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10 things IT folks want you to know.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:44 pm
by Takitothemacs
1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say “I don’t know” or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it.
2. Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. “I’m such an idiot”) will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you; all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me; you don’t want to start a call that way.
3. I am ok with you making mistakes, fixing them is my job. I am not ok with you lying to me about a mistake you made. It makes it much harder to resolve and thus makes my job more difficult. Be honest and we can get the problem resolved and continue on with our business.
4. There is no magic “Fix it” button. Everything takes some amount of work to fix, and not everything is worth fixing or even possible to fix. If I say that you just need to re-do a document that you accidentally deleted 2 months ago, please don’t get mad at me. I’m not ignoring your problem, and it’s not that I don’t like you, I just cant always fix everything.
5. Not everything you ask me to do is “urgent”. In fact, by marking things as “urgent” every time, you almost ensure that I treat none of it as a priority.
6. You are not the only one who needs help, and you usually don’t have the most urgent issue. Give me some time to get to your problem, it will get fixed.
7. Emailing me several times about the same issue in the same day is not only unnecessary, it’s highly annoying. Emails will stay until I delete them, I won’t delete them until I’m done with them. I will typically respond as soon as I have a useful update. If it is an urgent issue, let me know (see number 5).
8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.
9. Yes, I seem blunt and rude. It’s not that I mean to, I just don’t have the time to sugar coat things for you. I assume we are both adults and can handle the reality of a problem. If you did something wrong, I will tell you. I don’t care that it was a mistake, because it really makes no difference to me. Don’t take it personal, I just don’t want it to happen again.
10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:02 pm
by Ovi
Oh so true :)

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:26 pm
by Lairiodd
Takitothemacs wrote: 8. Yes, I prefer email over telephone calls. It has nothing to do with being friendly, it’s about efficiency. It is much faster and easier for me to list out a set of questions that I need you to answer than it is for me to call and ask you them one by one. You can find the answers at your leisure and while I’m waiting I can work on other problems.
That makes sense. However, in practice, ringing sys admins tends to get the problem solved quicker and even better is going over to their cubicle and asking them :).

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:38 pm
by Lieva
Takitothemacs wrote:10. And finally, yes, I can read your email, I can see what web pages you look at while you are at work, yes, I can access every file on your work computer, and I can tell if you are chatting with people on an instant messenger or chat room (and can also read what you are typing). But no, I don’t do it. It’s unethical, I’m busy, and in all reality you aren’t all that interesting. So unless I am instructed to specifically monitor or investigate your actions, I don’t. There really are much more interesting things on the internet than you.

i actually lie and tell peeps at work all the IT staff are told to monitor emails :p
sometimes it works sometimes it dont :)
but gets people back to work :p

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:39 am
by Quinlan
9 out of 10 are spot on and could hang on a A3 behind me

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:34 pm
by Ovi
I forwarded them to the other members of the team here, and one of them already has it hanging on the cupboard by his desk :)

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:19 pm
by Genedril
Lairiodd wrote:That makes sense. However, in practice, ringing sys admins tends to get the problem solved quicker and even better is going over to their cubicle and asking them :).

The last person that did that near us got me telling them if they ever did that again I'd make sure they never had any computer issues in the office again - as I'd take away their computer.

It's all so true Taks ;).

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:37 pm
by Xest
TBH it's a waste of time, I prefer to sum it up with:

- If you're a user, FUCK OFF.

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:58 pm
by Lairiodd
[quote="Genedril"]The last person that did that near us got me telling them if they ever did that again I'd make sure they never had any computer issues in the office again - as I'd take away their computer.

It's all so true Taks ]

Hmm, I guess it comes down to the 'culture' in the office. I rarely have problems and would give accurate info on what went wrong. However, it's normally "My computer just locked up and rloging in from somewhere else doesn't help".

Also, being a engineer, they could never take me computer away :p ... not if the company wanted me to be in any way productive.

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:14 am
by Genedril
Lairiodd wrote:Hmm, I guess it comes down to the 'culture' in the office. I rarely have problems and would give accurate info on what went wrong. However, it's normally "My computer just locked up and rloging in from somewhere else doesn't help".

Also, being a engineer, they could never take me computer away :p ... not if the company wanted me to be in any way productive.

I work with a load of engineers & designers, unfortunately we also have a call queue of 200+ calls & just 2 people to cover all the front & backend issues that arise in the office. People doing what you're saying would be jumping the queue & I get a little bored of trying to explain to people that even if they can't log in that's still not as important as the fact that our SQL server has decided to throw a spaz because MS Project has, once again, eaten all the drive space.

Not having a dig at you here Lair, I'm sure that you way would work in a properly staffed office.....