, but that did not resolve her issues, as she returned to the office one day, locked herself in another attorney's office, disconnected his computer, and threatened to throw it out the window. This was (finally?!) the last straw, and she was never allowed to set foot in the office again. I also had an attorney, who was very high up on the food chain, ask me for assistance in opening an attachment, that turned out to be a pornographic cartoon. I was PISSED because that is NOT what I was there to do, and I made a complaint. Nothing happened to me, and nothing seemed to have happened to this attorney. There was another attorney there who had gay porn on his computer, I think I mentioned that to my boss. This was all before sexual harrassment and porn on company computers became in vogue as office issues. I will tell you this, I don't miss working as an IT professional in a law firm AT ALL. You are not respected for your knowledge, and are basically seen as part of the support staff who is there to do WHATEVER the attorneys want you to do. What is so ironic is that my boss left, my co-worker left, I left, all in a span of about 6 months and the law firm had to hire a brand new staff that had no history or knowledge of the firm what so ever. Needless to say, this firm is no longer in existence.

I wish you all the best.

Well I went on my first outing making sure to submit expense report for the milage. It was not to horrible as the partners wife was pretty hot. In an effort to establish some boundaries I did mention to his wife that I am available only 8-5 on business days to answer any questions she may have by email.

Once I returned I spoke with my superior about auto insurance. I told her that I wanted to make sure that I am covered by the firm if I get in an accident on my way to or from a partners home. I stressed the fact that my insurance does not cover me using my vehicle for business purposes. They are postponing any future outings until they check on this. My guess is they wont want to spend the money if I am only doing this 2-3 times a month. I am trying to make them realize that me doing this type of service will cost them more $$ instead of thinking I am their salaried slave.

Should they decide to get me insurance I may have to take a hike.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

When you where employed by the firm you should have been given a contract of employment which set out your duties. If this did not include fixing the partners home computers then the answer is obviously that they are seeking to change this and favourable terms, to you, can be negotiated.

The snag is that the partners may do some of their work from home, in which case the home computers could be considered part of the work environment.

1) It's legal.

2) But that don't make it right - as you identified, there are some good, technical reasons why this isn't such a bright idea.

There ought to be a policy in the office about using corporate resources for personal use. Your time and talents are a corporate resource. Now, if the corporate policy is that corporate resources can be used on a "non-interferencea" basis, then you can do their personal work during the slow times. If they expect you to drive to their home, then they ought to reimburse you for milage - they are attorneys and they ought to understand this.

Failing all of that, may I suggest that you join a union? Consider, for example, WashTech, at http://www.washtech.org. If you and your peers organize, then you'd have some power in your corner.

Its now my 10th year in the IT sector. I have worked in many fortune500 companies. Here is the sad answer: You are on the payroll. They are stronger than you. They can force you to even set up a server upsidedown in the gents toilets..

Although it seems ugly and nasty, if you have no other option than quitting, you will have to do what they want.

They have the power to modify your shores. I hate it too, but C'est la vie...

It's time to develop a policy about this with the senior partner of the law firm. Understand going in, that you may very well have to find a new employer in the long run- but if you share your concerns with the senior partner about the time and resources that taking care of junior partners' PCs will drain from the firm's bottom line, you might be able to establish guidelines for taking care of the PCs, while not being put into the embarrassing position that you find yourself in now. However, if taking care oh home PCs is the goal of the firm- you'll either have to comply or find a more humane work environment for yourself.

If I were in your situation I would suggest that within work hours you would be delighted to support any equipment/machines /users that were used for 100percent work related work. You would maintain equipment with software installed and licenced by the company itself, but that you would not be prepared to work outside this remit, as other 100 percent work related work would always take presidence. Any external user or non standard software would require unquantifyable support that would stand in the way of company development and make unreasonable use of company resources.
If you do believe that the increased workload would be overly timeconsuming, that is what I would suggest, but it is up to you.

Matty

That is totally BS. You weren't hired to do that. Personal computers are their responsibility. I had worked at a college where the faculty expected this. Finally I just started quoting them a high hourly rate and they stopped bugging me.

If the company pay the bill, you get to haul the freight, that?s the way it often is. In defense of this practice, I have established a policy of providing support to home systems where the home user connects to the office network. This allows me to at least verify that the machine has an up to date AV - with auto update of the sig files and that it has a firewall up and running. At least this gives me a shot at protecting my network, and after you?ve seen some of those home systems and what?s on them, you?ll be glad you got a shot at securing them.

