| HOW NOT TO PISS OFF THE PEOPLE IN YOUR I.T. DEPT An Open Letter of End Users and Other I.T. Professionals (and for some, I use that term LIGHTLY) |
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The I.T. Department of your organization you work for is a essential team of professionals that make sure all of the computerized, automated, or otherwise, technological stuff that makes the company you work for or run function reliably.
I have been working in the industry for 20 years, I've been everything from a lowly paper-tech, a freelancing personal tech, helpdesk, hardware support, PBX support, and even systems and network administration duties. I've done I.T. in a lot of major industries including law enforcement, healthcare, aerospace, the tech industry itself, video game companies, banks, dental offices, the local school system, and even worked as a hardware service tech for a major computer manufacturer. So I've seen some stuff in my time. It just seems the disconnect from "higher ups", the users, vendors, and various members of the department itself, has been a consistant problem all throughout this industry. The first thing, and I'm sure others have said this before, is that I.T. is what the C-suite calls a "cost center" - we are a COST to the company to keep the company working and functioning, like going to the oil-change place to change the oil in your car or get your tires rotated. We're like the engine-room guys on a ship or the airplane mechanics at a airplane flight provider. We keep the company running by keeping the machines essential to it's function running. The common problem in this industry, as with ANY industry, is not tech, it's not any specific company, or any specific person, it's PEOPLE in general.The People You Run Into in Tech I: Introducing, your I.T. Team Most people just assume, from what I've witnessed, the IT Department is a big group of Star Wars and Star Trek loving "Nerds/Geeks" who spend all their time "Coding" and probably sitting around playing WoW and drinking Jolt cola. A total freakin' stereotype that I take offense to on the same level that people are low-key racist or low-key sexist, assuming activities, interests, and structure, because of dumb stereotypes perpetuated by our inapropriatley conditioned society. First off, your I.T. Department has MULTIPLE LEVELS of different disciplines. For any of us to "Get anywhere" in this industry, we need to Specialize in a particular discipline, and most departments "Silo" their tasks via these sort of disciplines while cross training potential next-tier candidates in disciplines they show potential at. I know it's tiered, and people act like this means you can give "different levels of respect" to specific people once they know this, but that is not at all true. If you treat us like crap, we WANT to (but don't) treat you like crap! And I.T. deals with a lot of angry, pissed off, beliggerant, uncouth, and unreliable people in a day. Now, I'm not saying ALL I.T. People are good. There are a lot of "Bad actors" one can end up with on a team, ranging from piss-poor communicators, all the way to people who literally just think they can show up when they want, and read a book when they are here all day without doing anything, and then go home and collect a paycheck. I've seen a lot in over 20 years.
Team "silos"
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