The One-Person IT Department
It is 08:31. The queue has nine new tickets, and the phone is ringing. Someone is in the doorway holding a laptop at the angle that means it will not connect to anything. The monitoring system has sent its third e-mail about the file server, each one slightly more upset than the last. There is one of you. The budget line calls you "the IT team", and the vendor's documentation assumes a change board. The hallway, which has no ticket number and excellent latency, is the busiest support channel in the building. Nobody planned it this way. The organization grew, the computers multiplied, and the person who was good with them became the department.
This series is for that person, and for the manager of one. It is about running support when you are the whole department. It covers an operating model that gives the day a shape before the first interruption. It covers the four boundaries that keep the job survivable, with the exact words to say. It covers the ten kinds of ticket that make up most of the queue and how to make them stop needing a person. Then come the three documents that let the desk run while you are on a plane. It covers staying sane in a job built out of interrupts, which names burnout plainly and kindly. And it covers when and how to make the case for a second person with numbers instead of a feeling. It is written for the person who is the department, and for the manager who depends on them. It is written by someone who has been that person.
Articles in This Series
- Running Support Solo: The Operating Model
Everything is a ticket, including your own work and the walk-up you just handled. Covers the shape of a solo day, triage when you are also the escalation point, and the sponge hour. Also covers what to let drop and how to say so, and a one-page operating card. - Boundaries for the Solo Admin
Boundaries as an operational control: office hours and the after-hours rule, the walk-up redirect, the written emergency definition and the scope line. Each comes with the words to say. Also covers the manager conversation, and a boundary card. - Automate the First Ten Tickets
The three-month census that finds your ten, and the ten most desks find with the automation level that fits each. Covers self-service, one-click and proactive, the honest cost, what not to automate yet, and a ten-ticket worksheet. - Documentation as Your Second Person
The runbook, the knowledge base and the estate page; and the hit-by-a-bus test, kindly phrased. Covers writing while solving, what the cover person needs, keeping it alive, and the estate page template. - Staying Sane When You Are the Whole Department
Why an interrupt-driven day tires you in a way a busy day does not, and the signs the job has outgrown one person. Covers recovery as part of the job, what the manager owes you, and what you can change alone and what you cannot. Includes a sustainability checklist. - When to Hire the Second Person
The thresholds, and the business case built from ticket data, in hours rather than currency. Covers what to ask for and what to hand off first, the first ninety days with two, and a one-page headcount case.
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This series is part of the QuerySolv helpdesk topic library. It covers the foundations, processes, communication, knowledge, tooling, metrics, classic ticket domains, people and strategy behind a support desk that works. The library pairs well with the software we build: QuerySolv. It is a self-hosted help desk that runs as one Windows service on your own network. It is licensed once per installation, not per agent per month.