This policy hasn?t been all that easy to implement since I will only provide this support where the home user surrenders access to the administrator account. I also lock down the firewall with a password which I do not give out. VNC (not running) is installed so remote support is possible. I will provide some out of hours support where the need is essential and business related.

This policy is a two edged sword since it royally ticks off the home users because the firewall lock prevents most gaming and blocks nearly any install from functioning without my ntervention. On the plus side, it secures my network to a much greater degree.

In your situation though, if they pay you and that?s company policy, it?s legal and your going to have to go along with it or move on. If those users connect to the office network however, I?d be sure to implement a similar policy to the above. If they (the management) refuse to allow you to lock down home users that connect to the office network, I?d get it in writing or at least pass lots of emails back and forth to document your position in the event there is a penetration of your network as a result of a home user connection. It can save your job and give you leverage later if it become necessary. Print and save all the emails.

How to turn this to your advantage.

Hold a meeting, explain all the dangers of an unsecured system accessing the office lan and detail how you plan to lock down the home systems if you are directed to provide home support.

Do it nicely, in a professional manner, spend extra time outlining the danger of being hacked or how network data could be stolen or damaged and how much it could cost to recover if you don?t lock down these systems. Explain that home systems will be limited in functionality after you?ve paid a visit. Give out a brief document and formally introduce it (cover you?re ass).

Almost certainly, if you?ve presented it forcefully and professionally, the most likely result is that the company will sign off on it [the policy] and no one, no one in the company will want you near their computers if you were the only person on earth that could possibly fix it.

My situation was very similar to yours and rather than fight it, I formalized the policy, got management to sign off on it be explaining the danger to the company (in writing), then made everyone in the company aware of it by both email and in a memo. Since then, I?ve only had two additional home visits, and those were completely justified because both had serious health problems preventing them from coming to the office.

No one else want?s me even near their computer, ever!.

Al

I see 2 problems here...one is that you would be perceived as the monkey & this could also be a potential conflict of interest, which ultimately could be grounds for your dismissal if you did not cooperate. If you think you could squeeze this in during regular working hours without causing regular work performance issues, then maybe it would work. The second issue is that if you started this home PC service off the clock, you should charge these people for your time, but again, this could be a potential cause for dismissal (conflict of interest), especially if you ticked someone off. So I siggest you steer clear of this altogether - suggest they call another home PC repair service...

We also have incalls, and value them at $85.00/hour diagnostic. It's an additional source of income for the department, and a seperate job description.

I am also a law firm IT manager and have been asked to fix co-worker's and partner's home computers and laptops. My rule is, they bring it in to the office and I fix it at a time of my choosing. I would not travel to individual homes -- you might as well start your own business if you're going to do that. I have found that people are more appreciative when you set some limits.

I have been the IT person at my insurance agency for several years. There are a number of people who connect to the office from home. I have let those know exactly what they have to have on their home computers and have had no problems with compliance. There have veen a couple of times I've had to go to an employees home to help and a couple of times that an owner has brought in his home computer for me to work on. But nobody tries to take advantage of me. I think that if your employer values you at all you won't be put in the position you describe. If they don't you will be used and it is time to move on. There are too many businesses that need and value what we do to have to put up with slavery to owners with an overblown opinion of themselves.

Really, humor aside, we are the time machines around which culture revolves.Goal, get "home bodies" to connect through web to learn computer skills.

"You were there, 414 BCE, ..." (taken from old radio show where oral stories placed listeners into historical moments of interests.)

Euripides (486-406 BCE)playwrite (now an acknowledged genius [do google: <>]near the end of the "Golden Age" of democracy Athens was fighting Spartans on hilly plains of "townships" of Arcadia, in the central part of Pelopennesia,Greece, separated from Greece's northen mainland, with Athens, Attica to the north east across a sea, to the east, he Agean Sea.

Attica being a very sparce place,it appears that the affluent setled in Arcadia protected by land from the ships and the controls they offered (Athens about 100 ships, other coastal townships less).

Enter Spartans, Sparta to the south east of Arcaida, Spart, a society that trained their males from age seven to thirty in barrack style to be warriors, but where only one seventh of the population, the 6/7 being "helots", endentured slaves, captured "others". See Donald Kagan "The Oeloponnesian War" Vicking (2003)pp511.

So, Athenian playwrites were also ambassadors during the Golden Age, that's you now, into Spartan homes (corporate wealthy), so you got a chance to really liberate these Spartannized corporate, actually slaves too, into the www, the vast pool of nerds pecking away across the airwares, essentially doing the escape from the "sparce" rocky hils of Attica.

Kept the faith, brothers and sisters.

Best, rmuldavin@aol.com, the spirit of euripides lives, and he is us.

