Rolling Links
- SimplyHelp Philadelphia Technology Support
- Srcasm Security is like an ogre
A friendly, fellow IT guy wrote:
A few days ago, I had a fairly funny request to turn the “network” time back 10-15 minutes. The only reason being someone didn’t get their proposal finished on time and wanted to make it look as if it was sent before the deadline. Since this wasn’t the first request for this issue, I could only shake my head and remind myself not to try explaining that the network time isn’t just to keep employees on the same schedule, but actually has a purpose and a potential consequence if it is not within certain parameters. My explanations, as simple as possible nonetheless, are now contributing to global warming. Nothing but CO2 gets processed.
After I got done laughing at some of the strange questions we receive in IT I realized that we are doing a grave injustice to our users by not explaining the reasons that this can not be done. See, I got started in IT because a teacher cared enough (well maybe she was simply paid to do it) to teach me a bit about an Apple IIe computer. I was hooked. From that point forward I’ve always made it a point to not only learn all I could about the inner-workings of the information highway and all of its surrounding entities but also to teach people along the way. When I learn a new WEP cracking method (not that people don’t know about the insecurities of WEP anyway) or of a new great service online for scheduling events, I let people know.
As an IT guru you should be helping people on their quest along that long and dark (or light) fiber connected road. It can only help you later on while figuring out why the new router or firewall went down or why the spam appliance is blocking all incoming email (or worse, allowing open relaying)… Just don’t give them the keys to the castle — they’re yours and yours alone.
This thing has 2 Comments
I always try to explain reasons behind why things work the way they do. But you could end up working with people like I do who deem everything “unacceptable” if it doesn’t work the way they think it should. Working in IT is the reason I smoke cigs (stress) and keep my hair short (otherwise I would pull it out). Mostly I find the non-technical users aren’t interested in the WHY, only that it DOES whatever they want it to do (right or wrong).
Kyle,
While I get your argument, I think that the reason that most people don’t “want” to hear the reasons WHY is because they feel they’ll just never understand. We, us IT people, seem to make things appear to be much more difficult than they are. I always tell people if they want to learn the technology, there are books; but if they want to learn how that technology can help them, they must work in IT.
Thanks for your comments, keep ‘em coming.