I.T. Department - No Longer Support Group????

[infiniteMPG]

A general non-tech question as I seem to of missed a shift. The I.T.
Department used to be a support group to assist people to do their
jobs more efficiently and advance to company. They seem to of now
shifted to being a controlling group that has more power and control
then the people that actual produce the products of the company. Not
so long ago a question would be posed to the I.T. Department and they
would assist as much as possible and help people work more efficiently
and get people the tolls they needed to make the company profitable.
These exchanges were closed with "thank you's" and people feeling they
helped and were helped. Times were good and people wore smiles.

Now people fear asking for computer help, and when a question for
assistance does get posed it's responded to as if it's a bother and an
annoyance. People are treated like they are ignorant and the I.T.
staff usually acts upon the request when they feel like it. It seems
that I.T. have lost track of the fact that their existance is to
provide tools and support so the people who create the products that
the business makes can continue to do so and do so as efficiently as
possible. It's almost as if the crossing guard decided that his job
was to control traffic rather then protect the kids crossing the
street.

Is this unique to us or is this a common condition thoughout the
business world? I used the laugh at the skits on SNL with Nick Burns,
Your Company's Computer Guy, but it's come to be..... sad but true.

 

[Jack Ass]

You haven't met MVPs here! They are worst of evil people you would have
ever come across. They don't have any social skills and they seem "to
know it all". when you ask a question, you are likely to be insulted,
accused of not being smart enough and/or "it is all your fault".

Good luck if you ever find a helpful person here. By the way always ask
specifically "NO MVPs NEED REPLY", otherwise you are likely to get a
rockweiler!

 

[Unknown]

If that is truly happening where you work, do not assume it is happening in
all corporations.
Why not escalate your concerns with upper level management?

 

[infiniteMPG]

Reposting message, accidentally removed :
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A general non-tech question as I seem to of missed the shift. The
I.T. Department used to be a support group to assist people to do
their jobs more efficiently and advance their company. They seem to
of now shifted to being a controlling group that has more power and
control then the people that actual produce the products of the
company. Not so long ago a question would be posed to the I.T.
Department and they would assist as much as possible and help people
work more efficiently and get people the tools they needed to make
the company profitable. These exchanges were closed with "thank
you's" and people feeling they helped and were helped. Times were
good and people wore smiles.

Now people fear asking for computer help, and when a question for
assistance does get posed it's responded to as if it's a bother and
an annoyance. People are treated like they are ignorant and the
I.T. staff usually acts upon the request when they feel like it. It
seems that I.T. have lost track of the fact that their existence is
to provide tools and support so the people who create the products
that the business makes can continue to do so and do so as
efficiently as possible. It's almost as if the crossing guard
decided that his job was to control traffic rather then protect the
kids crossing the street.

Is this unique to us or is this a common condition throughout the
business world? I used the laugh at the skits on SNL with Nick
Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy, but it's come to be..... sad but
true

 

[infiniteMPG]

If that is truly happening where you work, do not assume it is happening in all corporations.

Not making that assumption but we see it here. We're an OEM designing
and building machinery and we're in the engineering group.

We have on several occasions and it appears no one wants to get
confrontational with the I.T. people so they let them do what they
want and then we have to work around what they do. We have begun to
try to support our workstations within our group as every time someone
asks for help they come and make major changes to the department, take
away some of our tools and then walk away, usually leaving us in more
disarray then before. Like I said, Nick Burns to the "T".

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

A general non-tech question as I seem to of missed a shift. The I.T.
Department used to be a support group to assist people to do their
jobs more efficiently and advance to company. They seem to of now
shifted to being a controlling group that has more power and control
then the people that actual produce the products of the company. Not
so long ago a question would be posed to the I.T. Department and they
would assist as much as possible and help people work more efficiently
and get people the tolls they needed to make the company profitable.
These exchanges were closed with "thank you's" and people feeling they
helped and were helped. Times were good and people wore smiles.

Now people fear asking for computer help, and when a question for
assistance does get posed it's responded to as if it's a bother and an
annoyance. People are treated like they are ignorant and the I.T.
staff usually acts upon the request when they feel like it. It seems
that I.T. have lost track of the fact that their existance is to
provide tools and support so the people who create the products that
the business makes can continue to do so and do so as efficiently as
possible. It's almost as if the crossing guard decided that his job
was to control traffic rather then protect the kids crossing the
street.

Is this unique to us or is this a common condition thoughout the
business world? I used the laugh at the skits on SNL with Nick Burns,
Your Company's Computer Guy, but it's come to be..... sad but true.

It's time for a shake-up in your company. A questionnaire sent out
to some key divisions would be highly revealing and a set of
monthly performance measures would soon bring about a
change of attitude in the IT department, e.g.
- Number of calls lodged.
- Mean time until problem is resolved.
- Monthly satisfaction survey, one department at a time.
- A couple of confidential surveys to find out how much
time staff spend in attempting to solve IT problems by
themselves.

