Network World has an article up on what people dislike about IT. A lot of the points made certainly touch upon experiences I have had. Some issues are tough to avoid.

“[It irks me] when an IT manager ‘fixes’ something on my computer and then says ‘It should work now’ and walks away,”

I have done that to users often, but I do not know what alternative there is. If I know the problem is fixed, I say so. However, if it is a problem that could be multi-faceted, and may appear in some form still, I let the user know that as well. In an ideal world, IT would be able to fix every problem every time. However, that just is not practical sometimes. It can be the complexities of technology, where an issue in one system causes unexpected issues in another system. Or sometimes the description of the problem that a user provides is vague at best, and does not enable IT to confidently address the issue.

“What bugs me most about my IT manager is, when he makes a change to my computer he always leaves things undone – keyboard shortcuts [are missing], programs that I use all the time are uninstalled, passwords don’t work,” says one woman who works at a Washington, D.C. radio station. “And it always seems to happen overnight or on the weekends, so when I arrive in the early morning I don’t have access to the things I need. It drives me nuts!”

Oh, I am familiar with this scenario! This is partly a training issue. There are times where changes will take place with the system, and programs will revert to their default locations. If users understood that applications reside inside the START menu (Windows world), they would have no problems doing their work. Some users just insist on running everything from their desktop. True, we can take steps to ensure their desktop reflects the changes, and perhaps we should. Also, training is IT’s responsibility. It is just so difficult to change an entire organizations “poor” computer behavior. I really do not see issues similar to this ending anytime soon.

One IT executive points out one of the technology industry’s most basic terms. “Look at the word ‘user,’ which we use to describe people. It does not have positive connotations; either someone is shooting heroin or freeloading off their family,” says Frank Gillman, director of technology with Allen Matkins, a law firm in Los Angeles.

This point is just silly. Do athletes playing a sport get upset being called players? Do they think it implies flirting with members of the opposite sex? Users use computers, hence the term.

Alan Matkins’ Gillman instructs his staff to teach users enough so when they run into the same problem with their PC again, they don’t necessarily need to call the help desk.

This is definitely a double edged sword. While it is nice having users that will solve some basic issues, those same users can sometimes muck things up when they are playing around. Or, they may repeatedly “solve” a problem, without alerting IT to the issue, which may be a sign of a bigger issue that needs attention.

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