Those &%#@! IT Guys

I have been watching all day as Shelley cusses the IT guys at her company(actually she doesn't cuss but I couldn't think of a better way to describe her emotions). Since I am an IT guy and responsible for all of the technology operations at a small to medium sized company, I have been listening from a different perspective. On more than one occasion she has said something like "They are one of your kind".

This isn't the first time Shelley has gone to battle with her company's IT department and I don't think that is unusual for a lot of people that work at company's with IT departments. Why do people dislike us so much? We are generally geeky guys with a desire to please.

But, one thing I think we fail to do very well is communicate. Isn't that at the root of many problems? We fail to tell people we are taking email down over the weekend or we don't tell people that because of the latest upgrade that all of their passwords are going to be reset.

Also, as a general rule we aren't people persons. We are more comfortable communicating via email than over the phone. And when we discuss a problem over the phone we can have a tendency to be short and abrupt out of our desire to get off of the phone quickly. But, I think this can often leaves the user feeling like their problem is just an inconvenience to us.

I also think users often feel that we enjoy it when things aren't working properly, like it gives us some sense of power or purpose. Or that it shows how important the IT department is to the company. This couldn't be further from the truth because we hate it. Since we are not social people the thing we like the least is being the center of attention and when things are not working, we become the center of attention and that makes us very uncomfortable.

So, Shelley, from all of us "grumpy" IT guys, I am sorry for the bad day you had today.