Unit 2 Publications Spring 2009
April 2009
Unit 2
Communication. For most shifts that you will have at Café, you’ll likely have another consultant shifted with you in the facility (unless of course, you’re at an instructional facility). As tempted as you may be to just mind your own business and do your own thing, whether it is doing homework, checking emails, roaming, or filling printer trays, take some time to get to know your fellow consultant. At least get to his or her name (which shouldn’t be too hard, as it should already be on his or her nametag) and introduce yourself. Maybe you’d like to go a little further than that, and share your major, where you’re from, and what your passions are. However, be sure not to chat away too much—pay attention to the lab and attend to your work duties. Throughout your shift, make sure that you let your fellow consultant know what you are doing. For example, both of you may notice that the facility is low on some supplies and
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1st Edition
see that you need to file a in turn help you to manage the supply request. While it is great lab more smoothly. that both of you are alert, only one consultant needs to fill out supply requests, and not the two of you. Filling out two requests for the same item in the same facility might cause some confusion as to how much of the item the facility needs. There are quite a few things Communication is also that require your attention as crucial when you’re dealing with technical you watch over the facility. When issues that you are not you roam, don’t wander mindlessly, but check to see if there familiar with. For are any machines that aren’t instance, if a client asks working properly, if a client has about a certain feature on some food at his workstation, if Photoshop, and you don’t someone left their USB flash know what it is or how it works, don’t hesitate to ask drive plugged in or if someone is playing games. These things can the consultant shifted with be easy to miss sometimes, espeyou! Before you email the student staff, ask your fellow work- cially when whole rows are taken and the desks have books and mate; two heads are often better than one, and he or she paper (and the occasional coffee might know something that you cup) all over them. You do want don’t. Don’t be intimidated, and to enforce policy and pay attention to these things. There are a get few other small things in comaddition to roaming, fortcounts, and filling trays able that you should know with about. One of them is the worksounds that the printers ing make while they printwith they will sound different if anthere is a paper jam. Check other consultant. Effective communi- the staplers periodically to see if cation will accomplish this and they have enough staples in
Alertness and Attentiveness While on Shift.
them and be mindful of the noise level in the facility. Use all your senses, not just sight to run the lab. I’m pretty sure you have heard of the “five feet” rule; that is, if a client comes to within five feet of you, look up, smile, and be prepared to answer any questions that he may have. It is important to remember this, though sometimes it’s hard to implement, especially when you’re doing your homework. This isn’t much of a problem if you’re looking at the computer screen, since you’ll be able to see clients in the corner of your eye, but when you are looking down, your peripheral vision is cut off (try it and see what I’m talking about). Try not to look down, but if you must, be sure to look up every now and then and listen for the footsteps of a client who may be approaching you. Additionally, you may not only want to look up, but to look around to see if there are clients that may need help. Sometimes, they will not want to come up to you and ask for help, so you can be proactive and walk up to the client and ask him if he would like some help. I believe that good customer service is proactive, not passive, and that being proactive will help you to maintain better control over the facility.
Printing Issues. Our printers go through thousands of pages each day. So that means that sometimes you will run into trouble with these machines and will need to know how to deal with them. You should already have the basics down: changing the toner, filling the printer trays, and printing configuration pages. Next, you will want to know how to deal with some of the problems that you won’t see often and won’t be familiar with. One of them is when print jobs print one client’s jobs on one side of the page, and another client’s jobs on the other side of the same page. Don’t panic! just go to the printer and power cycle it. Power cycling just means turning the printer off, waiting for a few minutes, and turning it back on again. This will resolve most of the printing problems you run into. Be mindful of the lights on the printer—green means that everything is okay, orange means that the printer is fine, but you might need to stay on your toes, and red means that something is wrong with the printer—mostly likely a jam. For jams, go to the small screen on the printer to see which door you should open in order to remove the jammed paper. Try to be as resourceful as possible when handling printer issues,
and don’t forget to talk to the other consultants! If you run out of ideas, send an email to sstaff or file a tech report, if necessary.
Off-shift “Duties”. Picture the following scenario: you have just finished your last shift of the week, don’t have any weekend shifts and you are going home. You’re done with work until your next shift, right? Well, that is partly true. What you might forget is that there are a few things outside your shift, while not required, that you may want to do in order to be a more effective consultant. One of them is checking your emails. Since you most likely will not be shifted everyday, there will be days, perhaps even stretches of a few days when you won’t be working. During these times, however, it is important to check your café email inbox, to keep yourself updated on recent issues that may have come up. Emails are sent out often each day, so you don’t want to miss anything that might be important. Additionally, before you go to your shift, it is a good idea to check BOS to see who is working with you and who is taking the shift after you. Check also for subs that people post; you might find that there is a shift that a consultant cannot make due to time conflicts and which just happens to fit well into your schedule. The point is, be effective while on as well as off your shift.
HappyĂŠShifting!
W&MF Being on Time and Dealing With Clients Being on time to shift is perhaps one of the most important requirements of being a Café staff member. For opening shifts, being fifteen minutes early is a must to allow the supes ample time to run around campus and open all of the different labs. If you are late to your opening shift, the supe either has to wait for you to get there, which would result in the supe running late in opening the rest of the labs, or has to skip that lab and open all the other labs, then come back and wait for you to arrive. If the supe skips your lab and comes back later to open it when you finally arrive, then you end up having only a few minutes to get everything cleaned and ready for the clients. This is especially important when you are scheduled to open an instructional lab. Even if your shift is not an opening shift, it is still very important. Your fellow Café members are students just like you, and more likely than not they have class as
soon as their shift is over. If you are running late to your shift, then that Café member is going to be late to class. No one needs unnecessary stress in their life, and being on time to your shift can eliminate this stress for you and your fellow Café workers . When dealing with clients, it is very easy to let your current state of emotions overwhelm you and start treating the clients with little or no respect. Although you might be tempted to yell or scowl at a client when they come up to you and ask you to remove the print jam for the fifth time, the best thing to do is just smile and be compliant. Whether the approaching client is angry and aggressive or shy, the best course of action is to smile and be helpful. However, if the clients are directing their anger towards you or are being a nuisance, direct them towards the nearest supervisor.
What to do While on Shift
Perhaps one of the best places to be shifted is in the cage at Evans. While there, the only obligations are to check student ID’s and to manage the waitlist, which is pretty rarely used. So while stuck there, why not do some homework? I find the best type of homework to be something that is easily interruptible, so that I can still check every ID that clients flash as they walks by. For me this means something like math, where I can stop within each problem if I have to. I would advise against reading heavily, because then you may find yourself thoroughly engaged in your book while all the students simply walk by you into the lab. When working at WMF, I try to organize the desk so that the clients can use it better. Sometimes when I get there, the staplers are all over the paperclips and the Post-It notes, and everything is just a big mess. So, I try to put the staplers on one side and the paperclips and Post-It notes on another side. Also, I try to make enough space for the staplers to be used effectively, especially if clients need to use the electric stapler and the big 20+ paper stapler. Another thing I do sometimes is put little Post-It reminders on the equipment to ensure proper use. For example, I put notes on the electric stapler telling clients to push their papers in all the way in order for the stapler to work correctly . All of these little things help make the labs more convenient for out clients.
S U B 1. There are two types of subs you can post: Esubs and regular subs. Esubs, or emergency subs, are used when you definitely cannot make your shift due to illness or an obligation that you cannot miss, such as a class or an exam. Regular subs are for times when you would rather not work that shift because you need to study or finish your homework, or if you are just plain tired. 2. One quick way to find someone to take your sub is to get to know your coworkers and ask them directly, because the people who are not looking for more hours do not check BOS for available subs. If someone agrees to take it for you, you have the option of posting a reserved sub, which allows only that person to accept the sub. It is a good habit to help others with their shifts, because there will be many opportunities for that the favor to be returned. 3. If you are taking available shifts, double check that you are free during that time before you click "Take It" because once you take the shift, it is your responsibility to work during that time or find another consultant to assume the shift. 4. When you want extra hours or feel generous enough to help people with their shifts, you can look at available shifts on BOS. It is generally recommended that you consider taking the Esubs and regular subs shifted by other consultants first, before looking at the XX regular subs because those are not being shifted buy your coworkers. 5. In some instances when BOS is down or when the shift that is being subbed has already been taken, you will have to do a mansub. A mansub is basically a sub that is sent by email to the supervisors who review the sub and make sure the consultants on both ends are consistent in agreement.
