Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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People urgently asking advice from "an expert" (that's me) and then flat out dismissing your answer with "I don't believe you, I'm not going to try that". Gets me seriously worked up the few times it happens. And 99% of the time my answer will be correct.
 
lauwersw said:
People urgently asking advice from "an expert" (that's me) and then flat out dismissing your answer with "I don't believe you, I'm not going to try that". Gets me seriously worked up the few times it happens. And 99% of the time my answer will be correct.
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Now, I'm not saying that most folk asking for an expert need an expert, but sometimes we do.

I have a static IP address and run my own email server. In the past couple years, some major email servers have been using reverse DNS to filter out emails from servers without a reverse DNS record. The first tier help line folk didn't know what that meant. I had to talk to an expert to discover the really ridiculous fact that my ISP would not provide a reverse ISP record for me, though it would take less than five minutes to do so. They own the IP address, so only they can do it.

On occasion, the front line people aren't competent to answer technical questions. Probably not the majority of times, but sometimes the callers need an expert.

Oh, and RCN sucks. At least they offer static IPs, but reverse DNS would be easy to support.
 
phiwum said:
On occasion, the front line people aren't competent to answer technical questions. Probably not the majority of times, but sometimes the callers need an expert.
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More than once I've been frustrated when I had to call the in-house IT support desk about problems with the email server. Since I worked on corporate email servers for more than a decade (writing and supporting them), at the point I needed to call the help desk I had already done reasonably advanced troubleshooting, and typically knew the problem was a setting on the server end. I would then have to battle my way past someone who wanted to start from scratch by doing a remote session on my PC, and somehow get a message to the person administering the corporate email server.
 
JoeMorgue said:
No. Just... no.

The number of people that think that showing Deborah in finance how to resize an Excel cell for the twelfth time and listen to her wave off any attempt to show her how to do it herself with a giggling "Oh I'm just not a computer person..." is not only my job but the entirety of my job is the one (and largely only) thing I hate about working in the IT field. Trust me I have more than enough responsibilities that have nothing to do with showing users how to perform tasks they should know how to perform on their own.

All other fields maintain both at least some demarcation between user support and user training (as in the people who fix your equipment and the people who show you how to use aren't the same person) and don't foster this weird, proud intentional ignorance of the primary tool of your job.

Imagine pulling your car into the mechanic.
Driver: My car is displaying this weird error message.
Mechanic: What does the error say?
Driver: I don't know, I'm not a car guy.
Mechanic: Errrrr okay... let me take a look. It's the low fuel warning, you're almost out of gas.
Driver: Oh that's all gibberish, just fix it for me.
Mechanic: There's nothing wrong your car, you just need to put some gas in it.
Driver: Can't you do it? Like I said I'm just not a car person.
Mechanic: It's easy. You just go to a gas station, open the fuel cap...
Driver: I'm not going to remember all those technical terms.
Mechanic: Well there's nothing broken or out of standards on your car. It just needs fuel.
Driver: So I'll just call you whenever this happens.
Mechanic: Well no that's not really my job...
Driver: Listen I depend on this car for work and I'm not a car guy. I'll be back next time it needs gas. Now if you'll excuse me I'll need to go put "Excellent Car Skills" on my resume and quarterly performance reviews.

That's exactly the level IT staff expected to operate at lest they be thought of as "unprofessional."

The guy behind the counter at Burger King isn't unprofessional because he won't chew your Whopper for you. You don't go back to your mechanic every time you need a turn signal turned on.



Three times a week minimum I have to listen to one of my users' long form rants about how the computer system that their leadership, not the IT dept, choose and purchase are "too slow." "Computer Unhappiness Whining Post" is part of my job description.
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I'm glad you are not one of my IT guys....
 
