Users are awesome.

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Lock the marketing department down! Make the maximum size limit 10MB.

 

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^^ our users do that, despite the fact it works out at 16p per MB as our emails are archived with EHS for 3 years.

 

I'd prefer locking the marketing department up personally, the major mission is getting a woman who works a strict 21 hour week (companies on a no overtime kick) to spend some of those 21 hours deleting emails so her mailbox isn't so huge...

 

Ah, good times, good times.

I haven't supported users directly for a few years now. Well, occasionally I need to if it gets down to being that complicated, but these days it's the Service Desk goons that call me up asking for advice. They're not always better... especially if they forget the process which typically results in me asking them to provide "the managers approval please".

 

Stop her sending mail an/or recieving till she cleans up. Sure as hell will find the time to do it if she's isn't able to use her email.

 

Just for fun (and yes I know it's user that keep us in a job an so on) I was wondering if we should have a user of the week post.

Certforms members can nominate their "user of the week"

Anyway I'd like to put forward mine from the week before last, the guy logged a ticket with our helpdesk because he was having problems playing DVDs on his company laptop.

When we contacted him to work through his problem it emerged that he was able play DVDs and and windows media player was working fine, it was just one DVD in particular he could not play.

Yes, you guessed it, he had bought a pirate DVD from a guy in a pub and it wouldn't play on his laptop!! instead of chalking it down to experience this total plank thought he would log the issue with the IT service desk and expected us to sort it out for him!!

And lets not forget the guy who by-passed the service desk and called me directly if I could help him crack a trial version of microsoft mappoint!!!! on his company laptop

His excuse was "oh, come on, you IT guys know how to get round this stuff" ........... coincidentally, we had quite a few spare licenses for this product anyway and if he would have asked we would have installed if for him.

 

People like this is the reason why you are still employed.

 

My massive mailbox user now wins a gold star, she had a clear out, hit the wrong button and deleted her entire inbox.

And then emptied her deleted items.....

now all her time is going to be spent getting the stuff she actually needs back, thankfully not all my time though.

 

I used to hold a similar attitude for users, a certain discontent and arrogance towards them
but over time, as my role has progressed I have started to view them in a different light

we mock users for their lack of computer skills, stuff we consider common sense, we justify this by saying 'but it's a tool of their job, they don't know how to use it!'

scripting is a tool of my job, i guarantee 90% of windows admins can't do it
communication and empathy is a tool of my job, most admins can't pull that off either

but here we sit, saying that 'well those are not our core skills' neither is using a computer for a marketing team, hell even a graphic design team. computers are just the tools, the core skill is their creativity, or their ability to communicate a message effectively

we often overlook these facts and look down upon users, that said, we are a service department, in a rather unique position in companies in that we deal with the very bottom of the pile problems such as plugging stuff in, all the way to making recommendations to the board on what to buy going forward. We are both the bottom, and the top of the pile, the trusted advisors and the cable monkeys. Where other staff have a pretty set place on the totem pole, we are the guys with the climbing gear that go up and down the totem pole keeping it in ship shape

I guarantee you most IT folks could not even begin to understand what most the people they work with even do, let alone do it to any level of competency, or even use the tools some of these staff use on a day to day basis if it's not the computer. We must therefore take a hard look at what exactly we mock them for, after all, it's OUR job to make sure their computer works, as flawlessly and seamlessly as possible, and whilst their 'oops' is spilling coffee on it, our 'oops' is pulling the wrong cable from a switch and bringing an entire department down!

Lets think about the bigger picture, ultimately we're here to help our business succeed, weather we believe in that business or not, generally I get out if its the latter though

 

All nice, salient points, well-put, Pheo, but ...

Are we not also seen (for the most part, perhaps not including your echelon of the industry where you're maybe not a "grunt at the front" of support) as the lazy-assed, game-playing oiks that sit, feet-on-desk, drinking coffee and generally doing feck all apart from changing the toner and perhaps solving some minor driver or software irritation on the employee's tool of the trade from day to day?

I believe it's all a balance of perspective - yeah, we may laugh and poke fun at users, but it's an equally fair observation that the high and mighty non-IT employees that we support could generally be said to take an equally dim view of the IT staff that "are supposed to be looking after our systems...just try finding one when you need them"

Call me devil's advocate, call me a twisted jock wot you've not had to deal wif since last we met, or just a royal pain in the @$$, but it's all relative, imho

 

I am sure everyone here is aware of that fact, but at least they make you laugh with their stories!!

