Note to the Editor

What IT Pros hate about users

2006-07-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

After reading this article on NetworkWorld I was a let put off to say the least:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/071706widernet-end-users.html

Users seem to think IT exists to be at their every beck and call when in reality IT is basically maintenance but for computer departments. Its function is to keep the network and equipment up and running and expand as needed. Most of the user complaints listed are bogus and come from people that don't know how to use a computer or think it is their person toy. I have no pity for a user that loses their desktop wallpaper, icon positions or any of the other fluff after having to rebuild a computer for them. It is not a requirement for them to do their work, that is a funsy thing they can do on their time. It is also not the duty of IT to do a user's work for them because they do know how to use Word or Excel or whatever program well. We provide the tools, not teach you to use something you were should have been required to know when you were hired.

And that is where my chief complaint is - hiring of incompetent users. If you hire a clerical person they should know the tools they use inside and out. HR asking how years experience you have isn't a real test. I have experience driving cars but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm qualified as a race car driver. So what ends up happening is that the person ends up asking IT how to do various things on the computer all the time. It gets old quick. Basically people aren't qualifed to do their job but weren't asked to prove their experience.

On the reverse side of the argument, I have worked with some real losers in IT. The most common was "the kid". The Kid is a person that gets on typically because the company is too cheap to hire real help or more likely he knows someone. The result is someone painfully incomptent to do his job right. They typically don't have a lot of work ethics either and spend their time surfing the web or sneaking in a game instead of doing actual work. Another bad group are the social misfits that end up doing help desk. They can be good technically but poor with people. These people can range from anything having a poor ability to speak to being rude, obnoxious or just plan mean. You would have thought an interview would have weened them out but apparently not.

We'll get back to you

2006-05-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

I have recently changed jobs and took a step up in my career. I am now management and in change of an entire department (IT). This is an exciting turn of events for more as I finally get a chance to run things as I feel they need to be.

The place I am working for is a non-profit company that is managing the Head Start grant for the county. It was previously with another group but due a variety of reasons are no longer allow to run it. This means all services and systems have to be seperated and setup for the new place. A daunting task but one I am capable of handling. Unfortunately this means spending time with venders to get phones, copier contracts and other such things switched over. During this process we've had some interesting experiences mainly concerning the lack of enthusiasm of follow-through with various places.

The first big piece of the switch over has been taking ownership of the existing lines at all our sites (approx 13 remote sites and 1 admin site all in town) and establish new levels of connectivity. Previously the sites were using dial-up to connect to a server in office. Before I even came on-board the new company scrapped this archaic pratice and asked for DSL at all the sites to be setup. Sprint held the old lines and is the only seller of DSL in town besides it is normally good practice to have less venders than more and get a volume savings to boot. Sprint though has been less than... timely. The phone transfer was suppose to be done before I arrived and DSL installed the following week. Turns out that since no one followed through to make sure forms were signed, the transfer never took place and the DSL order got canceled (since you have to install it over a phone line). Once I got here and realized what was happening I had to hold everyone's hand and do constant follow ups just to get it signed. It took 3 weeks to get all parties involved to sign the transfer and fax it in. Spring then sat on it for a week and put our DSL order back in which then got scheduled for 2 more weeks. Each day "I" had to contact our Sprint people to check on the status to make sure it was being worked on. While the job gets done in the end, I as a customer have to do too much poking and proding to make sure something is done timely. I don't expect everything to be dropped for me, but I do want to know that it is continued to be worked on and notified about delays.

The second pice is copy machines. My personal feelings about copy machines is that they are a dinosaur in today's digital age. For people that need hard copies like us though, they are a necessary evil. They are also a crutch for users that would rather make a copy or print something instead of emailing an electronic document. Most of this stems from an ignorant user base where people simply aren't trained or ingnore the training. Ironic that is more lazy to get up and make a copy instead of learning how to use the software once and never have to leave our chair.

Anyways, we have a quagmire of copy machines from big to small of which most are on their last legs. The contacts for service and supplies and under the other broke company so we can't get much work on them. In calling around to the previous venders we had a mix of responses. First and foremost we learned is never use email to start a repore with salesmen - they simply ignore the email. Of the people we contacted via email, almost none repsonded. When we called we got a hold of a salesman who schedule a visit within a day or two and came to our office. Follow-ups took a few days to get back to us after the visit with prices sheets and most were willing to negotiate. A couple I had to call back and remind them about sending us a proposal. Most copier sales focus on one brand or another so we had difficulties finding a all-in-one shop for our copiers.

