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And yet, there are many hardy, helpful souls who have made a success of IT help desk work, keeping our IT departments humming, and our end users content and productive.

How do they do it? It seems that there are 10 qualities almost always found in the perfect IT help desk staffer. In this, the latest installment in E2's Perfect IT series, we lay them out for you:

1. Knowledge: The first, last, and most important quality for help desk staff is to know what you're doing. If you don't know the technology backwards and forwards, nothing else much matters. All the knowledge bases and social networking connections won't help if the tech doesn't understand the problem and possible solutions.

2. Calmness. Call it what you will, but IT help desk staffers need the ability to keep their cool when things go wrong. People having computer problems often get angry and agitated. Defusing the situation is the first step to solving the problem, and that can require a lot of discretion.

3. Speed. Being able to solve problems is all well and good. But in modern help-desk environments, it's nowhere near enough. The perfect help desk staffer doesn't just solve the problem, she nails it instantly -- and moves on to the next one right away.

4. Attention to detail. Truly keeping the customers satisfied means sweating the details: Making sure every required app is installed and ready to run, that the user has access to the right printer(s), and that they have the right ergonomic setup. Oh, and don't forget to fill out the call log, either.

5. Curiosity. Sometimes, the answer to a problem isn't obvious. The average help desk worker might give up. But the perfect help desk staffer wants to the know the answer and won't stop looking till he finds it.

6. Prioritization. Unfortunately, all help desk calls are not created equal. It's critical to know which problems, and which people, need attention first.

7. Social networking skills. No one can know everything about IT support. But proper use of social networking can help the help desk leverage the knowledge of the entire team. And social media is also a great way to work with end users.

8. Respect. End users can be soooo clueless. But help desk workers still need to treat them -- and their problems -- with an appropriate level of respect. No one likes to be dissed or patronized.

9. A sense of humor. That said, the IT world can be a big, surprising place, and sometimes the only way to maintain your equilibrium is to laugh at it. Just don't let users see you laughing at them.

10. Courage. It may sound funny to mention courage in a blog about IT help desks. But the days can be long, the tasks thankless, and the pressure to cut corners relentless. It takes real strength of character to stand up to all that and still do the the job right.

So here's to you, the perfect -- or nearly perfect -- IT help desk workers. The IT department, and the enterprise, wouldn't be the same without you.