HOW TO MANAGE A WAITLIST
First, be aware of the number of free computers at your computer lab. During the ten minute passing period after every hour, there is usually a rush of clients entering the labs and a half-full lab can fill up within minutes. Try to put up a waitlist when there are a few computers left, because you do not want to be surprised or unprepared to handle the sudden overflow of clients. It is easiest to start a waitlist before there is a buildup of clients waiting for a computer. Sign into waitlist on both the waitlist computer and the consultant computer. If the computer lab is full, remember to be firm about anyone who tries to forgo the waitlist, because there are clients who like to follow our directions and those who do not want to wait their turn. It is important to keep the waitlist on the top window on the consultant computer because it will alert you soon after a client has logged off. If you feel
that this waitlist page does not refresh fast enough, clicking the F5 button on the keyboard or the refresh button on the browser will update the waitlist status. Once a client’s name blinks on the waitlist, call out the name three times. You may have to walk outside the consultant desk because some clients choose to wait outside the door in facilities in LSMF and WMF. If you have a decent memory, it helps to remember faces and names, so if the client is not present, you can quickly move on to give the available computer to the next client.
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How to not find yourself waiting for shift to be over. When I first started working as a consultant, I admit that I was excited and eager to at least look like a competant worker, so I was always preoccupied with trying to make myself look busy. But after a couple of days of long hours, I quickly ran out of things to Google or read about online (to the point where I would actually Google “bored”...) So if you're finding yourself constantly checking the clock at the corner of the screen and wondering why your shift seems to be longer than usual, here are some things you can do to preoccupy yourself:
- Do some studying! Chances are, you’re a student and the most productive way for students to use their free time is to do some reading or homework. - Take personality tests (Myers Briggs, Big 5 Inventory, Colorquiz.com). If you Google these keywords, you will be sure to come up with plenty of free tests you can take with an extensive analysis of your results. My personal favorite is “colorquiz.com” because it’s short but accurate. - If schoolwork is too boring, you can read random articles using stumbleupon.com. This website takes you to random popular websites, articles, etc based on your interests. Be careful it can get addicting!
- Google “papercrafts” and learn how to create realistic paper models from things as simple as animals to intricate creations like castles or ships (examples can be seen on the shelves of the supervisor’s office at Wheeler). It’s a great way to use our free print credit as a consultant. Just don’t get too absorbed with it that you forget your duties to the lab and to your clients. - Hungry? Having friends over for dinner? Go to tastespotting.com and drool over hundreds of photos of foods and their recipes to cook a tasty new dish you’ve always wanted to try. All of these are some of the things I do to pass the time at work. But my best advice on using your spare time is to spend it doing something you
enjoy because time goes by a lot faster when you’re happy.
me
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.s..sossome dom e wisdom from my experiences on sh
How to not be late for work, and what to do if you are. Have an opening shift for VLSB at 7:45 in the morning but ended up waking up at 8:30? Believe it or not, it’s easier to be late for shift than you think (I can testify to that). All it takes is one night of staying up extra late and not being able to hear your alarm clock because you’re in a coma-like state. You can prevent being in this situation by being responsible and taking extra precautions: 1. Set more than one alarm (and more than one on your cell phone if that's what you rely on). Make sure that it's set on ringtone rather than vibrate if you are afraid you'll sleep through it. 2. Keep the alarm farther away from you rather than right next to your pillow or beside your bed. Making yourself walk to shut it off will help you get up, and most importantly- stay up. 3. Ask your roommate to help you and wake you if even after these extra steps you’re having trouble with getting up on time. 4. Make sure your alarm is fully charged and has enough batteries. In the case that you know you will be late: Look up the coworker you will be shifted with (and the coworker you are taking over for) and get their contact information from the cafe-staff directory. Call them and let them know that you will be a little late so that they know what will be up. It is always preferable to let them know about these things beforehand because they might have a class they will be late for if they don’t know where you are. 2. If you are short on time and aren’t able to contact your coworker or if you are single shifted, call your supervisor and let them know. But remember that it is always more professional to inform them ahead of time. 3. If you know you will be late for a long period of time, consider putting up a sub on BOS for the hour or so that you will be late.
If you are already running late: First thing, make sure you call your supervisor and let them know of your tardiness. (Their names are on the back of your name card). Then when you get to your shift, email your supervisor and include the the amount of time you were late and why. Finally put up a “time-edit” on BOS, making sure to make a (-) edit to subtract the amount of time you were late from the original time you were supposed to be there. (Don’t forget about transferring these changes to kronos!)
LOVE
the work the place the PEOPLE If you are not like me, one who would often run back and forth talking and joking around with other fellow consultants, then these few tips might be helpful. First and foremost, go around and greet all your fellow consultants right when you first arrive in the lab you’re working at, including those who are getting on shifts and those that are getting off. Also if you are a new hiree, don’t hesitate to be the first one to offer a greeting. Take the initiative. After all, you are the new person, so you know that you don’t know anyone and that they don’t know you. By being the first to offer a warm handshake and to introduce yourself, you can show other consultants that you want to
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friends. These kinds of simple gest u re s will leave a friendly impression of yourself to your fellow consultants. Next time, it will be much easier for you to approach them for questions and other helpful favors (i.e. whenever you are in a desperate need of a sub or whenever a client asked a question that you don’t know, etc.). The most important thing I want to emphasize is that you must be willing to talk to your fellow consultants. In some instances, this might mean talking about actual work related things, but in other circumstances, it might not. Talking at
work is how people get to know each other. If you're a naturally quiet type of person, consider digging up some things to talk about. If you want people to like you, or at least get to know you, you have to be willing to open up and talk to them. Do not let your shyness come off as unfriendiness =). Last but not least, SMILE when you’re having eye contact with that person.
How to Deal With ....
ANGRY CLIENTS!!! No matter how great your customer service is, you’re going to eventually have an angry customer on your hands. Whatever the reason is, you must handle the situation skillfully. How you handle it can make all the difference. Regardless of who is at fault, the first thing you must do is remain calm. Often times, a client is angry because he or she is not willing to cooperate with our facilities’ policies (i.e. no food, no game, etc). In most of this cases, try not to be rude to the client. Instead, just kindly remind them of our policies and explain to them what would happen if they don’t cooperate (possibly of getting kick out of our lab and/or getting their account block from all of your labs). If they still give you trouble, leave them alone while calling one of the supes that is on duty. REMEMBER, always keep your cool and NEVER to engage in an argument with the clients.
In cases where a client is angry because they are not satisfied with your services, stay calm and at the same time try to calm the clients down. If a customer is angry, they will be less likely to remain angry at you if you remain calm, polite, and positive. Say phrases such as “I’m sorry” or “I appreciate that you’re telling me how you feel”. Reassure your customer that you are there to help them, and that you will do all you can to help make things better for them. You can also ask the client if they can offer any suggestions of how you can provide a better service and/or direct them to our “comment box”. Lastly, if you believe there is a situation that you cannot handle on your own, make sure you get a manager or supervisor involved. Sometimes angry customers feel better if they believe someone “higher up” is helping them.
One of the best perks of working at Café is being able to do homework while on shift. This is a great privilege that should be respected and prized. Take care of it; if abused, this privilege can be revoked immediately. Café duties such as roaming and helping clients always come first, no matter how urgent your assignment is. While Café rules only prohibit homework during the probation period (usually the first three weeks of the semester) and when a waitlist is in effect, you should still use the privilege with discretion. I find that by doing certain types of homework in certain situations, I can be more efficient both as a student and as Café-staffer. There are
many tricks and all depend on the circumstances, but here are a few tips you should keep in mind when doing homework. In my experiences in the two semesters I have worked at Café, it is never a good idea to do homework that requires your full attention. This would include problem sets and essays, depending on the class. It will be very frustrating for both you and your clients if you need to be constantly interrupted while trying to solve a long math or physics problem. Instead, try to do simpler work, such as reviewing lecture notes or simple readings. This way, when a client needs help, you can easily transition back and forth from consulting to studying.
If you’re stuck in an empty lab with no clients and no homework, I’ve found a couple mildly productive things for you to do to pass the time. Online surveys from various websites such as http://www.valuedopinions.co m can earn you a couple extra dollars on the shift in the form of gift cards from your favorite retailer. Also, keeping up with current events can be interesting and rewarding, through reliable sources such as www.cnn.com or news.google.com. Sites like digg.com or popurls.com, which have links to other interesting articles or websites, are also great for passing time; be wary, though, of explicit or work-inappropriate material such as videos or offensive images. Remember, these past-times are, of course,
always second to your Café duties! Another great way to pass time is to get to know your fellow Café-staff! If you’re in a double shifted lab, turn around and say Hi to your co-worker. If you are singleshifted, you can always use Google-chat. Getting to know your coworkers can not only be fun, but also helpful when you can’t make your shift. For example, if something comes up during the week and you need a sub, it would be helpful if you were familiar with your fellow workers before asking them to take your shift. All of the aforementioned activities are useful in passing time, but always make sure you’re alert and ready to help clients on your Café shift !
