IT helpdesks

Being an IT person can sometimes be very stressful.  Not because computer systems go down, but because they are used by people, who tend to get annoyed when they break.  As I have said many times, my IT systems are perfect, it is usually the users that break them.  :) Without users my world would be great



As an "IT Guy" the most annoying problems for IT are the "It will only take a minute" type ones, as they end up consuming days of your time and without being logged in the helpdesk system, are impossible to track.  Whilst I appreciate that most people don't like logging calls because they feel that they are ignored, the problem is that IT, like every other part of the business, has to provide metrics on how they are going and where they are improving for management. Our means of doing this is through the Helpdesk.

 If we provide a means for you to log calls, take advantage of it and provide all the information you can to ensure that your fix is 1. permanent, 2. appropriate, 3. as speedy as possible.  

If we have to log the call for you, it will take longer for us to help you as we will drag our feet as a form of negative reinforcement.   If you log a call that says only "it's broken, fix it" we will ignore it (or at least bump it down the queue), the same as you would ignore a sales call from someone that wants your services for nothing. 

If you provide us with sufficient information to speedily look at the issue, we will attempt to fix it as soon as possible as this improves our metrics (and provides those "feel good" references ).

I appreciate that as an Information worker (or ship driver, or stockbroker, or fire fighter) your computer being broken is an inconvenience and can stop you working. However screaming at the IT guy to "Fix it now, because I can't get my ...." is not going to motivate us to go above and beyond to get you working again.  IT are doing our part for workplace harmony by encouraging polite requests.  Feel free to ring us if your issue is urgent (I need to get this report out in the next 10 minutes and the printer is not printing) but make sure you have logged the job first.  It gives us a reference point particularly if you have noted that you have an urgent report to print.  Please understand though, that if the reason you cannot print is because the server has had a catastrophic failure, we may be a little pre-occupied.

In short, IT is a service area and like all service areas, a little courtesy can go a long way to making our task more pleasant and in turn, make us want to assist you.   Being rude or nasty is just going to guarantee that we are going to use the only means at our disposal to get back at you, because, after all, we are people too. 

And for some humour

Things IT people would never say

Cheers

Hazmoid