The next piece was phone switch system. We have a medium office with a need of about 50 phones. This means buying an industrial phone. I know most IT people have not a clue about teleco, they are mainly data people. I had the opportunity to pick up some teleco experience with another company I worked at for several years so I have an idea of capabilities and costs. The phone sales people all got back to us very well and repore has been good with one exception - Sprint (again). The previous company all had leased equipment at several sites and haven't kept up with the lease. The equipment at those places will go away. Most of the equipment was under Sprint and since we don't want to assume old debts, we asked what it would cost to buy out or replace. Apparently we can't buy out the equipment (it is really provided through a contracted re-seller from Sprint). It took 2 weeks to get the pricing and quotes from Sprint. The phone switch places got back to us in no more than 2 days.

We found it odd and frustrating when places that could profit off our business wouldn't call or get back with us, we had to seek them out for statuses. We had a couple of places that we just gave up and went back to the phone book to look for another vendor since we wanted at least 3 competive quotes. I just don't understand why a place would ignore emails or not at least get back with you. It is almost as if they didn't want to make money.

Up in smoke

2005-12-27T11:14:00.000-08:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that cigarrette smoke bothers me and that I'm for any kind of anti-smoking regulation out there - the only thing California and New York is getting right ;-). I'm not some crazy anti-smoking nazi, I just avoid people and places where people smoke. I haven't been to a bowling alley in years and avoid the casino floors when I can because of the smoke. In Nevada we get people that move from California so they can smoke in public again.

I just got back from christmas vacation from my sister's in-laws. That whole side of the family including my sister smokes. The know it bothers me and my mom who has asathma and try not to smoke around us but in reality, as long as it is in the same room you can smell it. this year wasn't bad as the christmas before last when I came back with a horrible sore throat for a week because of it. I seemed to have been more resistance to the effects this year or we had better ventilation.

What really struck me was that they couldn't go 15 minutes with out it seemed. It we were drving somewhere, you could measuer the distance we travel or the time it took buy how many they had. After every dinner at a restuarant they would light up like the meal wasn't complete without one. The worse was when we would go into a building, the second we would come out even if it was only 10 minutes, they'd light up. It was sad having to stop every so often and wait so they could have a smoke break.

It also got me thinking about a couple of people at the new place I work at. these two people go and take a 5 minute smoke break every 20 minutes or so I'd say. I got to thinking, they stop what they are doing 3 times an hour, almost every hour for 8 hours, it's like only working a 6 hour day. They don't do a whole lot which doesn't mena they are really taking anything from the company. What I thought would be hard is someone like myself programming and had that type of habit, I'd never get any work done. If I was stoping for 5 minutues every 15-20 minutes to go outside and smoke, I'd get like 5 minutes of work done in that 15 minute period because it would take me a couple of minutes to get re-situated and then the last couple of minutes I'd be itching about another cigarette. When I was a programmer it was hard to concentrate when I would get a lot of tech calls during the day. I would be lucky to complete a couple of sub sections of code in a day like that.

I read the other day that Washington State has instituted a public smoking ban as well. I know a lot of people are pissed but it seems the only way to inforce politeness and courtessy and public health and safety is to create a law for it. Tis a sad thing indeed.

Voicemail - my love/hate relationship

2005-12-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

In this modern age of communication overload where there are dozens or different ways of getting a hold of people and annoying them while there are in the bathroom or trying to have lunch or simply trying to sleep there is an invention that has changed the way we communicate in both a positive and negative way: voicemail.

Now i recognize that voicemail isn't the most important communications development - far from it - but it has altered the way we think when it comes to communication. It falls into the category of the answering machine but with some slight differences.

When the phone was first created and rolled out, there was but a single phone that hung on a wall. You had an operator that would connect your calls for you and people didn't have normal number they had designations like Evergreen-315. I don't remember the significance of the designation only that there was one. Either way the line was physically connected by a switch-board operator. In small communities I'm sure the operator became very personable with every one and sometimes even servered as a messaging relay for certain people. In the end though, if you didn't answer the phone, you had no idea what the other person wanted or who was even calling. Over the ages the operator was replaced by electronic routing and today has become nothing more than a lazy man's phone book.

