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How many times have you had to tell your kids, “don’t touch that, it’s not yours?” Well believe me, it doesn’t stop there. Us adults have this same issue. We can get very cranky when things that are ours (or things that we think are ours) get touched, moved around, modified, destroyed or simply looked at in the wrong way. This brings me to two interesting arguments (from both sides of the IT/end-user world)… First, from the IT guy’s side:
I know you think it’s your computer but in all honesty, it’s not. - See, just because the IT department gave you a computer, a login to the network and maybe a pretty Blackberry (oh how I miss my Blackberry), these are still company-owned items and in the end are controlled by none other than, the company. There are reasons that there are rules and regulations about what can and can not be used on the company computers and this is to A) keep the trouble tickets down on messed up machines and make sure that productivity stays at 100% all the time (this doesn’t include the 50% of your time that’s spent on Facebook, LinkedIn and the other time-consuming sites) and B) keep the spy-ware, ad-ware, mal-ware and other-ware that can impact a company’s intellectual property by stealing or destroying the data.
On the other hand, the end-user definitely has something to say to the IT guy:
I know you think it’s your computer but in all honesty, it’s not. - At the same time that my report had to go out, an email from an important client was coming in and my latest TPS reports were being uploaded to the server you, the IT guy, came along and installed updates, rebooted my company and now caused a BSOD every time I try to open Lotus Notes (ouch), Internet Explorer or any number of applications that used to be used for the daily grind of work. These “upgrades” or “enhancements” that are added to the computer should always be tested on someone else’s computer before taking over the employee’s laptops.
Sometimes these issues go in both directions. Both the all-powerful and all-knowing IT guy and the angry and busy end-user are both wrong. Make sure you take the time to follow the golden rule… Treat others as you would like to be treated. And if you like it rough, then treat them much gentler because odds are they don’t.
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I’ll start testing every update the day my users realize that company emails cannot be used for trolling personal websites, having virtual sex via dirty emails or that it’s not o.k. to install Dora The Explora Six on their company laptops.
I realize that no company system is going to be 100% for company use, I don’t pretend to do that on my office computers (which by the way are just as much company property as the users’) but for the love of Pete, just because the company buys you a laptop does not mean you can throw away the old clunker at home and hand your work computer off to your kids every time you come home.
And on that note I have one blanket statement: UNLESS YOU WORK FOR THE COMPANY THAT DEVELOPED LIMEWIRE THERE IS NEVER A REASON TO HAVE IT ON YOUR SYSTEM, I DON’T CARE IF YOU DO HAVE LIMEWIRE LIGHT.
Wading into this argument as an IT guy who was formerly responsible for deploying Microsoft’s updates, I can say that I’ve only had 1 update “break” a machine. And this was out of over 300 updates that we deployed while I was at this job. That’s a 99.6% success rate. Most every time there was some problem on someone’s machine though, the question came up “What update did you push out.” It generally took me about 5 minutes of troubleshooting to determine the actual cause of a problem, typically user error or software misconfiguration. The bottom line is, the IT guy is right in this argument. Typically software updates are deployed during the night, at a time that causes the LEAST amount of trouble for people. What we can’t do is keep 100% of users happy 100% of the time. I’m sorry you had to reboot your computer to install a patch I deployed, but this is not only to protect your computer, it’s to protect the REST of my entire network. Now put on your big boy pants and deal.