Are IT staff supposed to know everything

Forums › IT Pro and developers › Are IT staff supposed to know everything

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#150734 1-Aug-2014 11:29

This is a bit of a rant and it is IT related so it could be in the wrong forum.

My question is are IT staff expected to know everything and I mean everything.

Yesterday one of my staff was booked to help a guest speaker setup their laptop for a presentation in one of our conference facilities. The guest arrived, put their laptop on a table next to the stage and sat down to talk to some people. There was no introduction, hello or even acknowledgement my staff member who was standing right there!

My staff member not knowing when the event was starting at he was only told to be there at 10.00am went up to them after standing around for 30 mins to suggest they come over and setup their laptop and their reply was have you not done it yet and a look of disgust.

The other difficult person my staff have dealt with was this morning when a visitor bought their computer into us with the language being in Mandarin and expecting us to fix their computer and then give them internet access. No one in my department is Chinese or understands Mandarin.

Does anyone else get ignorant people like this who expect us to speak every language and read minds??

I often wonder how some people make it through life....

---

Blake R

www.btr.net.nz

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Networkn
32351 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1099925 1-Aug-2014 11:36

I suspect the look of disgust was the fact after 30 minutes progress wasn't made. I would encourage your staff member to next time approach the user after 5 minutes or less. The language thing is more difficult ;)

Demeter

709 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

One NZ

#1099927 1-Aug-2014 11:40

Your post summarizes awesomely the reason I gave up my job as a system engineer at Gen-i. I utterly adored what I was doing, but people can be such dicks.

BTR

1527 posts

Uber Geek

#1099928 1-Aug-2014 11:40

networkn: I suspect the look of disgust was the fact after 30 minutes progress wasn't made. I would encourage your staff member to next time approach the user after 5 minutes or less. The language thing is more difficult ;)

Sorry I should have been more clear, my staff member wasn't even sure if the person with the laptop was the keynote speaker and he spent the time "Standing around" performing sound and video checks.

I was goin to write that in my original post but didn't as it was turning into a novel.

networkn

Networkn
32351 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1099930 1-Aug-2014 11:41

BTR:
networkn: I suspect the look of disgust was the fact after 30 minutes progress wasn't made. I would encourage your staff member to next time approach the user after 5 minutes or less. The language thing is more difficult ;)

Sorry I should have been more clear, my staff member wasn't even sure if the person with the laptop was the keynote speaker and he spent the time "Standing around" performing sound and video checks.

I was goin to write that in my original post but didn't as it was turning into a novel.

Yah it's an interesting one, I don't think it's worth getting too worried about honestly :)

We deal with a lot of ignorance in the IT industry, what sets you apart is how you train your staff to react to it.

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1099932 1-Aug-2014 11:45

My sister thinks I am a mind reader when it comes to IT issues with her Home PC

networkn

Networkn
32351 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1099933 1-Aug-2014 11:46

johnr: My sister thinks I am a mind reader when it comes to IT issues with her Home PC

I vaguely considered adding mind reader to our business cards behind the qualifications section but decided against it :)

linw

2849 posts

Uber Geek

#1099934 1-Aug-2014 11:48

Yep, you have to be able to read minds!!

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#1099936 1-Aug-2014 11:54

Working in IT has confirmed one thing for me - that the majority of people are incredibly stupid, and I don't know how they manage to survive.

MurrayM

2456 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1099937 1-Aug-2014 11:54

The mind reading bit really gets to me. "It doesn't work, please fix it" is hardly useful information to give to someone!

Behodar

10504 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1099939 1-Aug-2014 12:00

I'm a developer and this morning one of my coworkers called a customer to get a little more detail with a problem that she was having. That part of the call went without a hitch, until she added "while you're on the phone, how can I configure [third-party app] to do XYZ?"

Apparently there is indeed an expectation that we know everything.

gzt

17120 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1099940 1-Aug-2014 12:01

BTR: My question is are IT staff expected to know everything and I mean everything.

Yes.

BTR: My staff member not knowing when the event was starting at he was only told to be there at 10.00am went up to them after standing around for 30 mins to suggest they come over and setup their laptop and their reply was have you not done it yet and a look of disgust.

The speaker was expecting a personal assistant. This is how it works in some places.

BTR: The other difficult person my staff have dealt with was this morning when a visitor bought their computer into us with the language being in Mandarin and expecting us to fix their computer and then give them internet access. No one in my department is Chinese or understands Mandarin.

It's difficult but not impossible. Also maybe you should consider a new hiring criteria next time a position arises.

Ok, sorry ok, this is a rant and I'm supposed to sympathise with it; ). I do, seen those situations. Impossible demands. This is always a problem in any service role you care to name, which frontline IT essentially is, and backline IT essentially isn't.

Bee

732 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1099943 1-Aug-2014 12:05

I have had visitors to our workplace ask for help with their Apple Mac - I've never worked anywhere that uses Apple at all on their network.
I've had requests for help with pagers, phones, printers, broken down cars, other electrical issues("my computer isn't working" - um its called a power cut!), even plumbing issues!

So yes. If you work in IT you are considered a God that does know everything about everything!

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

gzt

17120 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1099947 1-Aug-2014 12:11

Same reason some people call 911 when they cannot find their remote.

wasabi2k

2096 posts

Uber Geek

#1099948 1-Aug-2014 12:11

Working support in schools and small business I think rule of thumb was if it has a cord we had to fix it...

PCs

Fax Machines

Kettles (seriously)...

The further you get from users the better IT gets. But in general - all people are bastards.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1099949 1-Aug-2014 12:13

I think a lot of this can be remedied at the outset.

1) When a job is taken on, make the "customer" aware of what they need to do to make it easier. In the first case "make yourself known to our staff member". In the second "We need you to change the language to English so we can do our job".

2) Find out the time frame you have. Not finding this out is just setting yourself up to fail.

3) Make sure your staff are easily identifiable too.

4) Remember that customers aren't mind readers either! You're a fricking genius compared to them, they don't know what you need to know, so it's your job to find out.

I don't think for a second that this is all the "customers" fault, the IT staff have not done everything they could to make it easier.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5