Having been in a similar position with having to respond to requests for home computer assistance, one thing these legal big-wigs are overlooking is their PC configurations. I requested that they all submit their hardware stats to me, to include installed software. One bastard even had a P90 PC. After receiving this info, I then came up with a cost analysis for their home computers and it was not pretty. Being the greedy mongrels that they were, they decided to nix the home pc support due to costs. But you're right, it will cost them in other ways that they cannot envision at the current moment. So go ahead and do the home support, even if it takes you off site to their homes.

During business hours for a business related machine. If it's a machine that they need to do corporate work on and they're having problems opening email or the likes, then during business hours I would think that I would be obligated to work on the machine (while also getting compensated for gas mileage, etc...) I agree with a previous post that if it's for someone's kid and they're having problems with Kazaa, they're only wasting your time as well as the company's money.

As a 50% owner of a small company with about 35 employees, I can give you my opinion from the "bosses perspective".
It really depends on what your job description is. This usually falls under the "other duties as assigned" clause of your job description. When you accept a job or change roles, be sure to clearly understand what your role is, and is not.
As a business manager/principle, I think it is grossly irresponsible to have valuable IT staff doing personal PC repair. It's paramount to abusing company resources. It can send a clear signal to employees that misuse of company resources is ok for certain people. There are always countless projects that valuable IT staff can be working on to benefit the company.
Also, many people just don't realize that they are asking you to perform a task degrading to you, because they truly don't understand the mysteries of the IT world and the role of those that work in IT related jobs. I would never ask someone to do something degrading to them (like fetch me coffee, or wash my car), unless it was in their job description. But I may ask someone to perform a task that I thought was reasonable, only to find that they found it degrading or a waste of their talent. They may not tell me directly, since I'm the boss. You should have a serious and firm discussion with your manager and be sure your value, role, goals, and ambitions are clearly defined, understood, and agreed upon. Once they realize your value, you'll find that everyone will agree that you have much more important things to do than "monkey tasks".

If the room and its contents belong to the Company, (not the Individual) then I would say it's probably legal (IRS). But to make it fair, there would have to be compensation for late hours transportation etc... If there is no cost involved, whether personal or corporate, you will be taken advantage of. The ethics and morals in this situation are another thing alltogether. I get the idea that they consider it a perk. How would they feel if they had to provide the employees legal counsel at the same frequency.

I provide home PC support for my users but only if they can bring it to work. If I have to take my own time, I charge.

...if the managing partners think this little of you and your time. It'll only get worse in the future.

I have the same type of issue..however I do NOT look at the computers at work, I do it on my own time and I charge for it ($30-$50/per hr) and I like that! So you can make it work providing you don't mind spending the extra "home time". Good Luck.

This situation that you're in is not too uncommon. I've been in that situation at one time or another. But the only difference is, that they paid me extra for doing that. But remember, once you commit to fixing their computers at home, you'll be on-call constantly and that if anything comes up in the future, they'll say that it was working before you touched it. It's the typical user answer to cover up that they screwed it up.
But set boundaries and guidelines. Never go to their homes after hours. Negotiate a salary increase to include "house calls". Do forget to include mileage and food allowances if you work through lunch or dinner.

In any case, go luck to you.

Aloha,
Jim

Since you've already tried logic and they've overrulled it, you have to make your point another way.

Definitely take your time doing these house calls....get "lost" on your way (and be sure to turn in the mileage), be sure to mention that you were fixing the kids game or cleaning viruses that the kids downloaded or getting paperjams out of their printer again.

Extended time out of the office during peak hours will defiitely make your point. If the company computers are negelected because your are installing a wireless network at one of the partners house, the policy will definitely change.

My suggestion: Psycologically empower yourself.

First, accept that you may be loosing your job over this and be prepared for that. Life is too short for jobs where you are not respected for what you do. If that is the case with this job, then you are better off elsewhere.

Once you've done that, the following will be easy, and will perhaps make the rest of your job more enjoyable. I don't know what you are making, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to justify more than 40 hours a week with off-site grunt work thrown in. So only do such work during business hours. Make that clear to your employers. After 5pm and weekends? Forget it! Unless, perhaps, that means it's in exchange for time off during the week. These clowns understand billing by the hour. They should be able to understand paying by the hour as well.

Someone else here mentioned making the most of off-site work. Let it become a kind of flex-time for you. Have leisurly meals out. Integrate errands that would otherwise suck up your evenings and weekends. Enjoy it. Oh, and charge for the mileage too.