Mongrel said:
Because it's not that people don't know (and for many office jobs you should know anyway) it's the coquettish giggles and "I'm not very goods witrh computers" that imply that "I have no intention of learning how to use one the tools of my job".
It's the "I don't want to press anything because I don't want to break it" or the false equivilance of "I use a gajillion social media platforms, therefore I'm good with technology!". IT people aren't asking that you be able to build your computer from scratch and recompile the kernel for the custom *nix install but we'd at least like you to not get aggressive when we ask you check a cable or dread introducing the "Right Click" into a curative procedure...
(Because, for the rest of the call every time you say "Click X" you'll always get asked "Is that a Right Click?")
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It's worse for those in mobile phone shops, people demanding fixes for their phones from sales people. Screaming that "I need this for my business and email doesn't work any longer fix it", "All my baby pictures are on it but I've broken it - fix it" The direct comparison would be someone buying a car and then a year later coming back into the car dealership saying "I can't reverse the car you must fix it" or "I need it for my job but I don't want to learn to drive a car".

There is nothing cute or clever saying you don't want to learn.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Why? Do you expect your IT guys to do your job for you because "but... but it's on the computer and I'm just not a computer person..."
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No, I expect them to make sure that the computers and systems work. That's their job.
If it gets too hard they can just sort it out remotely whilst us luddites sit back with a cup of coffee.
The use of the actual programmes is not their problem. For that we train staff in the systems they need to use.


theprestige said:
He may assume that because his IT guys don't express their frustration to him, that they must not feel that frustration.
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Anyone dealing with people outside their field of expertise (and often within it - many people are just idiots) has to deal with frustration. What makes IT people special?
 
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theprestige said:
He may assume that because his IT guys don't express their frustration to him, that they must not feel that frustration.
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IT guys who don't express their frustration to the customers are simply doing their job properly.

Yeah, we all get frustrated. And we answer calls with a smile in our voice and a "have a great day". Because that's what you do.

We've got one guy in our Tier 2 who always seems to be complaining, and he always sounds like it. I feel sorry for the customers who are forced to interact with him. It can't be a particularly pleasant experience.
 
fagin said:
Anyone dealing with people outside their field of expertise (and often within it - many people are just idiots) has to deal with frustration. What makes IT people special?
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The problem is when people whose job it is to use computers don't know how to use the computers that their job depends on.

Basic familiarity with Windows and Microsoft Office has been part of every government selection criteria for every government job since the early 90s. There's absolutely no excuse for someone in a government job to not know how to use copy and paste. I don't care how "computer literate" you think you aren't. It is part of your job to know about these things.

That's what's frustrating. And when someone asks us how our day's been, we say "Great!". This is why alternative outlets that allow us to vent our frustrations on someone who is not a customer are so useful.
 
Wudang said:
And isn't that exactly what he's complaining about? Those people asking for help with the "actual programs" because "they're not computer people"?
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Yep. I think a lot of the frustration is caused because some of these folk act like not being able to do the rudimentary things is something to be proud of, a kind of reverse intellectual superiority. Whereas it is akin to being proud of being illiterate because other people should read things out aloud for you.
 
Darat said:
Yep. I think a lot of the frustration is caused because some of these folk act like not being able to do the rudimentary things is something to be proud of, a kind of reverse intellectual superiority. Whereas it is akin to being proud of being illiterate because other people should read things out aloud for you.
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Like someone in the White House just now...
 
Dear User
You little essay about how desperately you need something done, often because you did not follow directions, is not going to change your position in the work order line.
 
Darat said:
Yep. I think a lot of the frustration is caused because some of these folk act like not being able to do the rudimentary things is something to be proud of, a kind of reverse intellectual superiority. Whereas it is akin to being proud of being illiterate because other people should read things out aloud for you.
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It's exactly like people who declare themselves "bad at maths" as though that's something to be proud of.
 
One of the silliest jobs I had to do in "emergency" tech support (I supposed to be on call only when real tech support was down or extremely bust OR something they could JUST NOT handle) ...

... was translate between the end user and the regular tech desk, particularly for Asian customers ... Oh BTW I speak ZERO of ANY of the many Asian languages! :)

Apparently my experience working on a "Chinese Farm" part time for ten years was all it took to translate the tech needs requested. :)
 
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Our users' careful facades of cheerfulness as we enter the fifth week of ongoing application/NAS storage issues are starting to crack. Folks are getting understandably frustrated.
 
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