The NCAA Division I basketball tournament aka March Madness begins this Thursday. This tournament affects work more than any other sporting event in the US. The games are played during work hours and the teams are from every part of this country. Many of your coworkers will be in the company office pool. There are several things the diligent IT worker should do to prepare:
- Fill out your brackets in advance. You can do it either on paper or online.
- Join the company office pool. It’s a good way of knowing which VP’s are in the pool and who you are going to piss off if you turn on your Websense filtering.
- Make sure you have the software you need when users come begging for Windows Media Player, Flash Player, PDF Reader, Quicktime, or whatever else you’ll need.
- Keep an eye on your bandwidth. CBS is streaming the game video, Sirius is streaming the audio, ESPN and You Tube have the highlights. This is all bandwidth intensive, so be prepared to throttle your bandwidth.
- Stock up on color toner. Everyone keeps a copy of their brackets handy. Where do they get that copy? Your color printer.
- Be prepared for phone calls like this: I’m trying to watch some presentation on my computer and it’s not working. Or Thursday at 11:55am EDT: Is the Internet slow? The Internet in this case refers to cbs.sportsline.com.
- Finally, follow company policy. You know your company best. You also know that when a VP comes begging for something (more like demanding), he/she is creating company policy on demand. Be polite, helpful, and have fun!
- Go Big East!!!!
Techno babble from an IT guy named Harry 