Savor the moment when you are at some guys house purging the spyware their kids loaded up when the office calls with a crisis. "I'm sorry, but I'm here at so-and-so's house cleaning up after the kids. Too bad you're going to miss a deadline because I was here instead of there." A few instances of that may make for changes in your favor.

The cool thing about America is that for the most part, you can only become a slave if you allow yourself to be one. Make this work for you, or find better work elsewhere.

Ooo Ahh Ahhh Ooooo! We're all a bunch of monkeys unless of course it's our own business we;re runng, but then we wouldn't have this issue would we. Some of us are Chimps, some silver backs, but all answer to someone and get into political messes like this.

My advise is to not offer resistance but comply with all the pride you put into the rest of your duties. Monkey want a banana? Then don't bite the hand that feeds you.

If their home systems are used for even a minor portion of their work, then technically, it is business related. Handle like any other project. Do an initial analysis of HW and Software and configs (security). Put together a proposal of work to be done (as recommended by you and why). Yes, all of this will take prescious time away from the criticle business functions and you need to let them know this. In the end your proposal should outline the current situation, the work that needs to be done and the "TIME" it will take to do it.

Then you can recommend a 3 hour class they can take to teach them how to maintain their own home systems.

Or you can recommend they hire a help desk tech for remote systems.

Let them choose. If your happy with your job and the ones you work for (you sound like you are and you sound as if you take pride in what you do, like most of us) then why worry if a function is beneath you? Sounds like child's play, a good break for ya. They will love you for it.

Looking for another job is always a choice you can make. I don't see anything wrong with the request. Do what you do best and utilize all your best skills.

You can even go as far as taking Admins rights away, treat their home computers as you do the office machines, especially if you are going to be responsible for them. All of this needs to be in your proposal to them. And don't forget warrenty warnings, if any of these systems are under warrenty it is ill advised to do any work to them.

That's it, back to monkey business for me ***picks nose, flings at on lookers, climbs tree, banana in hand***

You may want to check your state laws. Where I'm at, we have "at-will" people, everyone with no contract, who can be asked to take out the garbage for the boss at home. Document everything Date - Time - miles - what was done - what was said (cover your own . . .).

I spent 10+ years as a paralegal, and as the only male paralegal at most firms, I discovered quite a number of quirks that the average "Larry the Lawyer" has.

1) Lawyers are cheap. Even more so if they make the big money.

2) They pick thier staff like they pick their mistresses.

3) You are expendable if you desire to make more than $10 an hour.

4) (For guys) unless you look damn fine in a mini-skirt, you can be replaced tomorrow.

In the case of a network admin, you realize that your job can be done in Bangalore for 10 rupees an hour, so you should feel grateful they let you fix their home machines.

Only way I work for lawyers is on a "time and materials" project basis under written contract with a very hefty change notice fee involved.

I believe that it is everyone's right to a private life outside of working hours.That means only you choose who to let into that space and under what terms and conditions. You are absolutely morally and I suspect legally entitled to stand your ground and say No. However if the firm's senior management insist on bringing their own personal home based PC's into work then it might be difficult to say No. Obviously management have decided that their own home computing needs have either an equal or greater priority than the business and I think you are obliged to remind them that the daily workloads are such that attending to their private needs will require you to re adjust business needs and that may mean some urgent business tasks go on the back burner. Are they going to agree with that and if so put it in writing so you have something to hang your hat on. Also in fixing any private PC ownership of any subsequent problems rests with the business not you personally and you will not be fending calls after hours for anyone .. period.

If they try to fire you for that two things :-

1. They would lose any court case for wrongful dismissal

2. You'd be better off somewhere else.

A better strategy might be to befriend some of the senior managers you can trust and make it clear you are not happy with the proposal , why you feel like that i.e its not personal or being lazy and offer them an alternative. i.e work out what it costs them in your time say $5,000 p.a get them to allocate that budget to you to manage and you go out and find a local support shop nearby that will do this work for you.

Best of Luck .. glad I work for myself .. I do not eny how corporates treat people these days.

In an environment where executive arrogance has become the rule rather than the exception, and twisters of wire and turners of screws like ourselves are looked at as replacable parts, one thing that is often overlooked is the liability issue.
Any company ought to have a strict "No Home PCs" policy, as when a technician touches a PC he or she inherits the blame for all the problems the PC has.

The general problem analysis of users relies on the post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) fallacy: This problem occurred after my personal PC monkey touched it, therefore the problem occured BECAUSE of what the monkey did.

I would think this would be especially risky when dealing with people who make their living as professional litigators, whose stock in trade is putting forth arguments that are logically fallacious but emotionally appealing.

