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Is A Bad Attitude Damaging The IT Profession?
dtienes writes "Why does IT get a free pass to insult users? Slamming customers isn't acceptable in any other profession; doctors don't call their patients "meatbags" — at least, not publicly. But IT professionals think nothing of wearing their scorn on their sleeves (or at least their chests — just check out ThinkGeek). There's more at stake here than just a few hard feelings. IT may be seriously damaging the credibility of the profession. See the essay I'm An Idiot (And Other Lessons From The IT Department) for a former IT professional turned user's take on insults, attitudes and ethics.
(Full disclosure: The submitter is also the author.)"
Nothing for you to see here, please move along
See, it's attitudes like that....
The real litigious bastards...
What, all doctors aren't like House?
People think Microsoft is the answer. Microsoft is just the question, "No" is the answer.
I heard a saying one time. I don't know the origins:
"Accounts departments love IT Departments. For before there was IT, everyone hated Accounts. But now everyone hates the IT Dept."
This seems to hold some truth from my experience.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Given a sufficiently large group of people, some of them will be wankers.
Wah! Some IT people are nasty! Yeah, isn't humanity a horrible thing? Ever met an unpleasant doctor, lawyer, bus driver, teacher, plumber? But let's forget about reality and hurl some ill-considered generalisations instead.
Or better yet, let's not. I've worked in IT for ten years or so and the vast majority of my colleagues have been professionals who behave...well, professionally. Some users are easier to interact with than others; a particularly incalcitrant customer will provoke the odd grumble back in the IT office. A member of staff who publically insults/intmidates/ridicules/humiliates a user should, and usually will, get a smack from the management stick.
Of course attitude problems will sometimes arise and fail to be corrected, and the appropriate manager should be bludgeoned with the aforementioned stick. More often, IT staff will work with their user base to achieve a mutually satisfactory goal. Painting the entire industry as a bunch of ill-bred sociopaths is wrong, stupid and insulting.
Typical fucking user.
In my experience, I found that the IT guys are being paid more than other people in the building on average, actually much more than their job description warrants. Management is ignorant to the fact most stuff just works and the IT guys basically sit around all day browsing slashdot.org etc,... breaking stuff once in awhile to make them look useful. This leads to to a level of arrogance brought on by the fact that they must make others feel they are ABSOLUTELY necessary to the well being of the company. If they weren't there, the place would break down and we'd all be walking around aimlessly without their "expertise" Like Doctors and Mechanics, this is their little God Complex. It's quite amusing actually. I've found myself not fixing my own computer problems on purpose just so they have something to do. They are not much more use than elevator operators to me. Sorry.
Uh! Oh! Like, um, way do the IT people have to be so... I dunno! Like, um, pissy? I dunno! Why do cops loathe the miscreant scumbags that they have to deal with every day? Why do attorneys ask to be taken off cases when they're stuck defending child molesters? Why do restaurant employees spit in your food when you're winning an Academy award for the Most Outstanding Performance by an Asshole? Why do people flip you off after you jump your SUV over the curb and flatten an old lady to make the left turn from the right lane against the light?
the correct question to ask: why is a diploma in computer science also a license for the rest of the world to treat you like a doormat? You expect that you have a God-given right to be an asinine jerk and the IT department has no call to protest?
Nah ... couldn't be. Developers fix their own problems, set up their own system configurations, run their own servers, and can fix most hardware issues with a rubber band, duct tape, a screw driver and a post-it - and when that fails, a sledge-hammer, 'cuz it was broken anyway.
imagine if a shocking percentage of the population drove their cars without any thought to changing their oil, airing their tires, or even filling their tank with gas.
You mean my wife?
Male pronouns in papers got you points off, and using "they" would loose yourself grammar points.
You sure you weren't 'loosing' the points for some other reason?
Woman
...I probably would have been a math or physics major instead. They are a million times nicer to girls over there. They are desperate to have them.
You can't expect the IT guys to be so accomodating to you when they have way so many women after them as it is.