Why do so many I.T. professionals come across as condescending

[markgm]

I think the most condescending folks are those who work in any trade profession dealing with construction. I guess what they do compares closely with IT in that it's stuff that anyone can technically do (you can buy wire and pipes at Home Depot) but that most people don't have the skills to do. Just read any home improvement site and you'll see what I mean. Sometimes I don't know if they're trying to keep their jobs or just think that the world is filled with retards and don't want to be responsible when someone floods their house. IT is the same way, if all the users were smart and could do things themselves then the help desk would be out of a job.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: LS21
developer != proficient, or even competent, users

I'd have to say that the majority of the time (in my experience), if a developer wasn't a proficient or competent user, they were also not good developers.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: LS21
developer != proficient, or even competent, users

I'd have to say that the majority of the time (in my experience), if a developer wasn't a proficient or competent user, they were also not good developers.

But who said every developer is a good developer?

There are some people who are really good with software but don't know jack about hardware.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: LS21
developer != proficient, or even competent, users

I'd have to say that the majority of the time (in my experience), if a developer wasn't a proficient or competent user, they were also not good developers.

But who said every developer is a good developer?

There are some people who are really good with software but don't know jack about hardware.

Not me, that's for damn sure!

 

[markgm]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: LS21
developer != proficient, or even competent, users

I'd have to say that the majority of the time (in my experience), if a developer wasn't a proficient or competent user, they were also not good developers.

But who said every developer is a good developer?

There are some people who are really good with software but don't know jack about hardware.

Not me, that's for damn sure!

I think Sarah from Payroll said it. I'll talk to her about it.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: markgm

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: LS21
developer != proficient, or even competent, users

I'd have to say that the majority of the time (in my experience), if a developer wasn't a proficient or competent user, they were also not good developers.

But who said every developer is a good developer?

There are some people who are really good with software but don't know jack about hardware.

Not me, that's for damn sure!

I think Sarah from Payroll said it. I'll talk to her about it.

Hey, I saw her first!

*prepares fists of death*

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: nitro28
I don't disagree with this at all, but why belittle them? When you go to the doctor for example, they generally don't treat you like an idiot because you can't replace a heart valve. Everyone's skills fall in different areas. An I.T. guy, for example, may not perform well in a sales role because he or she does not possess the right skill set for this. Does this mean that someone on the sales team should treat them poorly because of this? No, so why the reverse?

No, but I dont try to do amateur heart repairs and then act like a prick because im unable to do so.

Users try to do stuff and dont want to take the time to learn how to do it properly and then they call IT and give us attitude.

We are not the fucking janitor, we are not maintenance. We are professionals like a doctor or lawyer.

No, you're monkeys.

we refer to them as Tech Monkeys here as well.

 

[AlienCraft]

Originally posted by: Farang
Any time you pair together one person who knows about something with a person who doesn't you're going to find. . . condensation.

That just means someone's all wet.... or a drip.

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: nitro28
I don't disagree with this at all, but why belittle them? When you go to the doctor for example, they generally don't treat you like an idiot because you can't replace a heart valve. Everyone's skills fall in different areas. An I.T. guy, for example, may not perform well in a sales role because he or she does not possess the right skill set for this. Does this mean that someone on the sales team should treat them poorly because of this? No, so why the reverse?

No, but I dont try to do amateur heart repairs and then act like a prick because im unable to do so.

Users try to do stuff and dont want to take the time to learn how to do it properly and then they call IT and give us attitude.

We are not the fucking janitor, we are not maintenance. We are professionals like a doctor or lawyer.

No, you're monkeys.

we refer to them as Tech Monkeys here as well.

And doesn't it scare you a little bit that you are so dependent on monkeys to keep your IT infrastructure up and running so that your business can operate? And if monkeys are able to do this, what does that say about you?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Judgement
"You need to restart your computer. The application you use to do your job has a memory leak and your computer has not been restarted for over 2 weeks. Restart the computer, I'll be back in 10mins to make sure it resolves the issue"
- "Ok"
*10mins later I return and have a puzzled look on my face*
- "Wait... you wanted me to restart right now?"
**I started to question how you've made it this far in life, or at the very least how you got your job**

I love when arrogant secretaries (they call themselves admins, but I know a goddamn secretary when I see one) have their hard drive fail at 8a.m. but they wait until 4:30 to report the issue. Then they proceed to demand that the issue get resolved before 5p.m. because they ABSOLUTELY need to send out an appointment to book a conference room for their boss (who is the most important senior director on the face of the earth, obviously). So now, assuming we have a spare hard drive available that already has a standard image installed on it, I have the task of attempting to recover all of the secretary's files they had saved to their local drive (why would anyone ever save business critical files to a network drive which gets backed up and is less likely to fail?).

Oh Yeah.. and what the hell has the secretary been doing all day? Obviously have not been working since all their job consists of is working in MS Office and sending out emails; so now I have a snotty secretary who hasn't done jack sh!t all day demanding I fix an issue they failed to report in any sort of timely fashion.

After awhile things like this start to jade you just a tad...