It wasn't until the answer machine was created that we had a way of leaving message on a phone that didn't involve some apathetic teen scrawling messages in illegible writing if they even bothered to do that.

"Susan who? I know 3 Susan's."

The answering machine then would giving a pre-recording greeting hopefully including recording instruction for the calling party. Popular people always had to worry about running out of tape space and then there were the sickenly overly-cute people that make up little ditties for their greeting. There was also the problem where the caller wouldn't leave enough information or wouldn't be clear or sayitsofastyoucouldn'tunderstandwhattheysaid causing you to have to rewind and relisten to the message. I had to start leaving very details recording instructions for people leaving messages with the warning that I wouldn't call back if I didn't have that information. I had to be a dick just to get people to leave a coherent message which should just be common sense ettiquete. Unfortunately these problems still exist today.

The behavior that has begun to occur has to do with the more impersonal manner some people wish to communicate to save time and effort which I myself am guilty of. If you compare American work ethic and practices with that of Europe or any other industrialized country you will find that Americans tend to work more hours and are more obsessed with production and efficiency. The average American work day is much more stressful due to our own doing. America has a very high rate of stress-related high blood pressure. We've gotten use to success and in order to remain on top, we have to work harder. How many people feel they are doing the work of two people on a daily basis? I use to joke that at one time I was doing the work of 2 with the responsibilities of 3.

Because of this need to save time or be efficient, many of us want to try to communicate in ways that are as quick and sometimes as non-interactive as possible. Email is probably one of the greatest inventions for this. With a phone conversation there is a tendacy to be lots of extraneous and repeat information that is passed on in the conversation. With an email there is no need to repeat and due to the apparent effort it takes to type things (LOL, R U fre 2nite) people only list the improtant items they wanted to convey and then they can go right back to what they were doing. An email can turn a 2 hour conversation into 15 minutes of typing.

When it comes to voicemail though, some people wish to do what they do with email and leave as much information they can without interacting with the other person and have the other people call them back with the answer. The fear is that you take a chance of having that person actually answer the phone. There have been have times I've called someone wanting to get their voicemail, not them, just to leave a quick information message instead of having to have an unnecessarily long conversation.

When things like caller ID adds into it, now we can see who is calling and say "I don't really want to talk to them" and forward it to voicemail which we might remember to check later. Some people think that if they leave mroe than one voicemail on the same subject that people will call back faster. There are also people that refuse to deal with voicemail and will never leave a message but will just keep calling to get a hold of you. I've been known to call people but not leave amessage because it wasn't that important or it could wait although that begs the question of why I called in the first place.

Today we have so many ways of getting a hold of people that some of us have rebelled and just start ignoring all the instant messages, email, voicemail, phones calls and beeps we get jsut so we can have some peace and quiet. Over the years nothing has irritated me more than a ringing phone knowing that someone is goig to be on the other end that wants to ask me a question that they could have looked up themself. I guess bieng in IT doesn't help the situation.

An empty house is a sad thing indeed

2005-12-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

Today I went to work on a computer at the house of the CEO of the new company I work for now. He's got a house here in Vegas, one in Denver and I think one somewhere else.

The house was in an area of town where my room mates and I used to live but in a much higher end sub development - one of the developments along a golf course. As I drove through the area I was highly impressed with the amount of landscaping that had been done. Between the trees and water effects and manicured shrubs I didn't even feel like I was in Vegas anymore. The houses were all near the million dollar mark even if the properties were small (most had almost no yard).

The house itself was well decorated and emaculate. Something was odd about it though. Then it hit me - this is not a house for people. It was amazingly empty and devoid of anything that would tell you that someone lived there. Oh it had funiture and things but it reminded me of how one of those model homes look. Nice furniture and tables and vases and accents but nothing that showed it was used. Save but two pictures I saw there were no personal affects. No excess of applicances and cooking things in the Kitchen. The only tv in the house was a small screen in the bedroom. There was no evidence that anyone ever stayed at the house. It was purely a dispaly. Even the toilet paper in the bathroom had been folded fancy - an indication of no use. The house felt lonely and cold.