When execs at our company ask me if I'll look at PCs, I tell them I'll be happy to -- for a charge of $75 per hour with a two hour minimum and with a signed disclaimer that I am not responsible for any previously existing problems with the PC.

As I was having Thanksgiving dinner with a pilot, he asked me to help him with his computer. After three hours of trying to get his wholly inadequate piece of junk working (and it was working when I was done!) I asked him if it was okay if I asked him to fly me around for three hours sometime on his day off. He answered, "I don't think so!" But I guess he got the point. It's been four years and he hasn't asked me to work on his computer again.

In your case, perhaps you're the only techie around the lawyers -- in larger companies, execs won't have a problem finding someone among their entourage of sycophants and corporate climbers looking for an opportunity to bootlick and curry favor. There is no shortage of character deficited individuals willing to eat several yards of crap for the opportunity to kiss an executive behind -- generally though these are people whose 'soft' skills (office intrigue, back-stabbing, taking credit for others' work, etc.) outweigh their hard skills (like making systems work.) They may wind up coming to you after brown-nose messes things up.

That's my rant for today. Ahh, I feel so much better!

-- Dex

If you make all the partners happy and take care of their home equipment, come raise time will you be rewarded????

I am in the same boat for a School District. We have to go to Board members homes and support equipment. The catch for us is that we only support equipment that was purchased by the District. So any home system, broadband or other wise, they are on their own. But, because District equimpment still has to be on their home network, we end up doing a little broadband troubleshooting and training to get their laptops to work in both enviornments.

A real pain, but so far not too bad....yet!

Who's your Supervisor? Are you negotiating a salary raise to take on the responsibility that they deem desirable?
Make sure that the contract is revised and a suitable accomodation is met - where this is to be done and at what times (your personal time is your personal time), and pay scale progresses because of this.
Just because you are a salary employee does NOT mean that they own you.

You are screwed. Present a bill for mileage to the accounting department, both to and from, when you go to someones home for "service." Require all systems you work on meet company policy regarding installed software being properly licenced. Work only during business hours, or take time off at 1.5 rate in lieu of compensation. And the most important detail: Actively look for another job! This situation is going to get worse and you are going to be made the scapegoat for a crashed system.

I run IT administration at a small, close-knit company. Occasionally, I get requests regarding home computers from the employees and my supervisors. While I'm happy to point them in the direction of additional help, I make sure they know that my efforts are directed toward maintaining the company's capabilities.

This should be the path you should follow. You were employed to maintain the firm's computer capabilities. That should be the primary priority and one that should be emphasized to the partners. Any additional non-work items may be handled in slack times during business hours.

Unless your employment agreement/contract calls for 24/7 access, you are entitled to your own time. If they continue to demand personal service in preference to supporting the firm's IT capabilities, you may want to see about going elsewhere.

This is especially true if they use home systems to work on their materials. Unless they have the same level of security as at the office, they are letting themselves open for deliberate or inadvertent exposure of potentially sensitive information. You should point out that you cannot guarantee continued security for those systems that are not directly under your supervision. Unfortunately, even reasoned argument will not sway those who feel they have status that they do want to give up.

I am disturbed by the tone of the original question and the vast bulk of the responses I've read here.

Now let me get this straight: "I am a network administrator for a large law firm..." Do they pay you to work there or is it volunteer work? Working with the assumption that you're paid, let's look at what that salary does. You've agreed to work for this firm and exchange your time and talents for money. During your work hours, you don't own the time that you're spending. The firm does. It's bought and paid for.

It seems to me that unless you have a contract that specifically states your sole responsibilities to the exclusion of all other duties is to be in the office, or if they're asking you to do something illegal, then you shouldn't much care what the details of the job are.

You took this job reasonably expecting to work inside the office all day. But you also took this job expecting to work on computers. What is the real problem with an occasional run to an owner's house during regular business hours to work on a computer? If you're paid mileage in addition to your regular salary, aren't you being fairly compensated? It's not like they've thrown cleaning the toilets into your job description. Even if they had, are you too good to do a distasteful job every now and then?

Further, I firmly believe that you should give your employer a full serving, heaped over, of effort for your pay. In other words, do more than you're paid for. Be more valuable than your salary indicates. You can reasonably expect your salary to increase in recognition of your efforts at some point. Don't sit around, telling them what you won't do until you receive more money. That's expecting a reward before you give the value to your employers. That's just not reasonable, even though it's the prevalent attitude in most of these posts.

