Feeling sick from unreasonable expectations

[AmyJo63]

Hi, I work in software support and have been told for the next 3 weeks I have to support a piece of software that I have never been trained on, have access to test on or had the chance to use. The person who supports it usually, is on holiday and no one else in the company knows the product. I was told 10 minutes before she went on holiday. I am now getting customers contact me asking me to call them up to help them solve issues but obviously I have absolutely no idea. This has left me feeling sick with worry, I am terrified of being put in a position where a customer expects me to do and know stuff I just don't. I have had a few issues lately like this at work, what should I do? I think I may have stress but I do not want to go to the doctors if possible because if I go for another job it may go against me. Please help, I feel really stuck.

Obvious question but have you told your manager/supervisor how you are feeling? I would probably be seeking to negotiate some support/training either directly from my manager or from colleagues before going off sick, although appreciate how difficult it can be to put yourself in position of having to ask for help.

Is there definitely an expectation that you will solve all the customers' issues with this software, or is it more of a case of being a point of contact and logging issues for your colleague to pick up on her return? What has happened in the past when this colleague has been off, who has covered her then?

I begin to think this is the norm. Especially a smallish company. I found undocumented equipments to support on most weekly bases, the team is struggling especially me being the junior who pay far less than my team.

What does your manager think? Does she/he expect you to deal with it as it comes? My manager somehow think that I suppose to work it out by myself! He is a dick.

I occasionally support areas of business users software when I know nothing about it. There is no way there is enough people to know every bit of software and have a back up too.

Take a note of the problem, find out the transactions used get screen shots and add much information from the user as possible, find out if they have other business users they can ask for help or their own training documents or processes they can check. It's amazing how often they can actually fix themselves with someone to just talk it through with. Don't be scared to tell them you aren't familiar with the transactions but will try your best to find out what you can. Then use any means open to you to solve (even Google if standard software!), if you can't solve, find out if they can wait until your colleague is back, if not escalate to your manager. Tell them what you have done to try to resolve and the impact on business/customer if not resolved and ask for advice on what to do now.

What BrokenWing says. A lot of tech support is done by googling. A lot of tech support starts with the same questions:

What were you doing?
Did you get an error message? If so, what did it say? Have you got screen shots?
Has this ever worked?
When did it last work?
Has anything changed since then? (PC upgrade, office move, reinstallation.)
Are any of your colleagues experiencing the same problem?
Are other applications working? Are they able to connect to the Internet? Have you tried reseting cables?
Are you logging on with the same user account as usual? Have you changed your password recently?

Make notes of all the problems and what's done to investigate and fix them (especially if it's yet another poorly-documented application.) You will be okay.

As Maxelly said, what are their expectations? Expecting you to ask the basics (have you turned it off and on again) is very different to providing level 3 support.

Are they expecting you to know the system inside out or just keep the clients happy to the best of your ability?

Also, you need to understand that your employer doesn’t pay you to have an easy life and sit in your comfort zone. Doing something extra to help out when needed is part of any job these days.

I have had a few issues lately like this at work

This doesn't help you this time bit can you talk to your manager and tell them this situation stresses you out so can you have some time (e.g. half a day a week) to sit with other people to get an overview of other systems you may be asked to fill in support for in the future?

That way, they are not such an unknown.

Also, you need to understand that your employer doesn’t pay you to have an easy life and sit in your comfort zone. Doing something extra to help out when needed is part of any job these days.

Making yourself unwell to do so, isn't.

I would find out how critical is it to fix it quickly. I.e is that piece of software business critical.
Users may have emails with details of fixes applied before.
Is it istalled on desktop or on server. Who would usually install it? How many users use it.

missbattenburg I agree to a certain extent however there is a question best put as AIBU regarding whether OP should be unwell due to what they unreasonably asked OP to do or if OP was the unreasonable one by not doing something that is a completely reasonable request from an employer. Victim or snowflake. The jury is out

completely reasonable request from an employer. is only valid when you are given some kind of documentation to how to do your job (I am not even expecting trainign!) , if there's none a reasonable action is not what you normally do, because anything she may be doing could bring the system down

going off sick is not reasonable, speaking up is