When I left for lunch I looked around and realized this emptiness extended throughout the neighborhood. I saw no neighbor out and about, no children playing, not even cars parked in driveways. The other houses felt just as empty and unused as this one. Driving around the only activity and people I saw where maintaince and landscapers and security. All these people going about mowing lawns, trimming shrubs, fixing curbs and gaurding houses that few actually lived in.

The epiphany made me very sad. All these lovely homes unlived in by people, nothing more than display pieces for people with nothing better to spend it on. A house should be used. A house should be bristling with life and reflect the people that live in it. A house should have personality. The main feature of a house isn't a room or mantle piece but the people that live in it.

Customer Service

2005-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

I am not the first nor will I be the last that has had a bad experience in customer service. I've recently had an experience on a level a little higher than your number rude or dumb call center agent.

I work as a system administrator for a medical company and pretty much run all of our Las Vegas operations. I end up dealing with a lot of venders and 3rd party resources. One of those vendors is our phone carrier Sprint. Over the years I've talked with other techs and normal people and they all have similar opinions - they have the best tech and capabilities but thier customer service sucks.

As a company, we have a corporate account to which we have our own representative to handle all our needs. In the begginning we were told they'd do anything we need including deliver and phones (cell) and expedite service orders for us. When we need to switch phones onto our corporate account there was no problem. Our rep was willing to help us out in any way without hassle. This was about 6 months ago when we consolidated all our lines and service to Sprint.

Over the last month we've had less than satisfying dealings with our rep from Sprint. The first episode started when we wanted to move one of our providers (doctors) cell to our corporate account. Instead of just moving the account over, we were told we had to our a transfer form. Meh, I don't mind tranfer forms, sign her, sign there, fax back done. I can sign it at my convenience and the doctor can sign it at his. After we do this we are then told we have to call customer service to move it over. In order to do this, we have to get both the doctor and myself on the phone at the same time, wait on hold and then pray the customer service agent knows what the hell I'm talking about. This is both incovenient and almost impossible between a doctor's busy schedule and my own. We fought for a few weeks over this with our rep and another person she kept refering to who was even less helpful even to the point of being rude. We finally got back to using the transfer forms but only after a mild threat "this is the last time you will be able to do it this way".

Lately the service has really gone down the tubes. Now if I want to change out a phone I have to go to the Sprint store, wait in line like a normal non-business customer. My time is very precious. I am in high demand where I work and I can't justify waiting an our to get a couple of phones. As it is I have to go out of my way to deliver the phones to our staff and activate them.

The last straw that broke the camel's back was over a fax line. My company runs IP based phones throughout most of the area. They are costly initially but save money in the long run. We had just upgraded one of our sites to them and dropped an old DSL line as well as some normal phone lines. I made it very clear when we dropped the lines that the fax line was not to be touched so of course they killed the fax line as well. I called our rep and let her know. She confirmed what I already pretty much knew and said they'd get an order in to get it fixed. 10 days later we still did not have a working fax line. Since the first day it was down I had to call and email our rep to let her know it was still down and when it was going to be back up instead of her calling me and checking to see if it was up and finding out why it wasn't up. Even after she informed me that the order was finished the line still wasn't up; apparently no one at Sprint knows what follow through is. I also already knew what the problem was. Since it was part of a DSL line, the line has to be switched back to a normal circuit and re-routed at the site. Sprint did not send a tech to the site once. I've had to learn a lot about phone lines and how they work over the years due to necessity, it's come in handy many times. I ended going over to the site myself and re-running the line to get the fax working.

I've already talked with my boss over these issues and we've already requested a new rep. What gets me upset through the whole thing is that we went from being treated like a business to being treated like an individual. We now have to do extra work that we didn't have to do in the beginning, take up more of our time for simple things and then no one checks to see if something got done nor are they willing to sit down and work out something to help us. If our rep does nothing for us, then her job is pointless.

Things like this is what has made me not trust people. I assume the least common denomenator when it comes to work: no one will do anything correctly or timely the first time. This forces me to double check work and keep on top of things to make sure things are done right and within time frame. It has also made me incrediablely self-sufficient. I like doing things myself so that I can understand the process and time involved and make sure it is done right. It also has allowed me to say "yes" to engineering questions when other people have said "no".

As I said before I am sure I am not alone in customer service issues. From a company point of view customer service costs money. There are also a lot of bad customers out there (the existance of collection departments alone) that make it frustrating to do business with but at least try and finding an option for people. If something isn't feasible for a person, find another way. Do not quote policy either;I know first hand that any policy can be over-written by management. Work with people, not against them.