With all that said, I believe that if the support these people need at home escalates past an occasional problem they will see you for what you are, a valuable corporate resource that is needed at the office. You know what will happen; one or two guys will take the lion's share of your time and the rest of them will finally decide it was a bad idea to use you this way and pull the plug on the whole idea. In the mean time, you've shown that you're a team player and can be counted on to try to contribute to the success of the business that pays your salary and keeps your family fed. How can that be a bad thing for you?

I'm sure I've stepped on something in excess of 1000 toes here. Just keep the flames on the board and don't bother me at work. I'm trying to contribute to the good of my employer.

I try to make the employees bring their computers. If for some reason they cannot or if they need something like DSL set up at home then I charge one of the following: A) money depending on how long it takes, B) dinner or lunch at a nice restaurant, or C) some form of alcohol. The users are going to bug you regardless so you might as well get something extra out of it.

Well, first of all, your comment "These people can more than afford to have someone fix their computers"...yes, I'm sure they can afford to have someone else fix their home computers, but why pay someone when you can essentially do it for free?

I can definately relate. I am the Net Admin at a law firm also. I have been approached by my IT VP about going to the one of the partner's houses and seting up a home wireless network. So far I have ignored it, and it has not been mentioned recently. However, my desktop support person here has been tasked with being this partner's personal pc monkey. This partner has a cabin in Canada. My desktop support guy was on the phone with this guy for days trying to get his personal dialup computer to work and help him try to fix that Blaster virus that got installed on the pc in Canada. Now our other partner and his wife want new home pc's. First off, the company paid for these, which I think is wrong to begin with, but now we have to configure these new computers and train then to use the new computers.

It must be a lawyer thing...

Honestly, I don't have an answer for you. They do sign your check so I think they kind of have you by the short hairs. If this became a "Management Decision" and was brought up in a meeting as you said, they could just say that they changed your job description and now you have to support the partner's home computers.

If it becomes too much of an issue, it might just be time to move on. Unfortunately, when the owner of the company wants you to do something, there is no one above him/her to complain to, you're pretty much stuck.

Sorry, but I definately feel your pain.

I agree with some of DamiantheX's comments. You can get some perks. But I have to take issue with this statement:

Getting the opportunity to peek into the Execs' personal lives (which can give you more insight on how to approach that raise you've been wanting)

That's is wrong. If you don't like the job, get out. The job sector is not so bad anymore. If you get bonuses, perks (legal and ethical), etc. from doing this, fine. But don't fall into this trap of using it for personal gain in the way described here.

I work for a major corporation and I have to deal with the same issue. The first question I have to ask is do they work from home or bring work home to finish a task or project? If the answer is Yes (see No below) then as IT professionals must find a way to secure those business critical documents from prying eyes.

We now demand that the home user use the same firewall and virus software that we use for the supported PC?s at work. We also do some troubleshooting of hardware and software problems but that is level of effort only. I would also demand that you would only support prior and current OS only (example Windows XP & 2000). I would also only support standard business applications like Microsoft Office again using the current and prior methodology.

If the answer is no I don?t believe this would be ethical. But if senior management makes it part of your job I would want it in some sort of document. This would save you some grief and possibly change their minds when your working on a home problem and the server at work decides to crash. Obviously it would take you some time to get back to the office to fix the server problem.

I read with interest the quandry you are in and am wondering what your long term desires are? If you wish to always work for someone else with the whims corporations have around their IT shops, fine. But if you wish to eventually pull your own strings and get yourself to the place of commanding those 6 digit income levels, try and see this as a stepping stone to that place.

Basically using this situation to build up credentials as a one stop person can go far to give you the track record of what you can bring to a "consultant" position. Having done the end to end is a great thing when folks don't have the money to sustain an internal IT shop and want someone who can do it all for them - a GREATLY growing segment of the industry. With the advent of broad-band more folks are on the Internet.

But perhaps you don't want to get to the place of greater and greater self reliance, ... then the reply for you is yes, if you cash the check, they can have you scrubbing toilets if they wish!

Sorry there are not easier answers, ...

The best thing to do is to create a waiver stating you are not responsible for software and/or data loss while you work on the system and are not responsible for the computer as a whole and will only freely support the software/hardware elements that you are to work on, for a limited time, like 30 days or something. Have them sign it before you touch their home machines! Then after you finish the task(s) on their home systems, thoroughly explain what you have done and follow up with an email (or work order) that states what work you performed on the system. Just because they are senior mgt. doesn't mean they should get red carpet treatment. Treat it like they are a customer and you're an IT professional and not a PT monkey (which I'm sure you are not). This may seem risky, but try it and if it drives them mad, at least stick to the waiver. Good luck and Godspeed.

