IT people treatment
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So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
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@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
I can see that.
I also think, however, that they see the stereotypical IT guys too... They assume we hide behind our computers all day, playing games, and exist only to support them and only them. So when it takes us 3 hours to finally make it to their desk, they're wondering WTF took us so long and expect us to wave a magic wand and it work perfectly again.
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I would agree that perception plays a lot into it, and that perception is often colored by the user's irritation. When things are working right, we are never seen. They only see us when shit be broke.
David Zweig has a great book on the subject. While not specific to IT, it is a glove that fits IT much more than some other professions.
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I've been lucky because I've never really experienced this. You got any examples? I've had people treat me like crap, but that's because they're dicks and treat everybody like crap - it's not specific to IT.
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I have seen the perception of IT people have no life and only play video games so they have all the time in the world to work on my issue now. I don't have to be polite since they have no real personality anyway they wont even notice if I am rude....
For me I get the extra dose of you are female so I must be really socially awkward cause there is no other reason a woman would be in IT.
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I stood up to the one management team I've had in my career that treated us like crap. Basically management treated us like their personal support team rather than worrying about the good of the entire company. Their immediate needs came first even when they were low priority.
I told them I am employee of Company A (which is now being sued lol) and my interests are to keep Company A up and running, it doesn't matter to me if you are CEO, but your personal and low priority crap comes after the support of production employees.
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That company and CEO were terrible in so many ways. A spoiled rich boy who had no idea how the world actually worked.
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@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
I have yet to be treated poorly, and if I was I would address the person's attitude immediately. I frequently deal with users that are irritated because of a problem related to technology, but I don't take their attitude personally. I've never had someone irrationally take their problems out on me. However, I'm usually pretty quick to be empathetic and try to get the issue resolved. I think a lot of this stems from the IT/support person's expectations of interacting with end users and the reality of the situation. Also, when you get in larger environments where people frequently do not know each other personally, or environments that are mismanaged, this can probably result in anger and frustration being misdirected at the IT department instead of the actual issue/problem at hand.
Still, if I found myself being talked down to or addressed in an unprofessional manner I would address the problem immediately with the end user. If the behavior persisted I would report them to HR/Management. If the attitude problem continued past this point, and was not appropriately acknowledged by management, I would look for another job.
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Having done most of my career in either enterprise or MSP spaces I've actually experienced very little of this. I think that it is mostly an SMB issue. Not purely, of course, but moreso than in the enterprise where senior management tends to understand the value of any department supporting the business and treats them with respect - or else they are not managing an enterprise for long.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Having done most of my career in either enterprise or MSP spaces I've actually experienced very little of this. I think that it is mostly an SMB issue. Not purely, of course, but moreso than in the enterprise where senior management tends to understand the value of any department supporting the business and treats them with respect - or else they are not managing an enterprise for long.
Agreed / ditto
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My guess is that a lot of it has to do with fear. People feel like IT holds them hostage because we work on the "magic boxes". Without IT, people lose access to everything. They feel powerless. This, combined with the social thing that people hold idiocy on a pedestal and have disdain for learning and thinking creates a combination of fearing IT while it being socially acceptable to bully and mistreat them because it is an intellectual pursuit. Unlike something like civil engineering where engineers tend to be grouped together and not interact with end users, IT is often "sprinkled" throughout businesses so it is one lone IT person subject to a company full of dependent users. But in the Fortune 500, IT tends to be a department and they are surrounded by people who mutually respect each other and other teams see a department of value, rather than one odd loner in a room by himself.
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@scottalanmiller said:
...or else they are not managing an enterprise for long.
I have seen that bit. There was a manager at one of my previous jobs who treated everybody like dirt (even his own employees!). He didn't last long at all. What finally got him fired was yelling (yes, I mean yelling) at a student tech, and then myself as well. We both reported it to HR and he was gone two weeks later.
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@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
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@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
That too. I used to try to explain what the issue was and how I was going to resolve it but people with confidence issues end up getting even more angry so I stopped doing that. I'm a data driven person and I don't take anything personally or mean anything I say in a personal way. I have no expectation that everyone will be exactly like me though so I learned a long time to just let it go.
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@wirestyle22 said:
@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
That too. I used to try to explain what the issue was and how I was going to resolve it but people with confidence issues end up getting even more angry so I stopped doing that.
@wirestyle22 said:
@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
That too. I used to try to explain what the issue was and how I was going to resolve it but people with confidence issues end up getting even more angry so I stopped doing that.
Yea. If they ask me what the problem was, I'd explain it to them in tech-speak, and then follow up with an analogy that would help them understand without making them feel stupid.
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@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
That too. I used to try to explain what the issue was and how I was going to resolve it but people with confidence issues end up getting even more angry so I stopped doing that.
@wirestyle22 said:
@dafyre said:
@wirestyle22 said:
@Jason said:
So I've always wondered, why do so many people treat IT Staff (Technicians, Network/server admins and even directors) like crap? Is is because employees think these positions are below them or what?
Most people have trouble managing their expectations I find. There is also a disconnect with users where they think you caused their problem when in reality you are there to fix it.
And they expect the fix to be as simple as you waving your magic wand.
That too. I used to try to explain what the issue was and how I was going to resolve it but people with confidence issues end up getting even more angry so I stopped doing that.
Yea. If they ask me what the problem was, I'd explain it to them in tech-speak, and then follow up with an analogy that would help them understand without making them feel stupid.
Yeah it really depends on the person. You really have to use exactly the right analogy because I've had people try to optimize processes based on an analogy and I'm honestly dumbfounded when that happens. You don't have the body of knowledge to understand even the acronyms that we use daily, let alone the concepts attached to them--accept the situation.
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Any opinions on LinuxAcademy.com as a studyaid?
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@wirestyle22 said:
Any opinions on LinuxAcademy.com as a studyaid?
Price looks good, but I have no experience with their content.
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@wirestyle22 said:
Any opinions on LinuxAcademy.com as a studyaid?
I've come across it while googling. It's a decent place to start. Just remember that you want to learn, and not just memorize certain steps..... if you're memorizing a set of specific steps, it should probably be in a shell script.
