IT people, please communicate plainly

[zanejohnson]

i just came back and realized i completely misinterpreted what the op was about....


---and here you see the divide lol...

 

[FelixDeCat]

reply all

that'll fixem

 

[rudeguy]

reply all

that'll fixem

and use CAPS. CAPS MEANS ITS IMPORTANT

 

[JimKiler]

If you're that clueless about the email, chances are it doesn't apply to you hehe. I get where you're coming from though, I hear this all the time at work. They speak to others as if they are on the same level in terms of technobabble, with no regard as to whether the person actually understands a damn thing. I try to be mindful of this during my interactions with coworkers and clients. I definitely inadvertently technobabble people at times, but I will usually pick up on the confused response and explain myself when that happens. Having people understand you can sometimes result in a very surprised and thankful response from the other person, even if it was a very trivial thing on your part.

I was going to reply to the OP and conclude that all the angry replies here prove how bad the IT industry is. Your post at least shows some are willing to learn. Yes being clueless about the software should mean it does not apply to you. It is not just IT at my work, everyone sends out bad communication. It is not enough to know our jobs and expertise, but to effectively communicate with others is also useful for all our jobs, and sadly (myself included) we need to do a better job of it. Hell I would be happy if > 70% of my email subject lines were pertaining to the topic of the email.

 

[Insomniator]

If you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it. The people that do will understand the email.

We at IT don't know exactly who uses what in every single department, so if something goes down that effects some large number of users we'll just send out a blanket email.


Do you want us to explain every email in minute detail when we KNOW most of you don't read any of our emails or instructions anyway?

'X program is down, will update when repaired', does not stop users from submitting 50 emails and tickets saying X is down!!! whats going on??

 

[PlanetJosh]

Looks like it needs to be understood by almost the whole company in a short as possible message?

Lync Federation (MS instant messaging with outside companies) with Malaysia is not working, with advise when it is repaired.

Thought I'd give it a try, I even put an abbreviation in it.

 

[rudeguy]

If you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it. The people that do will understand the email.

We at IT don't know exactly who uses what in every single department, so if something goes down that effects some large number of users we'll just send out a blanket email.


Do you want us to explain every email in minute detail when we KNOW most of you don't read any of our emails or instructions anyway?

'X program is down, will update when repaired', does not stop users from submitting 50 emails and tickets saying X is down!!! whats going on??

lol

Our phone system crashes a lot. Its old and buggy. Whenever it does, there is a cascade of people yelling "my phone is down!". Now they don't use Spark or even talk to the person next to them to find out if anyone else is having the issue. Its just a stream of "MY PHONE ISN"T WORKING!!!!11111one"

Sometimes I stir the pot and IM all the IT people. Even though I know they already know and even though I don't use my phone

 

[PliotronX]

My fiancee actually likes it when I get all slangy on her. e.g. Telnetting into her fast ethernet port to configure her settings with my thick client.

 

[Narse]

I agree but also in the sense that a lot of IT folks have a holier than thou attitude. That attitude usually stems from the "customer" concept. We work for the same company, neither one of us is the other's boss, so aren't we coworkers or teammates?

This morning my computer crashed. Really pretty pixel pattern on the monitor followed by the CPU fan cranking up to 11. That was cool. I powered it off and let it think about what it had done, turned it on and no post. Cracked it open, no visible problems, so I yanked the memory. Sure enough it posted. I went up to IT with the bad stick and asked for a new one. I grabbed a new stick and was back up and running.

In the "customer" world of IT, I would have been beaten with sticks for cracking open my computer. We need tickets and SOP and drama to get things fixed. Too many times IT makes things a lot, lot, lot more difficult than it has to be.

I love people like you. I always try to find at least one person at every site I support that is savvy enough to do basic troubleshooting and be able to tell me the problem etc. Nothing worse when you have to do remote support is get someone that you cannot get a clear explanation from or can't understand any basic instructions.

 

[zinfamous]

"Um, I deleted the Internet"

I've done that before.