Pete B

Hey man, I've been doing things like that for almost three years now. I would convince them to take it off of your job salary and if your time permits, do it after work. The good thing about that is you can set your own price for the work you do. So if they call you after dark it's another $30-$50 in your pocket, and make yourself clear... "NO CALLS ON THE WEEKEND" Of course being 19yrs old I guess I can handle things like that. You probably have a family of your own and a myriad of things to take care of when you get home. What ever you decide good luck!!

That is exactly what you should tell them.

In the office I have a controlled environment with all sorts of security, standardized systems and policies to keep systems stable. Home computers have no such controls.

If they wish to spend the money at home as they spend in the office on security and such, than you can be the admin for their home computer. Yes, I deal with this with this issue myself. But the only way I will support the computer is if they bring it into the office, and I will not spend a lot of time on the machine. If I work on it for more that half an hour, and the issue is not resolved, I reinstall with the original image. I do order and setup all PC's for there homes, so I have the original image.

I believe that Leona Helmsley went to jail for similar shenanigans. Repair for home computers is a form of compensation -- its value should be declared as income to the recipient. I'd suggest that the value is on the same order as the hourly billing the attorneys charge.

Switch them to linux at home and the office. This will greatly reduce the support calls.

Face it, we LIKE working on PCs and solving problems. We all have this Superman complex that gets us all fuzzy inside whenever we fix or solve a user's dire problem. We are the modern day Supermen (and women).

What usually gets us into trouble is the fact that at some point we actually helped a user at work fix his home PC. Usually with no charge and sincere "glad I could help" falling from our lips.

Then comes the next one and the next and the next.

With me it began with close co-workers and then went to the Executives then next thing I new I was on the phone long distance back east with the VP's son in the College dorm!!!!

I made my own problem by being to dog gone helpful!

I fixed it by slowly getting dumber. If I couldn't fix it quickly I admitted defeat and said I couldn't fix it. As time went by and technology became more affordable, I even made more and more suggestions to by new PCs with "3 year warrantees". My "Superman" calls dropped dramatically.

Now, I'm back to close friends and family. And I tell them they are special and yes I'll work on THEIR friends PCs but it will cost $85 per hour, 1 hour minimum and I round up to the nearest hour. Haven't got a request yet...

Bottom line, specialize, start getting dumber on the home systems. Push the new technologies as a solution and be sure to mention the 3 year warrantee. You don't want to ruin the warrantee by opening their case do you? (wink)

Good luck.

I usually tell my staff that I'm happy to help do small fixes, installs or repairs on their stations. Understanding that a) they bring in the station and all the parts/software, b) they understand that my work comes first and if possible I'll look at the station while I'm loading software or updates, etc.

I've had really good luck with this. I've also had a chance to do some quick training, teach them how to run ad-aware for their home PCs, double checking to see if their AV sigs are updated, install pop-up blockers, etc.
I've helped them clean up their stations and teach them how to do backups, etc.

So, it can be a chance to empower the home user to be part of the solution and not the problem. Granted this is a little different than the initial question, but it might be something to consider.

If they want your support in home, you should aply the same policies and procedures you have in Job environment. So if they don't follow, you are not supporting those PC's. If they call you outside bussines hours, you can charge them for the service or simply not attend if you don't do that for the bussines too.

I completely understand the problem - in it myself but I look at it in a number of ways:

1. Help them out - give them a list of things that ***YOU*** want them to buy to do the job. Symantec Ghost for back ups, antivirus, etc. Recommend all the high priced stuff - eventually they look at what you require & the procedures - they become baffled so much that they want to go to someone else and you develop a professional elitism they can not comprehend. 8-)

2. Organize (on company time since they want this so) a "Bring your PC To Work Day" and sell the idea as a company benefit, especially if they are dumb enough to store company information on their home PCs - informational security in a law firm should be an easy sell. Throw in lessons, educate the users on the benefits of firewall, antivirus, scare tactics of the latest viruses out there, spyware, etc. etc. Just beat the dead horse to a pulp.

Who knows, it can come into play later for promotional opportunities or at the very least - end users that can be called upon to give references that are non-managment, customer based so they can sing the praises from a customer point of view.

Good luck...

Sean

Now here's something; start sueing everybody and start asking these Legal dudes to give YOU some freebees! See how they like it.

If they want you to fix computer at home, you can only fix computers that have legal software on it. So, if there is illegal software on the system, NO fix .... Or do they want to take on the responsibility (get it on paper from the Senior Manager!!) of being in violation when you install illegal software on a system?

I am not sure why they need their home systems; normally people that need to work at home also have a laptop from the company or they get a PC from work installed at home.