Haha, I deal with "admins" all day. I got talked to when I referred to one of them as a secretary. So now I refer to them as high paid secretaries. lol

 

[Mxylplyx]

They, as in IT support, only act like that when they think they are alot smarter than the people they are helping. When my group, software engineers, have to call IT to fix something we dont have rights to fix, they check their snobbery at the door, probably because they realize they are the bottom rung of what many generally call "IT". I think they begin to think too highly of themselves because they deal with stupid people all day, which would make any half witted person feel smart.

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: ahurtt

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: nitro28
I don't disagree with this at all, but why belittle them? When you go to the doctor for example, they generally don't treat you like an idiot because you can't replace a heart valve. Everyone's skills fall in different areas. An I.T. guy, for example, may not perform well in a sales role because he or she does not possess the right skill set for this. Does this mean that someone on the sales team should treat them poorly because of this? No, so why the reverse?

No, but I dont try to do amateur heart repairs and then act like a prick because im unable to do so.

Users try to do stuff and dont want to take the time to learn how to do it properly and then they call IT and give us attitude.

We are not the fucking janitor, we are not maintenance. We are professionals like a doctor or lawyer.

No, you're monkeys.

we refer to them as Tech Monkeys here as well.

And doesn't it scare you a little bit that you are so dependent on monkeys to keep your IT infrastructure up and running so that your business can operate? And if monkeys are able to do this, what does that say about you?

Who cares, if the (tech. /IT ) monkeys don't produce they get fired and them we bring in a slightly smarter chimp. I know most of the solutions that our monkeys provide but we are obligated to let them do what they do. We aren't even allowed to move personal items if we change desks. We have other monkeys for that.

BTW this is regarding desktop support type issues not the actual pros that take care of the databases.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: RKS
BTW this is regarding desktop support type issues not the actual pros that take care of the databases.

I can understand where a lot of you are coming from, and I agree with some of it (see my previous posts), but there are a significant number of IT people who actually know what they are doing, who serve in every capacity from help desk monkey to database administrator, report writer, and network engineer. I personally think it's unfair to call the "IT group" as a whole monkeys, because it does include all of IT.

/me rambles

 

[ja1484]

Mainly because they're smarter than you.

Duh.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: ahurtt

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: nitro28
I don't disagree with this at all, but why belittle them? When you go to the doctor for example, they generally don't treat you like an idiot because you can't replace a heart valve. Everyone's skills fall in different areas. An I.T. guy, for example, may not perform well in a sales role because he or she does not possess the right skill set for this. Does this mean that someone on the sales team should treat them poorly because of this? No, so why the reverse?

No, but I dont try to do amateur heart repairs and then act like a prick because im unable to do so.

Users try to do stuff and dont want to take the time to learn how to do it properly and then they call IT and give us attitude.

We are not the fucking janitor, we are not maintenance. We are professionals like a doctor or lawyer.

No, you're monkeys.

we refer to them as Tech Monkeys here as well.

And doesn't it scare you a little bit that you are so dependent on monkeys to keep your IT infrastructure up and running so that your business can operate? And if monkeys are able to do this, what does that say about you?

Who cares, if the (tech. /IT ) monkeys don't produce they get fired and them we bring in a slightly smarter chimp. I know most of the solutions that our monkeys provide but we are obligated to let them do what they do. We aren't even allowed to move personal items if we change desks. We have other monkeys for that.

BTW this is regarding desktop support type issues not the actual pros that take care of the databases.

The thread topic is about IT professionals being condescending. Oh the irony... :roll:

 

[themisfit610]

I work in healthcare for the IT department, and it's really not that bad. We have our fair share of utter morons, but most people can at least get logged in, open up Lotus Notes, and get their work done..

Some people do come off as condescending, but most of good customer interaction comes from being patient, and assuming that the user knows nothing. Otherwise, you set yourself up for failure.

Just assume they know nothing, smile, and guide them through every step (or do it all yourself, and let them worry about their job). We do lots of work remotely. It helps.

~MiSfit

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
I work in healthcare for the IT department, and it's really not that bad. We have our fair share of utter morons, but most people can at least get logged in, open up Lotus Notes, and get their work done..

Some people do come off as condescending, but most of good customer interaction comes from being patient, and assuming that the user knows nothing. Otherwise, you set yourself up for failure.

Just assume they know nothing, guide them through every step (or do it all yourself, and let them worry about their job). We do lots of work remotely. It helps.

~MiSfit

Don't you just love Lotus?

"An error has occurred opening a window."

Today while I was using it, I switched from Access to Lotus...it literally took 30 seconds for the screen to redraw and be able to actually click on something in it. And this is a 2GHz Core 2 Duo I'm on at work.

 

[themisfit610]

yeah god help you. I think a lot of it is because of their proprietary GUI system, and the fact that a lot of it runs off the network

 

[bobsmith1492]

What I would like to know is how am I, as an engineer, supposed to get any work done when I need 20 different random little programs from time to time and find new ones fairly often but can't install anything because everything is locked down? I haven't had to do any programming in a corporate environment (save Labview which doesn't count) so I still don't know. Anyone?