S
(And How To Avoid Them) by David Kim
o you’ve passed the interview for this job and been through the initial orientation training sessions. You’ve got your snazzy little nametag with an even snazzier job title: “Consultant.” You are feeling pretty competent. So competent, in fact, that you didn’t even read the handbook (but we’ll keep this little secret to ourselves). You work for a few days and things seem to be going well… except maybe that one time when you panicked a little because you had to use a paper wait-list. But all in all, you think you’re doing a pretty darn good job. Until one day you see a fellow consultant with customer service skills that make you feel as if all you have been doing is customer disservice. This fellow consultant is an absolute angel. If you were a client and she were to tell you that you didn’t have any printing credit on your account, you would feel like you just received the nicest compliment you had ever received in your entire life. What is it about this fellow consultant that makes clients want to give her a cookie every time she helps them out? What does she have that you don’t? The answer, to be frank, is most likely her good looks. It is no secret that pretty women get off the hook for speeding tickets more often than your average-looking Joe. Now this is sad news indeed, and though there are some things about ourselves that we cannot change (aside from getting plastic surgery), there are many things about ourselves that we can change. This article will seek to bring to your attention some common unconscious mistakes consultants make when helping a client. My hope is that this article will help you become a better consultant and receive, if not a cookie, at least a genuine “thanks” for your service. So without further ado, some tips to avoid common unconscious customer service blunders…
#1 Don’t panic.
I find that often times when customers come to the front desk, my natural tendency, as an over-achieving Berkeley student, is to provide the customer with an answer to their problem as quickly as possible. Though this is a good desire, sometimes it can become consuming. I sometimes feel like I’m trying to solve a math problem before time runs out. This desire to find the solution to the problem causes me to worry because the answer is not immediately obvious to me. It is helpful at times to just take a deep breath and slow down. If all you’re trying to do is find the answer to the problem, you may be giving good problem service, but not good customer service. It is important to remember that the client is not a math problem, but a person.
#2 So close your mouth.
Often times, when a client approaches me with a problem, I catch myself listening to the client with a gaping mouth like a dumb deer caught in the headlights. This just looks unprofessional (and is not very flattering). So close your mouth and listen attentively to the client, nodding at times to let him know that you are comprehending his problem.
#3 Smile.
When you see a client approaching the staff area, give him a nice little smile. Smiling is infectious and can help calm down a frustrated client. And I don’t mean that you should slap on a huge plastic smile. People have a surprisingly acute sense of knowing whether someone is being genuine or fake, and if it seems fake, a smile can further aggravate a frustrated client. A nice and simple smile will do just fine.
#4 Communicate.
After a client tells you he’s having trouble with the printer or some program on his computer, don’t immediately jump out of your chair. Say something first. It can be as simple as, “Oh, I’ll fix that.” But let them know you heard what they said and you are doing something about it. Also, when you are fixing the problem, it is helpful to explain what you are doing while you are doing it so that the client will know how to tackle the problem next time around.
#5 Sit up straight.
After you have saved the world from paper jams and are back at your seat, working on your homework, don’t forget to sit up straight. Just because you are doing homework, doesn’t mean you are at home. Slouching while on shift makes you look lazy and unprofessional. If you keep these tips in mind, you will be sure to have increased the quality of your customer service at Café. And who knows, maybe one day some of these tips will even help you out of a speeding ticket.
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B
eing on time to shift is one of the most important tasks as a
!"#$%&'(#')**+$*$'(',-*.#*'/,*$'%-,#'*$'(00*/(#-1""23*4*56(',7*.$*-,8.#,-*($* arriving any time after the shift begins, even if it is just a few minutes” (WMF 20). This article goes into detail the importance of arriving to work on time and concludes with some suggestions to being punctual.
by Diane Suen unit 2
Cafe publications 2009
Importance of being On-time First of all, punctuality is a major factor to the ef�iciency of changing shifts. When the next consultant arrives on time, the previous consultant on duty is able to leave on time as needed. As a result, time is not lost wondering where the next person is or on telephoning that tardy person. Being on time also demonstrates the reliability of Café consultants; it re�lects well upon you and your work performance to always strive to be punctual if not slightly early. Not only that, it re�lects poorly upon the student workers of Workstation and Microcomputer Facilities to constantly be tardy.
Consequences
Not only does tardiness affect computer lab performance, it also affects fellow consultants. If a consultant is late to shift, the previously shifted consultant is typically forced to stay over time and thus is late to class or other obligations. This in turn is a great inconvenience to the consultant who is forced to stay. If the same situation occurred in a double shifted lab, one person may be forced to maintain a waitlist, help another client with a question, or deal with multiple printer jams all by themselves! Constant tardiness also results in a drastic drop in your job performance as well as the possibility of getting �ired . Not only that, it shows your irresponsibility as well as apathetic attitude towards your role as a consultant. Overall, being tardy is highly frowned upon, and multiple tardies can seriously affect your relationship with other consultantsas well as your job performance.
Suggestions
1. Set all your clocks �ive minutes ahead so you will always be �ive minutes early (or still have those extra minutes leeway if running late according to your adjusted time). Personally, I �ind that this works best for me because I often forget that my watch is a bit earlier than normal and actually panic when my watch tells me that I am running late. 2. Get shifted with a fellow consultant who is always punctual and be sure to travel with him/her. 3. Walk faster, run down the hills, and learn shortcuts. I suggest buying a pair of running shoes as well. ^_^ you can also treat traveling to work as a light workout by sprinting there. While this may seem to work, it is a bit awkward to arrive at work sweaty and out of breath… 4. Hang out in the lab before your shift actually starts. 5. Block out the half hour after class on BOA so you can make it to work on time. Also, opening shifts actually begin �ifteen minutes before the times listed so be sure to accommodate for that. 6. Set an alarm clock ten to �ifteen minutes before your shift to remind yourself it's time to go.
Conclusion
As a consultant who used to barely make it to shift on time, I have had several terrifying experiences of being tardy and therefore devised a plan to never be late again. As a reward for reading this far, I am pleased to present you with my rarely failed strategies.
Inside CAFE: Helpful facts! COMMON SITUATIONS: Question: “How do I print, and how do I print single sided?” Easy, the client needs
to have a printing account with us, and often times they may ask if it’s the same one they have fromthe library (print card), and if they live at the dorms, they will ask if it is the same one they have at rescomp. Both answers are no. The print cards are different and the rescomp account will not work in our labs either. They need to set up a separate printing account with us in order to use the microcomputing facilities on campus (i.e. evans, moffitt, vlsb, etc.) to print. Tell them to click on the “Add Paper Here”, icon on the desktop and follow the instructions on how to set up an account. Be sure to tell them that they will get a 3 dollar buffer for misprints or anything that goes wrong with their print jobs because that happens every so often. In short, they pay $12.00, which goes to their CARS account, but they will receive $15.00 worth of print credit in total. Furthermore, clients often come up wondering why their print job has not gone through. First, ask whether they have a printing account with us and if they do, check on pharos and check their print credit balance. Also make sure that the file is not more than 20 pages because that’s the maximum amount they can print at one time. Thirdly, find out where they are printing their documents from and let them know that it usually takes longer to print documents from bspace. Lastly, when there are problems printing from Adobe Acrobat, click on the “print as image” option, it will usually solve problems of not printing out the image, etc. Sometimes clients may not be able to print directly from the browser if it’s a downloaded document, and may need to save files on to the desktop in order to print, especially with the Macs
BORED? NOTHING To Do?
For one, you can always do homework! But when doing homework, be sure that you are still aware of your surroundings, so that when a client walks up to the desk, you will be ready to greet them. I have found that reading lecture notes online helps because your head is not completely down, and your peripheral vision helps you notice clients walking up towards you sooner. However, if you are reading a book or a reader, make sure to not completely put your head down because you will not be able to see anyone walking up to you, and you may seem less approachable because clients might hesitate to ask for help as they don’t want to bother you. Also, another way to keep busy is going online and reading the news! If you really don’t want to do homework, or you have no homework or studying to do, it’s a good way to be updated about the world and what’s going on in different parts of the country. The Internet is so efficient now that the New York Times, BBC, and CNN have updated news 24/7! If you think reading the news is too boring, there are websites for making little origami characters online. If you look around the different facilities, you will see characters made of paper hanging from the walls or just sitting on top of the desks. These were made from consultants like you! So if you are ever at the moffitt lab, look for several paper dolls sitting on top of the consultant desks. Making paper models is a good way to pass the time, and you can give them to your fellow co workers too!
MAINTAIN COMPOSURE! Even though the lab may be hectic, always try to remain calm. When clients begin to get angry, do not make the situation worse by snapping back at them; always maintain composure. When you talk to them, listen to their situation first, then try your best to calmly solve it Note: sometimes, there are just some things that you cannot do or answer so send out a staff email or ask your coworker/senior. There was one time during finals week, I was working at Moffitt and a client was working on his essay and did not save his document in my documents, and all of a sudden the computer turned off. A person sitting next to him had kicked the plug out. We tried to retrieve it, but it turned out he had saved it somewhere else and not in the folder, so we could not do anything about it. In situations like these, always do your best to help and ask if there is anything else you can do for them. When there is a waitlist and there are other problems going on in the lab, designate a job to each of the consultants. Your co worker is there to help you, and by splitting up the work, the shift will go by smoother. =) Be sure to give the best service possible! Note: when there is a waitlist, do not do homework because it will not work, you cannot man a waitlist while trying to concentrate on studying.You’re also not allowed to do that anyway, so don’t try! Always be on top of your job duties while on shift, especially the waitlist. The waitlist has glitches and sometimes it may say that some computers are open when they are not, so be sure to take note and manually turn off these computers from the waitlist because you do not want to keep directing clients to computers that are still in use.
