Hey everyone, I'm the sysadmin at Smitty's Supply, which recently experienced a significant incident that resulted in a fire. Surprisingly, everyone made it out okay despite the chaos, but unfortunately, I and many others were let go last week. Just yesterday, the COO called me back, and now I'm tasked with managing the entire IT department alone after a round of downsizing from 306 licensed users to only around 40. I was already working on migrating everyone to Microsoft 365 and transitioning our data to SharePoint and Teams, but now I need to prioritize my next steps. I'd love some advice on what tools are essential for solo sysadmins and any guidance on my immediate priorities. Thanks in advance!
5 Answers
Sounds like a wild situation! Your top priorities should be record-keeping and ticket management. Start a daily log of your tasks; it's super helpful for tracking progress. Also, implement a ticketing system for any ad-hoc requests. This keeps things organized and helps you see patterns in requests. And don't forget to reserve parts of your calendar for project work—avoid meetings during that time! You'll want to push through with that M365 migration, reclaim licenses from those who left, and streamline what you have.
Keep yourself accountable. If you miss deadlines, set timers to focus on tasks without interruptions. It's critical, especially in your situation. Also, considering the fire's aftermath, prepare for a spike in requests regarding former employees' data and access—be ready to manage that.
Make sure to track your activity regularly! There will be more tasks than you can handle, and it’ll help to justify your progress when others ask about timelines. Plus, consider using some LLMs to assist with routine tasks—it can be a huge time-saver.
Prioritize your tasks based on urgency—from emergency fixes due to the fire to simpler tasks for the reduced staff. The initial downsizing means you’ll be facing many requests for info access, and you should simplify processes wherever possible to make your job manageable.
One major tip is to keep careful documentation of everything you do. Make it a habit to note down every process, even the odd ones, because those will pop up again. This makes everything way more efficient in the long run!
Absolutely! I found zero documentation when I started, so I'll definitely be improving that as we move forward. I think it will really help us modernize the IT practices.
Thanks for the tips! I’ve got NinjaOne set up for ticketing, and I’m trying to use ClickUp more effectively for task management. Documentation is definitely on my list now!