When End Users Lie To You
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@MattSpeller said:
Or they are embarrassed, made a mistake, etc. If I took that kinda thing personally I couldn't do my job.
Same, I never take it personally. I don't think they mean harm by it. I like to see the good in my users, they aren't the enemy.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Same, I never take it personally. I don't think they mean harm by it. I like to see the good in my users, they aren't the enemy.
One would hope they would feel the same about IT and not lie. End users aren't the enemy, end users who lie are enemies of the business.
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@MattSpeller said:
Or they are embarrassed, made a mistake, etc.
But telling the truth is the adult and the professional reaction. You make it sound like they are toddlers.
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@scottalanmiller nah, just garden variety, flawed, primates like me
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I guess this is one of those though ones.... give them the benefit of the doubt and it makes them your enemy. Treat them as not your enemy and it makes you condescending.
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But remember, the only person who can choose to not be in this situation is the person who chooses not to lie. When they choose to lie, they choose either to not be up to a certain standard, or they choose to hurt the business or other people. It's a choice and not one that anyone can make for them.
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@scottalanmiller said:
But remember, the only person who can choose to not be in this situation is the person who chooses not to lie. When they choose to lie, they choose either to not be up to a certain standard, or they choose to hurt the business or other people. It's a choice and not one that anyone can make for them.
No doubt about that.
All we can do is try and lead by example.
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But accepting it must empower it, punishes those who do not do it and treats end users as if they aren't worthy of the same standard that you would expect most people to be held to.
I know few parents who let six year olds obviously lie to them. Why would we expect less of adults?
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@MattSpeller said:
All we can do is try and lead by example.
You can do more, you can respect end users by holding them to a higher standard. If lying is acceptable, we simple show that we don't see them as peers - not just professionally, but personally.
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@scottalanmiller said:
you can respect end users by holding them to a higher standard.
Aye, and those that are good at that are in high demand. Really good social skills in IT are hard to find. I work on mine a lot, same as I did when selling stuff.
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@MattSpeller said:
Aye, and those that are good at that are in high demand. Really good social skills in IT are hard to find. I work on mine a lot, same as I did when selling stuff.
Social skills are often lacking, that's the nature of technical jobs. Being good at both would be unreasonable - why even have end users if IT was good at everything? All you would ever need is IT? Reality is, IT is good at certain things and other people are good at other things. No one is good at everything.
But really, doesn't require good social skills as much as just not treating end users as a lower class than we treat each other.
But this is tough, do that same thing in Spiceworks, for example, and treat people as peered professionals and people get really offended for expecting so much of them. But, the issue really is, that they expect so little of themselves
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@MattSpeller said:
Or they are embarrassed,
I'd say 90% of the time this is the reason. It has nothing to do with respect or thinking IT are stupid. No-one likes to admit to f[moderated]ing up.
Even me.
"Hi HP Support, our server is broken"
"Hi Carnival Boy, have you tried resetting the thingimy bit on the doo da widget device?"
"Absolutely. I mean duh...of course I have...who wouldn't...I mean....well....er.....actually, I have no idea what you are talking about. " -
@scottalanmiller said:
But this is tough, do that same thing in Spiceworks, for example, and treat people as peered professionals and people get really offended for expecting so much of them. But, the issue really is, that they expect so little of themselves
I think it depends on the person you are talking with on SW. I have seen a few topics turn into arguments that would have come to fists if they had been face to face. And I have seen a few where the OP was actually truly welcoming of the advice the others had given him.
If done appropriately, it can help raise the person's expecations and confidence level -- especially once they realize we had to learn it somewhere too.