MEET NEW PEOPLE! When you work with someone you don’t know, sometimes it can get awkward because you are sitting so close to each other- but it’s not a problem! Just introduce yourself, especially right after new hires start working and they do not look familiar to you.It’s okay to ask if they are a new hire because chances are they might be, and you want to make them feel welcome! So throughout the shift, you can give them tips on how to answer client questions and they can learn new things that were not taught during training! Besides just talking to them about work, you can get to know them on a more per- sonal level because I remember when I just started to work, it made me feel much more comfortable when I was able to talk my coworkers about things other than work. I’ve made really good friends during my shifts! Furthermore, always try to share your knowledge and help your fellow consultants out when they do not know how to answer a client’s question. Working together is always better than trying to deal with things on your own, especially if one of you is new. Also, while on shift, try to not completely ignore your coworker because it can put you in a bad mood, at least for me it does (why?). You want to be nice and welcoming to your coworker so that they can become your friends. It is important to create friendships because when you are desperately in need of someone to take your sub, you know who to go to! They will be more willing and likely to take your sub!
BY IAN MCRAE 1. After a barrage of early morning classes or a late night filled with “studying,” it sometimes may be hard to stay awake and be alert on the job. Here are a few different ways that you can keep yourself occupied during the lulls of your shift.
One, you can always converse with your friendly co-worker and get to know them. This is a great way to pass the time. Also, you will see these people every week and spend hours upon hours with them, so it is important to establish a good relationship. Also, these strong bonds are good for when you need help getting out of a tight spot; such as a work shift time conflict with your favorite Organic Chemistry Lab. You can come to rely on these people to help you out and make friends along the way. Two, as much as you may dread doing it, this time is a great opportunity to get your homework done. It may not be the most exciting option, but it will definitely occupy your mind and keep you on task. Even though it is still your number one responsibility to be available for questions and to help with any computer or printer mishaps, you can spend your time being however productive you want. Third, the best option out there….DOODLE! Draw a friend, draw your neighbor, poke fun at your professor. It is all in good fun. It challenges you to think of the most creative way to portray an image, amusing or abstract. There are loads of unclaimed printouts, many of which are blank on one side. Instead of letting them become buried in the pile of print out mishaps, seize the opportunity and turn it into a work of art.
2.
Five Most Asked Questions:
1.)
How do you buy pages for printing? Answer: Clients can purchase additional pages for printing purposes by clicking on the icon found on the desktop labeled “Add Paper Here,” and then follow the instructions. Be sure to tell them that they will be charged $12, but they will receive an additional $3 buffer to compensate for any mistakes or electrical errors (finicky printers). Clients will be charged 6 cents for single sided printing and 9 cents for double sided.
2.)
Do you have a color printer? Answer: Color printers can be found both at Valley Life Sciences and Moffitt micro-computing facilities, and to print in color is 60 cents a page.
3.)
Where are there scanners that I can use? Answer: Scanners are available on PC platforms at Wheeler, Moffitt and Valley Life Sciences microcomputing facilities, scanners are also available on Mac platforms in LSMF and MMF.
IV)
What is your phone number? Answer: That is your call, but understand that if things go awry, you are going to see this person in the facility for the remainder of your college career. Its OK to be picky.
V)
How do I find a lost item? Answer: First, determine the value of the lost item because it may be found in the box. If it is a thumb drive or an item of a $40 value or more, check the café-staff site to see if their “lost” item has been logged. If it is not logged you can then check the lost and found to see if you have it anyways (funny how things work like that). If you are still unable to locate their item and it is of more than a $40 value, then refer them to the Police Department because that is where valuable items are ultimately taken to.
3. When you are running a little behind schedule and you need to get to work fast, here are a few of the quickest routes to IST’s favorite Microcomputing Facilities (Evans, Etcheverry, and Wheeler).
Evans: Evans is the cheerful and exuberantly designed building located at the corner of Memorial Glade and Le Conte. Even though there is access to the main level on both the East and West side, the most direct stairwell to the Microcomputing Facility is located on the West entrance. There are two entrances on that side, but in order to access the stairwell that feeds directly to the computing facility you should take the right-most door, not the larger entrance that leads directly to the vending machines. If you choose to enter the left door, you must walk into the depths of the building and use the stairwell near the elevators. Wheeler: The cool thing about Wheeler is that there is a door at every corner and a stairwell to match. So should you be running late and coming from the farthest corner of campus, you do not need to go to Wheeler’s main grand front entrance on the south side in order to access the building. Just remember that the computing facility is on the northern side of the building and you can always yell up to the open windows that you are running a few minutes behind……or not. Etcheverry: Unless you are an engineering student, you probably have never been to Etcheverry nor had any class in that general vicinity in your entire time at Cal. Etcheverry is located on the Northside of campus, but the tricky part is that it is not even on the campus, but across the street from Sutardja Dai Hall (didn’t know that existed). It is above Euclid and below LeBoy Ave. Once you find the building, finding the computing facility is an equal challenge. Like Evans, it is also located in the basement. Once you leave the stair well, go 198 ½ paces and turn left at the door. Which one? It should be obvious. If not, yell loudly.
Tips on how to avoid the last minute “I need to print” and “I’m not logging off yet” clients Let’s face it—being shifted during a closing shift is often not very glamorous, unless of course, you have a knack for cleaning or enjoy being in the spotlight whenever you are making a closing announcement. Many of us know that having to close can be a pain. Aside from the obvious duties of a closing shift, one of the most difficult informal tasks is getting clients to leave on time. But fret no more! This article is dedicated to helping you achieve that goal. Henceforth, this article will be devoted to revealing the secrets to getting clients out on time. From my experience, the best preventive method is to make sure you are turning off the printers on time and are making your announcements loud and clear. In my 2 years at café, I have noticed that the less frequent you make your closing announcements the more likely clients will end up staying after you close. Picture yourself being on shift. There are about 15 clients still in the lab and it is an hour before closing. Alas, it is time to make an announcement. You begin by first making sure that you are speaking loudly and clearly. Seeing that a good amount of people has turned their heads or at least perked up to give attention to your unexpected announcement, you need to ensure that you announce the time the printers turn off and lab closes. Now that the initial announcement is made, you may resume to what you were doing. Consistency is KEY at point. Here are the steps you should be considering: 1. Make your closing announcements at they need to log into their bspace, their the hour. email, or find the page they need to print. This process takes about 1.5 min2. For the first 30 minutes, make an utes. Then they have to verify that that’s announcement every 15 min. I suggest the job they want to print and they first not making more than two announce- proof read, open several documents, ments if you want clients to listen to click print, and mess with the properthem. ties. This takes about 0.75-2 minutes. By the time they are ready to print their 3. As closing time draws near (30 min. second or third print job, it will already before you close), it is vital that be time to turn off the printer! Oh no! announcements are made more frequently. I like to begin my third announcement on the 40 minute mark past the hour—this ensures that clients know they only have 10 minutes left to print. 4. Around the 45 minute mark, it is critical that you make an announcement no later than at the 5 minute left mark. When I make an announcement at this point, I make sure to be brief by only announcing the time the printer turns off and not closing time: e.g. “Just wanted to let you know that the printers will be turned off in 5 minutes, so if you have anything to print, I suggest you do it NOW. Otherwise your print jobs will not get printed because the printers WILL get turned off.” The reason you want to announce this around the 5 minute mark is because it usually takes them a while to realize that
5. 2 minutes have passed by, if you are in a lab with more than 5 people and you haven’t heard the printer whirl insanely, that could be a sign of trouble. It could be possible that they just don’t have anything they need to print but it might also mean that they are not heeding your announcement. Regardless, you should prepare yourself or your coworker and make a three minute announcement to let them know that if they don’t print their print jobs, you will turn the printers off and their print
jobs won’t get printed. [Alternate situation: if 2 minutes have passed and you have less than 5 clients, and you don’t hear the printer whirl, I suggest that you ask them in a personal tone whether any of them have any print jobs they need to send in. This way, you won’t be turning off the printers unexpectedly on those few people, even if they were or weren’t listening] 6. Finally, it is time to turn off the printers. If there is still a print job printing out, you should let it finish printing and then turn the printer off. Afterwards, kindly make an announcement that all the printers have been turned off. By making the announcement after you turned printers off, you can prevent those “oh waittt!” clients. 7. For closing announcements, follow steps 3-4 and change the context from printing to closing. And Voila! You will find that by bombarding clients with courteous announcements they will be more likely to leave on time. This set of rules works perfect even during drop –in hours at instructional labs! Now you may make the most out of the 15 extra minutes you have saved by being efficient with your announcements!
