Dear Bob ... I had been part time with my current employer for four years prior to becoming full time about a year ago. During my four years as part time, I was the "go-to guru" who mainly helped with end-user support for our 250-user network. The end-users knew me, and management recognized me as someone who can get the job done with excellence. Upon the completion of my schooling, a full time position wa Dear Bob …I had been part time with my current employer for four years prior to becoming full time about a year ago. During my four years as part time, I was the “go-to guru” who mainly helped with end-user support for our 250-user network. The end-users knew me, and management recognized me as someone who can get the job done with excellence.Upon the completion of my schooling, a full time position was created just for me. My role is to manage our network infrastructure (the area of my study). However, I have had a hard time freeing my previous duties and focusing on my new tasks. I now find myself performing two functions, end-user support and network management. Because each takes time away from the other, I fear that I am performing both duties in a mediocre fashion, as opposed to excelling at the one for which I was hired. I have tried many different methods to break free of my old role and spend more time dealing with the network.Most have failed. Because we do not have a formal help desk or end-user support staff, the end users simply call anyone in the IT department. I have politely told some end-users that I am no longer spending all of my time on support and have redirected them to other people in the IT department for assistance. They continue to call and I continue to find myself having to support them to alleviate some of the demand on the rest of the department. Even forwarding my phone or closing my door only seeks to gain me a few more hours per week of “network time”. I have even had in-depth discussions with my manager about these issues. That was four months ago, and only vague plans for a formal help desk, not actions, have been the result.While I certainly want to help out where I can, especially in these times of tight IT staffs, I feel like I do not get enough time to concentrate on my assigned duties. I can only imagine that many people may be in a similar situation when they are moved inside a department without a direct replacement for their old jobs. What else should I try or how should I again approach my manager? – Trying to break freeDear Trying …You couldn’t have asked me something simple, like how to solve world hunger, could you? This is a tough one, for all the reasons you described, and there’s no answer that will be fully satisfactory. Here’s the best one I have: Acknowledge reality and formalize it.You’ll have to get your manager to agree to this, but it shouldn’t be difficult, since it gets him or her off the hook for having to solve the problem. What I suggest is putting a sign up outside your cubicle that on one side says, “The Doctor is In” and on the other says, “The Doctor is Out.” Establish visiting hours and stick to them – perhaps you handle your network duties in the morning and end-user problems in the afternoon.If at all possible, buddy up with a colleague who faces the same set of issues so that between the two of you the organization has coverage for the whole day. It’s less than ideal, but the world generally is. What this does is stop the constant flow of interruptions, giving you 20 hours or so of productive time to spend on your new responsibilities.And who knows – it might work well enough that your manager will decide to “spread the wealth” even more. There are worse solutions than to have everyone in IT spend time on the Help Desk. Among the benefits – everyone gets direct exposure to the real problems real users deal with all the time.I hope this helps. – Bob ——– Technology Industry