IT Likes Me
Posted Mar 17, 2009 Co-workers
∞ I overheard the line “just fix it” used in a conversation with IT today, which reminded me of old private IT jokes.
A dubious honor was once bestowed on me, when an IT pro in one of my company’s satellite offices printed out a trouble ticket I’d entered and tacked it to his wall. I found this when I went by to introduce myself and say hello during a visit to this office. Apparently, it’s the best ticket he’s ever gotten, becuase it showed some personality.
I don’t advise wasting IT’s time. There are ways, though, to be remembered as someone they want to help - just as in any environment where one person is performing a service for another. Part of my successful relationship with IT where I’ve worked has been the fact that I don’t expect them to drop everything and rush to my aid, and show appropriate gratitude when they do. I’m also computer literate enough that when I open a trouble ticket, it’s usually something really wrong that I don’t have the right permissions to fix.
I’m also apparently entertaining. That ticket on the wall?
Suzie Q. Employee on the fourth floor maintains that she didn’t distribute drugs to her computer, but it’s giving her the error message in the attached screenshot anyway. This is getting in the way of a semi-critical job function for her, so if you could get it into rehab as soon as possible I’d appreciate it. I’ve listed below her phone number and the exact steps she takes up to the point when the error message pops up.
I should point out that the culture was such that I could get away with that joke. You don’t want to inadvertently make a comment about a drug-addled desktop to a member of Narcotics Anonymous, but since I’d had tickets closed in the past with lines like “who knows? I reinstalled it since it was on drugs,” I figured I was safe. I became known as the guy with the sense of humor and an appropriate level of patience for the process, and I was told later that they love getting tickets from me.
IT is just like any other group you might have to interact with. Give them the information they need to help you, and they’re happy to do it. If you don’t know what they need or how to get it, be up-front about it and ask. It’s not their responsibility to divine, a la Miss Cleo, what’s wrong and how to fix it. They don’t expect you to know exactly what’s wrong, but you have to work with them.
And yes, I did explain this to the person I overheard getting snotty with IT. If good work relations aren’t a good enough reason, you should at the very least be nice to the guy who can read your email. ∞