Troubleshooting: When a tech report is unnecessary It’s always exciting when a client comes up to you to inform you that something’s not working quite right. After a relaxing shift, there’s nothing quite the same as having to get up from your seat to show a client your expertise. If you follow this guide, you will find most problems can be fixed without the need of having to file tech reports. This article will reveal the mysteries behind troubleshooting. The first thing you should try when equipment fails to work is unplugging and replugging the item. This method works well with keyboards, headphones, mouse, etc. If the problem persists you should repeat the first step a few times. If that still doesn’t solve the problem, try plugging the item into another computer and see whether it functions or not. By doing this, you can isolate the problem and figure out whether it is the equipment that is faulty or if it is the computer. Should you find that the problem is with the computer reboot it. Usually you’ll find that a good reboot will be the solution to your problems. If you find that there is a problem with the computer or with monitor (i.e. they’re not turning on, displays are not how all of showing up, etc), the first thing you should do is check our equipment is for any loose cords. I usually like to push all of the plugged in and which related cords in and tighten them, even when cords are residing where. they’re not completely loose. Also be sure to For printers that aren’t receivcheck the power cords and the power ing jobs and clients that can’t log onto our strips whenever the item in question computers, you should always check the Etheris not lighting up or turning on. net cord. An Ethernet cord looks similar to the phone You may even find that the cords that plug into the phone jack of your wall, except that cords are completely it is slightly wider. By checking that the light is on where unplugged. At those the cord is plugged in, you can figure out whether it is in fact times, it is your loose. When these cords come loose, it usually prevents the duty to ensure user’s computer or the printer from being able to contact the that you are servers and therefore renders the machine useless. If none of familiar these appear to be the problem, you most likely need to file a with tech report. As you can see, there are many ways to avoid having to make a tech report. It’s as simple as unplugging and plugging in an item, checking for loose cords, or restarting the machine. Until you have done the basics, you should not consider tech reporting the problem. However, if you have done all of the above and find that the problem is still unresolved, it is generally beyond your own power to fix the issue, and filing a tech report will be necessary. With this advice, I hope you will be writing less tech reports than you would have before you read this article.
Unit Publication
Fun things to do on-shift when you don’t have any work to do/not too busy There are a lot of things that you can do to make your working experience more fun. When you have schoolwork to do, that would be the best way to spend your time at work; that is if the lab is not too busy. However, there are those times when you have nothing to do (i.e. after the first wave of midterms) or the lab is unusually quiet (i.e. at Evans). During these times that do not come too often, what can you do? One thing you can do is to make your nametag more appealing/attractive. Most people have the default nametags that were given to us by Cafe; however, making a new and more vibrant nametag can lighten your working experience and the whole lab environment. If you have more time, you can make some for your coworkers! Other things you can do are to work on some lab signs. There are many lab signs that are plain/boring. For example, the printer signs in Evans are just black font on white paper. How boring is that? Make use of your printing credit and the webpro classes you have been taking! Make the lab a more vibrant and consultantfriendly place to work! It will surely lighten your mood and your coworkers’ moods!
How to get to know your co-workers One of the things that Cafe is missing is the connection between coworkers. Although sometimes you do have to interact with your coworker in one way or another, most of the time, you really don’t have to talk to your coworker. You guys can just split the tasks (i.e. take turns roaming, split up the cleaning duty, etc) and go through the entire shift without talking. It’s just how it is. If you’re a social noob and are scared to talk to your coworker, you can just stay to yourself. Now, everyone knows that if you get to know your coworker and work together, your working experience can be 100x more fun. So how do we get to know our coworkers? It’s simple. Just talk to them. Initiate a conversation. In Wheeler for example, your coworker is sitting just a foot away! Just turn around and start by asking what his/her name is. Then move onto more serious topics like, what’s each other’s favorite lab is. Now, in labs like WMF and LSMF, this is way too easy. However, we have labs like ChMF, EvMF, where sadly, you are single-shifted. Well that’s too bad, there’s nothing I could advise you there. The best thing is to randomly g-chat with some of your coworkers and hope that they don’t think you’re a creep. EMF is also a pretty anti-social lab. The two consultants have a physical barrier, and therefore cannot talk to each other. The only time you get to talk to each other is an occasional “I’m gonna go to the restroom real fast.” Either way, just make the initiative to talk.
Unit Publication
How How to to deal deal with with aa client client who who repeatedly repeatedly breaks breaks the the rules rules
Threaten Threatenthem. them.Just Justkidding. kidding.Once Onceininaawhile, while,you youget getthose thoseclients clientswho whowill willnot notlisten listen to toyou. you.“Excuse “Excuseme, me,there’s there’sno noeating eatingininthis thislab” lab”The Theclient clientputs putsthe thefood foodaway. away.Fifteen Fifteen minutes minuteslater: later:“Uh, “Uh,there’s there’sno noeating eatingininthis thislab, lab,this thisisisthe thesecond secondwarning.” warning.”Third Thirdtime time around, around,you’re you’refurious. furious.What Whatdo doyou youdo dowith withthis thisperson? person?One, One,you youcan cankick kickhim/her him/her out. out.Two, Two,you youcan canjust justcome comeback backevery everyfifteen fifteenminutes minutesand andtell tellhim/her him/herto toput putthe the food foodaway. away.Three, Three,you youcan canthreaten threatenthem, them,ininaanice niceway. way.You Youcan cansay, say,“If “Ifyou youdon’t don’t comply complywith withlab labrules, rules,we wecan cancall callthe thesupe/call supe/callUCPD UCPDand andthey theycould coulddeal dealwith withyou.” you.” You Youcould couldalso alsotell tellthem, them,“If “Ifyou youdon’t don’tcomply complywith withlab labrules, rules,we’ll we’llhave haveto toask askyou youto to leave.” leave.”Hopefully Hopefullyby bythen, then,the theperson personwill willput puttheir theirfood foodaway, away,or oreven evenbetter, better,just just leave leave(jk). (jk).The Theworst worstthing thingthat thatcould couldhappen happenisisthe theclient clientthrowing throwingaatantrum. tantrum.Then, Then,II don’t don’tknow, know,IInever neverhad hadto todeal dealwith withsuch suchsituation. situation.You Youshould shouldprobably probablyimmediately immediately call callthe thesupe. supe.
Unit Publication
Fun things to do on-shift when you don’t have any work to do/not too busy There are a lot of things that you can do to make your working experience more fun. When you have schoolwork to do, that would be the best way to spend your time at work; that is if the lab is not too busy. However, there are those times when you have nothing to do (i.e. after the first wave of midterms) or the lab is unusually quiet (i.e. at Evans). During these times that do not come too often, what can you do? One thing you can do is to make your nametag more appealing/attractive. Most people have the default nametags that were given to us by Cafe; however, making a new and more vibrant nametag can lighten your working experience and the whole lab environment. If you have more time, you can make some for your coworkers! Other things you can do are to work on some lab signs. There are many lab signs that are plain/boring. For example, the printer signs in Evans are just black font on white paper. How boring is that? Make use of your printing credit and the webpro classes you have been taking! Make the lab a more vibrant and consultantfriendly place to work! It will surely lighten your mood and your coworkers’ moods!
How to get to know your co-workers One of the things that Cafe is missing is the connection between coworkers. Although sometimes you do have to interact with your coworker in one way or another, most of the time, you really don’t have to talk to your coworker. You guys can just split the tasks (i.e. take turns roaming, split up the cleaning duty, etc) and go through the entire shift without talking. It’s just how it is. If you’re a social noob and are scared to talk to your coworker, you can just stay to yourself. Now, everyone knows that if you get to know your coworker and work together, your working experience can be 100x more fun. So how do we get to know our coworkers? It’s simple. Just talk to them. Initiate a conversation. In Wheeler for example, your coworker is sitting just a foot away! Just turn around and start by asking what his/her name is. Then move onto more serious topics like, what’s each other’s favorite lab is. Now, in labs like WMF and LSMF, this is way too easy. However, we have labs like ChMF, EvMF, where sadly, you are single-shifted. Well that’s too bad, there’s nothing I could advise you there. The best thing is to randomly g-chat with some of your coworkers and hope that they don’t think you’re a creep. EMF is also a pretty anti-social lab. The two consultants have a physical barrier, and therefore cannot talk to each other. The only time you get to talk to each other is an occasional “I’m gonna go to the restroom real fast.” Either way, just make the initiative to talk.