 

[zinfamous]

Do as you are trained... AND KILL THE MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER! - Zoolander

Well, they can't until the Lync Federation is back up.

 

[Doppel]

sounds like you're a busy body. why do you care if it doesn't apply to you? no one has time to explain every damn thing to you. if you don't know what lync is then you obviously don't use it. move on.

Of your three posts/year you reserved one to write this? What does it feel like to be of so little value you think a post like that is worth coming out of hiding? lawls

 

[rh71]

This morning my computer crashed. Really pretty pixel pattern on the monitor followed by the CPU fan cranking up to 11. That was cool. I powered it off and let it think about what it had done, turned it on and no post. Cracked it open, no visible problems, so I yanked the memory. Sure enough it posted. I went up to IT with the bad stick and asked for a new one. I grabbed a new stick and was back up and running.

In the "customer" world of IT, I would have been beaten with sticks for cracking open my computer. We need tickets and SOP and drama to get things fixed. Too many times IT makes things a lot, lot, lot more difficult than it has to be.

what would have gone down if you fried something because of static electricity (or maybe you drop your coffee) when you went digging around in there? You fry your mobo and you're no longer being productive for an extended amount of time due to your own mistake. Even if it started as a RAM issue the IT dept. is going to mention the state it's in. That looks bad to your superiors, not theirs.

We're an IT company and most of us know our way around but sometimes it's best to let the right people take responsibility (ownership) of a problem so you're not left holding the bag. Also when there's controls in place (granted also red tape) and the fit hits the shan, the culprit (person, part, or process) can be identified so it doesn't happen again. IT asset people typically do not want know-it-alls just digging around and potentially causing worse problems or confusion and I don't blame them.

 

[kranky]

IT asset people typically do not want know-it-alls just digging around and potentially causing worse problems or confusion and I don't blame them.

I've seen that many times. Someone messes around inside their PC and screws things up worse, and they won't tell the IT guy what they did because they know it's going to come back on them.

Or they install something they shouldn't, and now something else isn't working, and they won't tell the person who's trying to fix it.

I had a guy who's a near-total PC know-nothing install Firefox then come to me because something wasn't working right on the company intranet (which only works properly on IE). I sat down at his PC and when his back was turned for a second I closed FF and opened IE, and showed him everything was OK. He never even noticed.

Couple days later he's back for the same problem, probably when he needed to use the intranet again. I pull the same trick. Third time, I let him have it - why are you trying to use Firefox on the intranet when it doesn't work? Why did you install this program? Why didn't you realize YOU caused your own problem, but you keep wasting MY time? He almost crapped his pants, and I don't think he'll be installing anything else.

It was one of the very few times I let somebody have it but he loves to yell for help whenever the most inconsequential thing has him puzzled, so he can blame something for not getting his work done. "Hey, come over and look at this. Excel is all screwed up. It's putting garbage in this cell."

Cell contains 1.365E+11. "Look at that, it has an E in there. That's not even a number."

I look at his spreadsheet, see what he's trying to do, look at the formula, see that he multiplied when he should have divided, tell him what the problem is, and fix it.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that formula had a typo. Is that why it went crazy and put garbage in there?"

(think whether I really want to bring up scientific notation... no) "In the future, when you see something strange, check your formulas because the problem is always going to be something you did, not Excel."

 

[Juddog]

lol

Our phone system crashes a lot. Its old and buggy. Whenever it does, there is a cascade of people yelling "my phone is down!". Now they don't use Spark or even talk to the person next to them to find out if anyone else is having the issue. Its just a stream of "MY PHONE ISN"T WORKING!!!!11111one"

Sometimes I stir the pot and IM all the IT people. Even though I know they already know and even though I don't use my phone

Now that's just plain mean.

 

[imagoon]

100% disagree.

There are only two jobs at every company. You either serve the customer directly or you serve someone who does.

That still does not make the person serving the customer, my customer. They are coworkers and should work with us as such.