![]() ![]() We hear things like, "Does insert software/hardware vendor here know that we're a research university? They should be donating what we need!" and "Our server was hacked because IT didn't do it's job. The university I'm at now is, with few exceptions, professors who want to spend as little $$ as possible on the IT that they absolutely rely on and then complain about how much it costs and how everything should be free for them because they're doing the sciences. Aside from the executives, everyone understood how much work went into something. Probably the only place I've ever felt appreciated was at the IT consulting company I used to work for. Take the crap, nod your head confidently and silently with eye contact, and reassure them you have made strides towards finding a solution to the issue and are confident your search will lead to a resolution. Get an email from the vendor/software company explaining that there are bugs and share this with upper management. Luckily most of the time this helps with getting them off your back and your CEO’s butt for a bit while you wait on a solution to descend from on high.Īlso when there is an issue that affects users for an extended period of time, anything that adds to that (isssues with laptop batteries, which probably are too old and need to be replaced, sounds like) is just icing on the cake and will be blew up x10. Sadly the trade off is making you look like a bit of an ass in front of other department heads. However, this isn’t always damaging, and is sometimes meant to give you ‘more time’. ![]() One way higher ups (who don’t understand IT issues or bugs) handle bickering from other departments about this or that not working is by making a bit of a show of it at management meetings. It also helps that everyone there realizes we aren't saving lives, it's okay if something is broken for a little bit, and they understand sometimes things break. But I can genuinely just smile, help them out, and go back to my thing without a worry. You know, stuff that isn't my issue, bugging me when they shouldn't be etc. Because I've had situations that would've made me quite annoyed at other workplaces. Honestly it's really proving the whole, make your workers happy and they'll go above and beyond without a second thought, thing. The cash bonus also helped to soothe the anxiety though haha. ![]() That all got read at the all hands meeting and aside from my social anxiety it was honestly really lovely. Several people who I wouldn't have expected to wrote really lovely things about me and how I helped them sort out issues. I even got nominated by several people for employee of the month (and won), the topic being Excellence or collaboration, I think. It is definitely dependent upon workplace culture, and the general attitude of people and the country you're in in general.Īt my current job I actually feel ridiculous over-appreciated. There apparently was less laughter when my boss pointed the finger at Maintenance for not handling the upkeep contract properly for the generators. Site manager walks up and asks "When's the power going to be back up?" The Maintenance manager looks at him "I'm not psychic, that's why I'm on the phone with the company right now." I laughed and told him that's how IT feels half the time and the 3 of us chuckled for a bit. Power went out, generator failed and he's on the phone. He wasn't good with tech but he didn't cause issues for us. I got to have a good laugh with the Maintenance manager once. When you're trying to explain to a manager who knows how to get bags of flour filled by the machine that the SaaS application that handles the weights and measures is down (and also not owned by IT) you have to simplify. Computer knowledge was low to non-existent in over half of the people I dealt with and average to competent for about 30%. I would have phrased it a bit differently to fit the audience. The "dumbed down" version would be after explaining that the vendor service/site was down and outside of our control. Depends on the audience, the example I gave is what I would have used at my last job which was a food production warehouse. ![]()
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