Unit Publication
How How to to deal deal with with aa client client who who repeatedly repeatedly breaks breaks the the rules rules
Threaten Threatenthem. them.Just Justkidding. kidding.Once Onceininaawhile, while,you youget getthose thoseclients clientswho whowill willnot notlisten listen to toyou. you.“Excuse “Excuseme, me,there’s there’sno noeating eatingininthis thislab” lab”The Theclient clientputs putsthe thefood foodaway. away.Fifteen Fifteen minutes minuteslater: later:“Uh, “Uh,there’s there’sno noeating eatingininthis thislab, lab,this thisisisthe thesecond secondwarning.” warning.”Third Thirdtime time around, around,you’re you’refurious. furious.What Whatdo doyou youdo dowith withthis thisperson? person?One, One,you youcan cankick kickhim/her him/her out. out.Two, Two,you youcan canjust justcome comeback backevery everyfifteen fifteenminutes minutesand andtell tellhim/her him/herto toput putthe the food foodaway. away.Three, Three,you youcan canthreaten threatenthem, them,ininaanice niceway. way.You Youcan cansay, say,“If “Ifyou youdon’t don’t comply complywith withlab labrules, rules,we wecan cancall callthe thesupe/call supe/callUCPD UCPDand andthey theycould coulddeal dealwith withyou.” you.” You Youcould couldalso alsotell tellthem, them,“If “Ifyou youdon’t don’tcomply complywith withlab labrules, rules,we’ll we’llhave haveto toask askyou youto to leave.” leave.”Hopefully Hopefullyby bythen, then,the theperson personwill willput puttheir theirfood foodaway, away,or oreven evenbetter, better,just just leave leave(jk). (jk).The Theworst worstthing thingthat thatcould couldhappen happenisisthe theclient clientthrowing throwingaatantrum. tantrum.Then, Then,II don’t don’tknow, know,IInever neverhad hadto todeal dealwith withsuch suchsituation. situation.You Youshould shouldprobably probablyimmediately immediately call callthe thesupe. supe.
Cafe Unit Publication!!! Jenkin Hui
Check list to printing problems After working for a semester, I believe that I have found the biggest question for us working in cafe (Maybe all of you realized it already). Clients of all ages, sizes and ethnicities come to us mostly for one reason – printing. How do you print? How much want my money back! I can guarantee that all of these questions will be asked during your cafe career and here is a guideline that will help! (Hopefully...) 1. Make sure the client has credit in his/her printing account – Macs and some of the PCs do not inform the client when he/she ran out of money (as of December 2008). Use Pharos or have him/her log into the add paper website to check. Remember that some clients no longer use CalID but their new friendly IDs for their accounts. 2. Inspect what the client is printing – We all should already know that Macs have an on-going problem with printing PDFs. Politely ask the client to switch to a PC and try again. Also remember to check if they are printing 20+ pages, which exceed the number of pages they can print at once. Sometime there are people who want blank sheets of paper and decide to print out a document with nothing typed. This does not work! 3. Observe how the client is printing – The client might have chosen the wrong printer or have chosen some weird settings while printing. If this is, show them how it’s done! 4. Check the hardware – if all else fails, make sure the printer is on, is not empty, is not jammed, and is functioning normally. Also check that both the printer and computer are connected correctly. Remember to send in a tech report if there is a problem 5. Chris' Business Card – When facing hard to handle client who wants their money back, politely give them Chris' Business Card and ask them to contact him about paper problem. Contact the supes as soon as possible if problem with the client escalates. I hope by follow this, all of the printing problem will be solved as easy as counting 1 2 3 4 5. Happy printing!
Why should you attend Webpro Webpro is only one of the many cool things that distinguish Cafe from other places you might have worked in. It is basically us consultant running classes for other consultants base onour own interest. . With topics ranging from Excel to Photoshop, subtitling videos to Thanksgiving Black Friday sale, Webpro covers many aspects of our interests. Going to Webpro is nothing like going to a normal class! When you are there you meet familiar faces of co-workers, whom you might never have the chance to talk to. Not only will they accompany you through the class, some of them might even be teaching the class to you. In the class you will get interested in Photoshop but never had the chance to use it, Webpro can give you a brief introduction and stir up more interest. If you are falling behind in Statistic because everyone else uses computer to solve their problem when you don't know how, Webpro in Excel might save your precious grade. There is nothing better than learning about things you are interested in, especially when you get paid for it. Going to Webpro classes also count as hours for work which allows you the opportunity to be the instructor. If you have a topic you are interested in teaching Webpro on, just let your FC and Supe know. If they approve then you will have your very own Webpro! Webpro allows us to bond with our co-worker, learn topics we are interested in, use the knowledge to solve client’s questions, get paid, get experience, and best of all, HAVE FUN! Go attend a Webpro now!
Cheap, Quick Bites Before (After) Work Inexpensive for your budget Fast for you to get to work in time Morning $1 day-old pastry Zali Cafe (Stanley Hall) Be sure to try dry apricot scone eventhough its $1.95 $1.95 or less fresh pastries Pane e Cioccolata (North Side) close~
Afternoon Remember to go around 2 or later if you want it to be quick ~$4 Sandwiches Cheap, Big, Lots of Variety $1.85 for 6 Falafels Sunrise Deli (South Side, Bancroft) Cal’s Best Falafels~~~ $2.25 Soup, $0.75 Demi Roll Really really good soup~
Night $1 Tacos from 4pm to 8pm Taco Truck (South Side) Lengua is the best $1 FRESH donut at around 10 King Pin (South Side) Freshly made donut!!!!!!!! $2.75 Frozen Yogurt Yogurt Park The best thing to end the day with
EMF: HOME OF DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Evans Microcomputing Facility is one of the main General Access Labs of Unit 2 and the facility with the longest history. It is also the experimental lab of several of CAFE’s new changes. It’s the place to be! It is located in B3 in the basement of the Evans building. Operating hours are from 9am-7pm. Clients entering the facility can come in through the staircase leading outside the building or the staircase that leads to the first floor. EMF houses the Calculus Microcomputing Facility (CMF), an instructional facility. Consultants working in EMF are also responsible for the maintenance of CMF. There has been important changes to Evans since Spring 2009. The majority of machines in Evans are virtual machines. That’s right, Evans runs the very same OS that the SLC computers used to. They run off a server located nearby. Unlike other General Access Labs, EMF does not have an ADA station or a scanner station. Rows J and K are reserved for laptop use.
Another unique feature of Evans is that it contains the GROUP COLLABORATIVE SPACE. It is a place for cool Cal students to work on projects or presentations! There are several opening/closing procedures good little consultants need to be aware of. Cleaning is, well, self-explanatory. Like LSMF, EMF requires the activation and deactivation of the Radioshack Alarm for opening and closing, respectively. In addition, since EMF is the only lab on campus with virtual machines, consultants with opening/closing shifts are expected to log in/out of these machines. These computers need to be logged in using the staff password before clients can use them. The most unique thing about EMF is “THE CAGE�. The cage serves several functions. It stores the cleaning supplies, printing supplies, keys, stationery, and the lost and found for the facility. The cage must be occupied at all times, OR ELSE! This is just a brief little introduction about EMF. It is a good learning experience to be shifted in EMF as it is one of the more complex labs to run.
Food
on the Job Spring 2009
2
Subs
When someone takes your sub, they’re doing you a favor. With that in mind, it’s always a nice gesture to leave them a little something if you’re leaving early, or bring them a small piece of candy the next time you see them. Granted, if you tend to sub out a lot of your shifts, this isn’t exactly feasible, but once in a while it is always greatly appreciated. Plus, once people start catching on that they’ll get a small yum yum if they help you out, they’ll be more likely to help you with a last minute sub in the future.
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the Yu n o n w do
MICHELLE YEH
No Food in the Labs As a general rule, no food allowed in the facilities. This goes for clients and consultants alike. While on shift, consultants must never have food even near them in case of accidents. Above all, if a client sees that someone at the front desk is consuming food, it gives them the wrong impression that it is alright. Also, you don’t want to be a hypocrite when you tell someone they can’t have food and you’ve got a bag of Cheetos next to your computer, or worse, in your mouth. When roaming, look for food or drinks left out in the open. If you see one, politely let the client know that we don’t allow food or drinks in the facility. They can either finish it outside, place it in a designated safe-place. In WMF, they have the option of leaving it on a designated small tan cabinet next to the lost and found box behind the consultants’ desk. At EMF, they can leave it on the counter of the cage, or finish it in the foyer between the cage and the front doors.
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Candy for Everyone! It’s always exciting when everyone gets an email saying Food with that a consultant or staff member Seniors has left candy somewhere for everyone to grab. The luckiest people are the ones who are already on the scene...they I’m not saying this never get first dibs on the good candy! Candy happens, but it’s rare. For some reason, this is puts everyone in a good mood, especially really hard to arrange, on rainy days or tough weeks like IUT despite the promise of testing or finals season. Of course there’s awkward fun. Regardless, always the option of putting a little more this group activity is a love into it. You could bake for everygreat opportunity to ask one in your unit, for example! If seniors any questions in a relaxed setting, which you want to be the star favorite also makes the senior for a few weeks, that’s one more visible and personway to do it.
