[RESOLVED] I am an email administrator

[MMock]

How difficult is it to be an email administrator?

I was hired as a software developer because that is what all my experience is in and it's what I want to do. Because I work at a small shop, I have to wear other hats as well. Recently, I became the email administrator. Is this something one can just do? Should I ask for training? The former email administrator is a network engineer - is it an easier hat for him to wear?

I am asking because one of our email accounts contacted me today to say his incoming mail wasn't getting there, even though he can send out. I called the network engineer for help, but as he works at a different company I don't know if he will always be there to help.

Thanks.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Not wanting to mmock you, but I would say that you have answered your own question.

1) You were given a role that you are unfamiliar with.
2) You encountered a problem that was beyond the level of your knowledge.

Therefore, if the company wants you to do your job effectively, you need training. This can take the form of a class (costs $$, possibly effective, short time), self directed learning (less $$, more effective, longer time), or learn on the job (no direct $$, eventually effective, lots of aggravation in the short term).

[MMock]

No, you are right. I will mention to my boss if he is going to let me learn on the job or if I can continue to have access (which means he will probably have to pay a consulting fee) to the Network Engineer.

[Nightwalker83]

As Shaggy Hiker says it would be a good idea for yor boss to pay money to get your training for the position. He then can feel some confidence that you should now have the knowledge to do your job and cost any part of the business downtime.

[MMock]

It turns out we are not supporting our email, only administering it. That is to say, we will provide our external sales agents an account with us, but if they have problems it is up to them to figure out a solution. There was another time when we ran into a similar issue - an external agent couldn't run some function in our web application and I basically had to tell him it is a configuration issue on your end because no one else has this problem. Not sure that's the best way to do business, but it's my boss's way of getting me off the hook of stuff he doesn't want me working on.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well, you could always blame Microsoft. That works for lots of people, and really isn't much harder than the solution your boss came up with.