 

Guess so.

 

It's kind of irrelevant
how others view my department does not alter how I view theirs, they can think what they want, it doesn't validate me viewing them with contempt

its easy to get into the 'well you think were ****e, we think your ****e' situation, but I don't think that line of thinking helps me do my job any better, so why do it?
in fairness, if it got to the point that I felt upper management had that view of my team despite our attitude and approach being nothing of the sort, time to jump ship, don't work for idiots, number one rule!

 

I personally dont even think its that Phoenix, I think its mostly just a way to blow off steam, finding some humour in the situations that we encounter in our day to day jobs that would otherwise drive you insane. Especially ones that are caused by user idiocy ("you did what? So let me get this straight, that big box that comes up asking you if you are sure you want to continue with the deletion, because - by heck - it certainly cant be undone, you just 'didnt read it' and clicked yes? Did you think that the message box clearly didnt apply to you, because it didnt have your photo on it? And now its MY fault, because we made the operation possible, and should never have given you the option?)

Everyones had days where they want to go postal on their users. Things like this just help people blow off steam. Its all well and good taking a high and mighty attitude about it, but its no different to some people beating the ****e out of a punch bag down the gym during their lunch break.

 

Coming back to one of Phoenix's earlier posts (which was a good one), I believe that we, the IT folk, should really be here to make the end users lives easier.

No, they many not be experts with Windows or Office and sometimes come back to us with the funniest (to us) questions and issues, but we also shouldn't expect too much of them in this sense.

For example, not everyone knows that they shouldn't go surf the internet willy nilly during office hours. Typically HR would say that this is detrimental to the amount of work effort they'll be able to put in. But I think we in IT know better, the truth is many sites are simply too dangerous for the average user to visit, and thus it is our job to put something in place to stop users from doing "too much" (by placing a Proxy in between them and the internet for example).

I guess I used to have one of those "hah, I'm an IT expert, all those users, they're just (l)users!". But I dropped this attitude fast when I had to approach Payroll, HR, Lawyers, Trademark blokes and the like within the company(ies) I worked for, and asked them to help me with things such as filling in my tax papers, or trying to design a logo/register a name for a side business of mine, which wouldn't conflict with an existing one (and would therefore note put pressure on me in the form of any future lawsuits).

Man, those things are something I have very little experience in, I would say that I'm an utter n00b, and here I was sitting across someone who WAS an expert in that field. So yes, we all have our niches, we all have our knowledge, and whilst occasionally an end user may do something pretty funny, I'm sure some of these guys and girls may also find that we in IT, are a rather peculiar bunch as well...

Just my two cents ;)

 

This.

I don't (despite my comments in this thread) view any of my users as idiots or look down on them at all. My previous posts are just about letting off steam, taking a moment stepping back and making sure that I do maintain a sense of humour about these things. This allows me to not fall in to any kind of us and them attitude because the frustration is directed at someone other than the user concerned.

I'm perfectly willing to admit that the woman I've been training to use paint has far more knowledge of Health and Safety law (particular were it pertains to overseas holidays) than I have or want. Just as I know that the marketing woman who deleted her entire inbox has a far better idea were the companies money is best placed to get maximum advertising benefit.

Apart from anything else, I know that any real short fall in their IT knowledge is because computers have appeared in their work life at a point when work and home responsibilities have stopped them having the time and opportunity to learn all this stuff. This makes it up to me as a skilled IT technician where possible to educate them, and should they continue to make the same mistakes then thats down to my inadequate training.

 

Don't take users or your job too seriously, you'll have a coronanry at 40. I think contrary to popular belief the "idiot" users aren't the worst ones, you can laugh at them. It's the ones who make your life hell over things you have no control over and think they know best. The ones that force you to bite your tounge to avoid telling them what you think as opposed to biting your knuckle to stop laughing. Lets use this thread to celebrate those luckless halfwits that entertain our days with the most interestingly bizzare and inane questions and problems not debate whether we should wrap them up in cotton wool and say we should protect them and make their life easier.

 

People making mistakes or asking 'easy' questions don't bother me..I can even empathise with those who make life really difficult by trying to shift the 'blame' for their actions onto you..

What bothers me is when everything we do is made top priority and we're left working 12 hour days to fit all the work in when others happily gaze out the window at the sunshine.. all for usually little recognition..

I like to do my job the best I can.. I don't mind long hours.. but a thank you doesn't cost much!

 

Those stereotypes exist for a reason!

 

Shut it, Mike - remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the wizard???