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When Hungry...
It happens to everybody. The minutes drag on for days as you hear your stomach grumble and try to ignore the fact that you’re getting hungrier by the second. Your shift doesn’t end for an hour and you’re about to die. And working in the EMF cage is the worst: you’re surrounded by pictures of scrumptious, mouth-watering food. You can’t help going online and looking at pictures of food. What can you do to curb the hunger? The obvious answer is to keep yourself busy. Thinking about other things is a temporary fix to this dire problem. When you can’t stand it anymore, take your bathroom break (15 minutes for 3 hour shift, 30 minutes for 6+ hour shift) and dash to the nearest vending machine or DC. If you’re far away from anything, start running. You don’t have a lot of time, so run, grab n’ go, and munch like mad on the way back. Be smart and pack your own snack so you can eat it hunched in a corner just outside the facility. It’ll pay off when you’re shifted for a long time.
able. If eating a formal meal is too much to handle, you could also do another activity, like plan a potluck game night with other people in your senior group. One way or another, it’s an awesome chance to get to know other consultants outside of work. And what better way to do it than over some delicious sandwiches/pho /burgers/burritos/pasta? Mmmm…….
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Rebecca Kim Cafe Production
Spring 2009
How to stay calm when a client asks you something to which you don't know the answer. If there’s one thing I’ve learned while working at Cafe, it is that improvisation and acting are not skills reserved just for theater kids. Clients assume you have superior knowledge about all things related to computers. If you’re anything like me, just a random Cal student who decided to get a campus job and who has no real expertise with computers, you’ll encounter questions that completely stump you. Yes, you can try to learn every single answer to every specific question that might come your away (and indeed, you should be striving to equip yourself in being a knowledgeable consultant), but there will always be that new question that somehow eluded the extent of your training and to which you don’t know the answer. When this happens, I’ve come to see that resourceful improvisation and calm professionalism are really what will carry you through. There are several lifelines you can call on in trying to find a solution (asking your fellow consultants, referring to the consultant handbook, emailing out, checking old emails, etcetera), but be aware that in the meantime, your client is still watching you, and still innocently relying on your presumed super-skills, so those interpersonal skills really make a difference. Stay calm, and feel free to admit that you don’t know the answer. Communicate to the client that although you may need to take extra steps to find out what to do, you are still committed to helping him/her out. Stretch those facial muscles and even flash a smile or two. Every customer appreciates the difference between a begrudging, cold employee and a caring, personable one.
How to strategically disinfect your hands with minimal anti-bacterial gel usage. During flu season, the thought of the sheer number of different surfaces you touch while working in the labs can be enough to drive even the most laidback embracer of germs to Purell-spurting fits. The conflict arises when, after your 15th squirt of hand sanitizer, you happen to flip the bottle over and read the back label only to find that only 99.99% of your hand germs are being wiped out with every application. That means .01% of those buggers are still camping out on your phalanges, threatening to infect and overrun your body at any moment of weakness. What’s more, you find that by the end of your 3-hour shift, the bottle that had been half-full when you first arrived is now down to its last dregs. How can you avoid building up an army of sanitizer-immune bacteria on your hands and using up all the hand-sanitizer, while making sure that you are protecting yourself from pathogens?
www.cafe-staff.berkeley.edu The trick is to sanitize your hands only after every major event that arises during your shift. What I mean by “major event” is any unit of activity that would expose a new area to contact with your hands. There is no point in continuously sanitizing your hands while you are sitting at your keyboard, when you will constantly be re-exposing your hands to the same surfaces again and again. However, an example of a separate major event is a sneeze, which brings your hands into contact with the surfaces of your saliva droplets. Another example of such an event is roaming, during which you will touch headphones, chairs, computer mice, and other keyboards. Sanitize your hands after these events to clean off any new germs that could have been transferred onto your hands. You will probably do this about four times in an hour, depending on how meticulous you want to be with it. Another important tip to keep in mind is to avoid touching your face or mouth with your hands
Terrace Cafe
good physical condition. Use those breaks to go outside, enjoy a change of scenery, and take in some fresh air. Yaliʼs Moreover, make sure to hydrate and feed yourself within these windows of freedom, or else you’ll feel the physical toll of going without nourishment when you enter the 3rd hour of your shift. The key factor to maximizing these breaks is planning out where and how you will obtain Micro Yaliʼs food. If you are shifted at Wheeler or Evans, there are nearby campus eateries (the GBC if you’re at Wheeler, Yali’s or The Terrace Café if you’re at Evans). However, if you are not shifted near such locations, or if you would prefer to cut out travel time, another helpful backup plan is to simply have kind friends who will bring you food. Golden Bear Cafe Make plans to have friends drop by and visit during your breaks—they can do wonders in helping you relax, and they can benefit from the satisfaction of knowing i n that they helped feed a starving college student in need! b e tween Purell applications, or throughout the duration of your shift. Be mindful of how you use your hands in other contexts as well—e.g. for girls, smoothing your hair with your hands. Finish off the shift with one last hearty sanitizer application, and pat yourself on the back for being Purell-conservative and sanitary at the same time! How to maximize your 15- or 30-min. breaks. Maximizing your 15- or 30-minute breaks is essential for making sure you will last those 4+ hour shifts in
The joy of tidiness maintaining order in the lab Do you ever wonder what you should be doing with your hands while you’re roaming? More often than not, there won’t be any major lawbreakers to grab by the collar and throw out of the lab, or lost items to collect, or revolting computers to battle. If you find yourself awkwardly holding your hands a little bit apart from your body as you roam, at a loss for what to do with them, then take comfort in the easy and highly effective solution of “making tidy”. The lab gets disorderly very easily. Clients do not like to tuck in their chairs after them. They also seem to enjoy leaving their headphones dangling off of the desk, or wrapped around the back of their chairs. When you roam, make it a point to tuck in every chair you see, and to place headphones onto their corresponding computer towers . Straighten up the keyboards, and return monitors to a uniform height. These simple and small acts of tidiness can go a long way in promoting an orderly and calm environment in the labs, and they give you something to do as you’re roaming. You can also encourage the clients to follow your cleanly behavior by example.
Ryan Duchin “My paper didn’t print” You will hear this countless times during your career at Cafe – there are a lot of reasons that customers’ print jobs didn’t go through! When you start off at Cafe it can be really difficult to remember all the reasons, so here’s a nice list. 1. No printing credit. This one is a no-brainer - a lot of people don’t realize they have to buy a printing account. And no, printing at Cafe is not connected to ResComp. Tell them to click on the link on their desktop, and make sure to explain the $12 charge (and $3 buffer for printing errors) as well as the costs per page. 2. Their print job is over 20 pages. Always ask this first! Also, 20 pages double sided is ten pages, you can’t print 40 pages double sided in a single print job. 3. They are printing off of bSpace. bSpace tends to have technical issues, especially in pdf format. Tell them to save it to the desktop and try printing from there. 4. The printer is jammed. Notice when people tend to crowd around the printers – usually there is something wrong with them! Check all the trays, and sometimes just opening and closing them is enough for the printer to realize it was just confused. Also check that there is printer paper. 5. They printed to the wrong lab. Users sometimes screw around with where their papers are getting sent to – make sure they printed to the correct lab. Lots of these problems can be found without Pharos, but if you can’t solve it make sure to check their user account there.
Special Printing Requests Most “how do I print…” questions are found in the printing preferences option – I’ve personally never had a problem that wasn’t. If clients want to print multiple pages per sheet, there is an option in the printing preferences – just click that. You can change how many pages are printed per sheet, the orientation (landscape vs. portrait), and even the order that the pages come out (left to right or top to bottom). Some users want to change the layout of their paper, in which case the best resource is the ‘Page layout’ tab in Microsoft word. You can change the margins, add page borders, and do lots of other small tricks. Another big problem is clients asking to print in two columns in the middle of the page: Like This! This is a problem most users have great difficulty with – Microsoft word is not, for the most part, very helpful in letting users figure out how. You can play around with text boxes and such, but the easiest way is to insert a table. Make a 2x1 table (or whatever size you want), and then select the table, right click, and head over to Table Properties. There should be a borders and shading button – click that, and you can get rid of the borders. Voila – you have columns easily integrated with the text. You can center the text inside each cell to get them to appear as above.
