10 things your IT guy wants you to know
1. If you ask me technical questions please don't argue with me because you
don't like my answer. 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.
source:
thinksmarter.wordpress.com/2007/08/04/10-things-your-it-guy-wants-you
-to-know/