How to Rant

2005-04-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

This is one of my biggest pet peeves - people who complain but don't do it logically. This can range from people that are hypocritical in their writing, don't use logic, or simply end up turning it into a childish name calling fest.

If you are going to take the time to compain, do so in a manner that isn't going to make you look like a fool. Consider all the options, make it sounds like you can at least partially understand the other side of it (or attempt to recognize that there IS another side).

The worst offense are those people that don't look up any facts or repeat facts without wondering about the source. The later has become very serious these days. Not all meida is trust worthy and the "I heard it from my uncle" line is also un-reliable. Then when a fact that changes their fact comes out they refuse to acknowledge it or change their opinion. They don't want to admit they were wrong or even just simply their opinion was mislead by innaccurate information. You can always tell people that don't have all the facts because they will never post where they got their information or why they think the way they do.

In the end such people will resort to outright name calling or labeling you to a group or simply think you stupid or evil.

And remember if you opinion differs from mine it doesn't matter how much fact/logic you have to support it, it must be wrong. ;-)

But no one taught me how

2005-04-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

As an IT tech I have a unique view when it comes to people and their dealings with computers. The so called dumb user phonemenon where people are told to left click so they switch hands to use the mouse or the person that doesn't know what's going on because they don't read their email because they don't know HOW to use their email.

I can accept the fact that people aren't going to know how to do advance things. I don't expect the average person to know how to install a printer or fix an error but I do expect them to know simple things like right-click menu and what a folder is. I waste a lot of time answering calls on "how do I do this?" and "I can't find this" do to people's complete lack of understanding. I find that most users only know what they've been shown. If something happens that is unexpected then they freak out and become totally lost which means a phone call to me.

When I you talk to one about their inneptitude (though never using that term) they always respond with "no one showed me how" or "I thought that's what you guys are for?". IT departments are for maintaining and expanding the various systems. Not training people on what an icon is. So companies offer a training program for companies but most don't, especally small companies. Besides, you hire someone to do a job, they should have basic skills to do that job BEFORE they come to work for the company. They may not know the specifics but they should know the basics or how to use the computer and standard programs. A company should make sure the person they hire is familar with the program. Asking someone if they are familiar is not a good idea because the response back will always be "uh-huh". When you start asking specific questions is when you find out what they truly know.

Tech tests are teypical for techs when they apply for a job. It helps ensures you get a tech that really knows what they put claim they know on an application. I had a boss tell me after I was hired what some of other applicants couldn't answer. I was appalled at the lack of basic tech knowledge these other people had and they were applying for a job where such knowledge is absolutely required. Many expected on the job training as well.

This leads back to my main issue - people's assumption of what a workplace should train them for. On the job training should be teaches the specifics like where a places keeps there documents, any specialized procedures or policies - not how to use a mouse or program unless that program is not a common use program. Working for a medical company we have several unique programs that you do not find in the normal world and no one would have prior knowledge of. Office applications and email and basic computer usage or a whole different story. If you were hiring a delivery driver you would assume that the people applying would know how to drive and have a license and knew how to follow directions and navigate. A person shouldn't expect the work place (unless that is part of their gimic) to teach them how to drive as part of their training. That's just dumb. But in the business world it is all too common to have people come in without a lick of computer knowledge and expect to have what can take years for some to learn be provided on the job. Part of it is the fault of the company (HR usually) for not testing people on their knowledge or making said knowledge a requirement. Mainly though it is the person.

In this day and age, everything requires interaction with a computer for one thing or another. I noticed that schools are finally making computer classes required in schools which will help future generations but does little to help the current situation. People need to understand that the idea that they should only know what they've been shown is wrong. People have the capability of doing their own research and learning it on their own. Or at least take the responsibility of finding someone to teach them the knowledge. When asked what shcool I went to that taught me what I know I tell them that none of the school taught me anything I didn't already know. I learned it all on my own with no outside help. I simply took the time to learn. This is true for a lot of things. Interest in the matter helps keep you learning but it is not necessary. I think a lot of people have lost the desire to learn more. Knowledge has become a hassle to many and those with the knowledge are constantly bombarded by those without it. If you don't know something, no one will ask you about it.