How to avoid spending your entire shift on facebook It’s easy to watch your shift slowly tick away as you spend hours waiting for any of your friends to respond to your comments on facebook. However, this makes working incredibly dull and will certainly make you loathe the website. Here are a couple things you can do instead… 1. Get off the computer! Leave gmail and the Café-staff page on and don’t let yourself open anything else, so you can turn to things that you actually have to do – like homework. I’ve brought homework to work countless times and ignored it in my backpack, so forcing yourself to get off the computer screen is often a good way to get started on those nasty problem sets. 2. Check the conditions of the lab. This is actually a great way to excel at your job duties while getting rid of boredom – walk around the lab and put stuff in order. 3. Find blogs to read – there’s a whole web of funny and interesting blogs out there for you to find. Start looking! Also good are webcomics – xkcd is one of my favorites. A hidden gem is craigslist’s best-ofs, although if you want to strict to PG-only you might be careful which ones you click. 4. Do your OSAs! Everyone tends to wait for the last minute on these, but if you are bored on shift why not get rid of one or two? You’ll appreciate the extra time later when the deadline comes up. If all else fails, at least try to strike up a conversation with a buddy online (use meebo.com!) How to really clean those workstations Considering that almost every time I clean a workstation I find it incredibly dirty, I’d say that most consultants are severely lacking in cleaning abilities. Here is what you’re probably doing wrong and how you can do it right. First off, the keyboard. It’s easy to forget that
particles, especially gross bits of dead skin, get trapped inside the keyboard. You have to physically pick up the keyboard and shake it upside down against the desk! You will immediately see the success of your cleaning all over the desk. Don’t forget to wipe it down. The desktop – there are FOUR sides to the desktop you should be cleaning – both sides, the front, and the top. Don’t skip out on these. The monitor – the monitor has more than a screen! Be sure to use the screen wipes, but don’t forgot that wiping the top and back very quickly can make a difference. And lastly, but probably the most important one, is what happens behind all these things. I notice usually that the desk is usually spotless up to where the monitor is, but immediately behind that are hordes of dust and dirt. Reach back here to clean! If you don’t, the dust will just move forward and make the desk dirty again.
The Ultimate Guide to Working at CafĂŠ! 1) Characteristics of Various Labs in Cafe The various computer labs in CafĂŠ each possess unique characteristics. It is probably easiest to begin with the most energetic lab, Moffitt. On weekdays, Moffitt is open eighteen hours a day and never closes during finals. It contains the most clients and computers, and therefore requires the largest number of consultants to work there. Consultants who work for CafĂŠ will most likely have at least one chance of working in Moffitt, whether it is the weekend shifts, the late night hours from 10pm to 2am, or the infamous late night 8-hour shifts during finals weeks. Although I do not work there often it is not difficult to deduce that having energy is especially essential when working at Moffitt, given the high mobility of everything in the lab. If one wants to run into a friend while on shift, Moffitt is definitely a pleasant selection. LSMF, located in the Life Science building, is another lab that often has a waitlist during its busiest hours. Moffitt and LSMF both contain many Macs, and there are usually many questions relating to Macs there, so it is probably more comfortable for those who are knowledgeable about Macs to work in those facilities. What is special about LSMF is that there is another room connected to the main one, which contains only Macs. It is important to keep an eye on those particularly when roaming. A setup that can be found in the busiest lab in Unit 1 and 2, which is LSMF and Wheeler respectively, is that consultants sit very close together. Sometimes it may results in some chair collision, but for that reason, consultants get to use that excuse to start interacting, which makes work more fun. The lab that I have worked the most frequently at is Evans. EMF is unique in that it is located in the basement. Some may not like it because they feel that it is stuffy and gloomy down there, but on the other hand, it is a good medium sized lab that is usually not too crowded and is generally silent enough for consultants who want to concentrate on homework or studying. Lastly, Tan is the smallest general lab. With its low traffic it is pretty easy to handle. It is typically very calm, peaceful, and relaxed with the occasional printer jam or other technical issue. Instructional labs, on the other hand, are a different story from general labs. Instructional labs in general do not have a lot of clients who need help. This is probably because clients in instructional labs are usually there to use specific software that cannot be found in general labs or are not common for personal use, and they are often taught how to use it by their GSIs. Moreover, consultants more often than not do not have adequate knowledge about those software should a problem arise regarding those programs. The more important thing is that there are almost never any problems regarding those particular software programs, so normally it is pretty relaxed for consultants working in instructional labs, except that sometimes consultants may have to communicate with the GSIs about their special requests such as the projector.
2) What Happens When WMF Gets Busy WWF is always pretty packed, especially during class exchange times, but other than that it is usually not so packed that it requires a waitlist. However, during the hectic weeks of finals or the week before, waitlist will be a commonly used tool. For some reason, the waitlist systems are often lagging a lot, or defective. By lagging, sometimes it can take a couple of minutes before the computer realizes that the computer is unoccupied. As for defective, the most common situation I run into is the waitlist automatically and randomly turning its sensor off, and therefore the computer is shown as being not available. Whenever that happened, I had to manually process the names by paying close attention to each client’s entrance and exit. It is almost like running a paper waitlist in that case. In addition to that, some clients would leave and come back, creating chaos as to whose name I am actually supposed to be calling. In the mist of that, some clients may be confused if they should just line up to use the printer station or just wait for the waitlist, and would like to know the difference between the two options. Depending on the amount of people using the labs at that time, there will also be an increase need to keep up with adding paper to printers and other problems, such as people who are in need of using the scanner when others are sitting on those computers, and many other technical questions which consultants would normally be happy to answer, but may not be too attentive to the questions when the lab becomes so hectic. I think the best thing to do in most situations is to split up the job duties between you and your coworker. For example, one person can be in charge of the waitlist, while the other consultant is in charge of answering questions, refilling printers, and roaming. With this method, each consultant is given specific tasks to work on and will feel less overwhelmed with multi-tasking a dozen things. Another situation I have come across with is when one of the two printers is not working during peak printing hours. During that time, it became essential to keep an eye on Pharos all the time because I had to transfer all jobs from one printer to the next, since that is not done automatically. Although WMF can get busy at times, I feel very comfortable working there, even during finals week. As long as consultants communicate and coordinate, there should be very few problems with running the lab when it gets busy. Overall, it is not tough to work at come to you after some experience. is to know the policies by heart, coworkers, pay close attention to to help fellow staff and clients, may be. In that way, it is very easy CafÊ!
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Here are some tips from your supes on how to be a better consultant. Things to do on shift to pass the time while you're not roaming and if you do not have homework. So you have finished all your homework and have been roaming every ten minutes, checking your email every five minutes, checking the waitlist every two minutes, and have become so bored to the point that you've even started checking out the chat room on the Cafe website. What to do now? There are plenty of cool websites you can explore to pass the time. A few good places to check out are: -fmylife.com – a place that will make you appreciate your own life by laughing at other people's misfortunes and bad luck. -Mymomisafob.com or mydadisafob.com – if you have Asian parents, you Willa can surely relate to this site where people share funny and endearing stories about their parents. -Failblog.org – another website that will make you appreciate life; filled with funny pictures of people, places, and things from around the nation. -Postsecret.com – where you can view people's deepest, darkest, funniest, most embarrassing secrets written down on postcards.
How to build good rapport with co workers and how to create a good work environment Are you tired of not creating those strong, close-knit bonds you hoped for when you joined Café? Tired of that lonely and unfulfilling feeling you get when the only type of conversation you have with other consultants is asking them a technical question? If you want to liven up your work experience, here are a few ideas I have seen work: -Practice for café’s once a semester King of the Hill competition. Try meeting up with your fellow 21+ coworkers and making a stop at one of the many local pubs in hopes of one day beating the supes. Chris -If drinking is not your cup of tea and you are still looking to build some camaraderie, practical jokes always work (within reason of course). There are always those juniors who are super stressed about their midterms and study on shift who could use a good laugh. -Play Assassins, a game that takes place each semester for all consultants and supes to have some fun and bond with each other. -If all else fails, quit. Just kidding! Get to know a little more about your coworkers beyond their workplace persona. Ask questions. Go out to lunch together. Make plans to hang out outside of the workplace. Just being friendly will go a long way.
How Not to Get Cafe Burn-Out if You are Working a lot of Hours Instead of working one long and tiring shift, break it up into two smaller shifts during the day. Make sure to request this on BOA. -Give yourself time to have snack breaks between shifts. -Don’t always do homework on shift; go on Facebook, surf the web, or chat with friends on Meebo! Doing something fun will not only keep you energized and occupied, but will also curb your boredom, fatigue, and/or stress. -When figuring out what hours during the day you want to work on BOA, take into consideration what type of person you are. For example, if you are a not a morning person, try to avoid opening shifts. If you have a lot of homework to do one week, request to work at a low-traffic facility. If you get cold easily, request Jon to work in Wheeler, where it is always warm like a sauna. -Don’t work multiple days in a row. Have your shifts spread throughout the week. You can also request this through BOA. -Become friends with the people in your Unit! This way, you will not be going in just to work, but you will also be able to hang out with your friends.
How to deal with your boss – in the right way. -Try talking to your senior or FC first if you feel more comfortable talking to them. -Talk to another supe or someone else on that level that may help you alleviate the situation. -Be friendly. If you are friendly to them, they will be friendly with you. They are people, too. Try to talk to them outside of your shift. Stop by café events (i.e. King of the Hill, Game night, restaurant outings, etc.) Get to know them on a more personal level; find common interests (for example, Jon really likes to play video games). Duoc