I would also recommend you to make common sense document you can hand over to the people (What to do when you have a virus? How to get rid of Adware?, VPN or dialup connection setup etc).

In my opinion support should only be restricted to the VPN or dialup connection to the workplace if they work with their home pc's. If however you work with Terminal Server, remember that for each PC that connects to your Terminal Server, you need a license (WTS CAL). Also if your Terminal Server has Office installed, your company needs an official version installed on the system that connects to it. (This will be quite expensive and will make then think again).

Last but not least:

If you allow Home systems to connect to your corporate network (through dialup or VPN), you need AbSOLUTE CONTROL over it. It is just not do-able if the system from Mr. X has a new virus and spreading it through your Corporate LAN, just because they didnt buy a virusscanner.

So that should mean: No software installs without you knowing, No illegal software (you cant install software that isnt legal: Check Microsoft for this as as far as I know you are the one that is at fault and you will be fined as you were being paid when you installed it.)

My word of advice: If they really want to work at home and be safe with it, get them a pc paid AND maintained through work. So no unwanted software installs and it will make your life a lot easier.

Good luck with this! I would try to explain, using every staff person's job duties, and how it relates to home work! I.E. Would they ask the staff accountant to do they're taxes every year, would they ask the staff secretary to file they're home papers or answer they're home phone, would they ask the janitor to come home and take they're garbage out, etc, etc?

One physician's PC was so corrupted with unlicensed junk and spyware, I ended up having to format the whole thing. Oh, and I made absolutely no attempt at recovering any data before doing so. "Sorry, too corrupted, nothing could be done".

Haileyan,

I say that any phone calls or "after hours" service calls for their home computers should be billed at a premium rate and that money should go into your pocket. If they refuse to do that, then tell them they all have to VPN into the corporate network and parlay your new responsibility into new skills that you can put on your resume to enhance your marketability. Any way that this pans out, be glad you have a job in the first place. Out here in SLC, UT it is very hard to find a professional IT department.

Unfortunately, you're in a tough position. I've been there as well. I believe honesty is the best policy. It may not keep you out of trouble but, it won't compromise your integrity. First, keep strict documentation on everything you do; whos' pc you worked on, where, what thier complaint was, what you found and what you did to correct the problem. Documentation will save you should the situation turn bad enough to jeopardize your job. Try to restrict your efforts to correcting the problem each person came to you about and nothing extra. Of course, sometimes you may need to do a little more than necessary to prevent some future problems (in the case of somone that knows enough to be dangerous and you're excessive amounts of time undoing his/her damage), and that's alright. The major time frame you must concentrate on is during normal business hours. I agree, when your employers find you're spending too much time resolving thier personal problems and the company problems are being neglected, they should (logically) set restrictions on using your expertise for thier personl needs. Always remember though, the pendulum can swing either way.

I have been there. I was a "salaried" employee and my boss would have me go fix friends' home computers - but only during slow periods at work. I was never asked to do so after business hours. The threat that they can force you to do that because you are salaried is exactly that - coercion, but hardly supported by labor laws.
I would suggest negotiating with them under these rules:
1. You will fix their home PC's, but only as it relates to business use of the PC.
2. You will only attend to home PC's during business hours, and only when there is nothing more critical happening at work.

Another option is to trade every fix-it session at their home for equivalent TIME in pro-bono legal work. Get a certificate from the partner you do the work for at the time of service. Don't let them try to get away with monetary equivalency.

Look at your job description. If it doesn't explicitly include the support of home PC's, point that out and tell them that, because it is not part of your job description, and because the PC's are not company property, you have no contractual obligation to perform any kind of service call - let alone under the auspices of a "salaried" employee.

The last thing is to check and see if you work in a "right-to-work" state. If not, what they are requiring is clearly beyond the contract and usually illegal - check the state's employment laws. If you are in a right-to-work state, you don't have this protection.

Definitely not a good feeling, but a familiar one.

Had to wire a ranch for ethernet used for a family shelter which was a charity for the company.

I still had the same target dates for my work related projects, but was told that since this was a charity supported by the company I had to do the work. (ie. work related).

I didn't get gas money and I didn't get kissed. The worst part of it was one of the guys working there decided he wanted a special setup with additional drops so he wouldn't have to buy an additional hub to hook up his additional PC that he like to bring in from home. Once it was wired and they brought their personal PC's in then it was "Why doesn't this work?" or "Why is this slow?"

You have my sympathy!

We have a 800 line just for "phone" support. If the nature of the ailment is "Business Related" connectivity, business related software...fine

But if it is to get there Kids off the IE line..hold your ground.

Changine environment.