This needs to be addressed from the top in order to be effective.

 

[Bob I]

You haven't met MVPs here! They are worst of evil people you would have
ever come across. They don't have any social skills and they seem "to
know it all". when you ask a question, you are likely to be insulted,
accused of not being smart enough and/or "it is all your fault".

Good luck if you ever find a helpful person here. By the way always ask
specifically "NO MVPs NEED REPLY", otherwise you are likely to get a
rockweiler!

What's a rockweiler?

 

[infiniteMPG]

It's time for a shake-up in your company.

Agreed!

A questionnaire sent out to some key divisions would be highly revealing and a set of monthly performance measures would soon bring about a change of attitude in the IT department, e.g.- Number of calls lodged. - Mean time until problem is resolved.- Monthly satisfaction survey, one department at a time. - A couple of confidential surveys to find out how much time staff spend in attempting to solve IT problems by themselves.

Started doing this but have had to back the logs up on USP drives as
the ones on the network have been 'disappearing'.

This needs to be addressed from the top in order to be effective.

Also agreed, but if the top doesn't address them it starts to feel a
little hopeless.

 

[infiniteMPG]

What's a rockweiler?

A dog who's heritage dates back to the Roman Empire, mainly from
Germany who was raised to protect cattle from animals and theives
which is also made out of granite or quartz.... :O)

 

[Guest]

I work in an I.T. Department and if we treated our end users this way we
would be let go. We try to keep in mind that you guys are our customers and
if not for you we would not have a job. So, I recommend you hire me! ;-)

 

[Gerry]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottweiler


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry]

We got the message first time around <G>.


~~~~


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[PA Bear]

Have you considered speaking with your boss about this? Human Resources?

 

[WaIIy]

What's a rockweiler?

A very scary Pet Rock or maybe a Chia Pet.

 

[Guest]

Not making that assumption but we see it here. We're an OEM designing
and building machinery and we're in the engineering group.

oh dear, now i work for an electric utility and I cringe when the
engineering group calls for assistance. Most of them (not all) treat us like
we are idiots and try to tell us how to fix whatever it is we are fixing for
them. Makes me wonder why they bothered to call us in the first place!

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

You, as the user, are the enemy. Lets clear up a common misconception (that
you've repeated here)--your IT department's job, first and foremost, is to
keep your systems running smoothly so you can do your job--not to train you
or help you *figure out* how to do your job. This isn't 1987 anymore, if
you still can't figure out a spreasheet, perhaps you're lacking in your
skillset.

When you keep running unknown EXE email attachments for the 17th time this
week alone, they get pissed. The "controlling group" you're seeing is just
them trying to lock down the infrastructure so when you do make a mess, the
damage is limited. Security and maximizing system uptime is a full-time
job, that's why nobody in the IT department wants to spend any time helping
you figure out why you can't print.

Of course by "you" I mean the general end-user, not you personally. I'm not
a support guy (never have been, never will be), but I know where they're
coming from. They don't like being asked to "fix your stupid computer I
thought you already fixed yesterday" any more than you'd like to be told
"your stupid TPS report [that you've spent a week on] sucks".

It's a thankless job, and not one I'd ever want to have.

 

[John John]

What's a rockweiler?

I wonder if it fetches rocks? Or maybe its a loyal companion for a rock
climber...

John

 

[HeyBub]

A general non-tech question as I seem to of missed a shift. The I.T.
Department used to be a support group to assist people to do their
jobs more efficiently and advance to company.

Back in the early days of mainframes, the computer department was the ugly
step-child of the accounting department. In those companies where the
bean-counters ran things, access to the computer or assistance was unknown.

In those companies where the green eye-shade folks were properly relegated
to a staff function, you got all the help and access you needed.

Look at the org chart for your company.

 

[Guest]

Well, this one has been bugging me. Had to log in at home and respond. Here
at our shop we do everything. Today I answered basic excel questions, imaged
four laptops, determined why the outage management system wasn't "tracing" an
outage correctly (connectivity within the conduct layer), answered numerous
telephone calls about how do I..., and where is my..., helped a supervisor
figure out why her formula was blowing up in crystal reports and returning
bad data, track down three laptops that had not taken their virus scan
updates and see why, fix that, explained to this one end user for the i've
lost count how many time how to move things from one folder to another, and
determined that a view written by a previous programmer was joined
incorrectly and therefore several reports based on that view were invalid.
That was a fun conversation with a manager.

Nowhere in there is it allowable to treat my end user as the enemy. They are
my job. They pay my bills.

 

[infiniteMPG]

if not for you we would not have a job. So, I recommend you hire me! ;-)

Sounds like a plan! If I had any authority I would definitely keep
people in house who had the ability to see the company runs as a team
and not as a bunch of individuals with their own little agendas.