Discussion on:

10 reasons IT pros get a bad rap

???However, one mystery remains: Why do geeks always come in pairs when they are portrayed on TV????

The answer is simple. It takes two geeks to describe what is going on. Sometimes to describe even the simplest situation it takes years of background and training in the many fields of IT to understand the cause or situation. The snappy dialog between two geeks on TV helps to do this even when most of the time it wrong but what do you expect from Hollywood.

I really like my fellow IT techs and co-workers, but there are a few additional reasons. Many are the same reasons that Linux on the Desktop isn't taking off like wildfire:

1) IT Techs tend to be arrogant and dismissive. We don't take their concerns seriously and we're condescending of their complaints.

2) We don't listen carefully to our customers. We interrupt them and fail to leave them with the impression that care about what they have to say. We may fix the problem, but being attentive to our customers would go a long way.

3) We don't employ good project management for hardware or software projects. We don't get buy in from the stakeholders, we don't communicate effectively about down time or ensure that our planned outages won't impact mission critical functionality. We don't have an adequate test plan.

Bottom line, we lack communication skills, that is where we fall short. We tend towards being bullies (in many cases, having been bullied previously). IT pros would do well to get communication training and some exposure to project management.

11 We know what they are doing.
We know what websites they are going to. We know what is in their temp folders. We know how they got that malware. They know that we can access their desktops remotely.

That knowledge can make people uncomfortable and / or resentful.

However, one mystery remains: Why do geeks always come in pairs when they are portrayed on TV?

-Binary

01

A healthy dose of fear keeps us paid.

Totally awesome

The spot light of the culture has shifted many times, and will continue to shift. "IT" is now just one of the many to be at the upper levels. Being in the spot light strengths a stereo-type. I would guess the CSI staff are beginning to feel the same place. Where will the spot light move next, I can not guess. An old saying: "Bad news sells newspapers", also applies, as it has for centuries.
An additional factor to consider is the "growth/expansion" of the technology. At the beginning, it took college professionals to support computers. They were well paid because there were so few. The systems they created were very simple. One machine cost millions of dollars, and took up an entire building floor. Today, you have a machine sitting in front of you that is more like 2 or 4 times as powerful. And the cost is only a few hundred dollars. The number of people in IT has exploded and also the size of systems. Yet the legacy stereo-type takes a long time to fade.

I come from a long background as a DP field service and became an IT representative. IT is a bastard child of DP, the principles of supporting DP work well enough for IT with some exceptions. The problem with DP was that it was centralized around mainframes, then it changed to mini-computers and then to networked PCs.

30 years ago, the requirements to get into a DP job as a technician was a strong electronics background, ability to use scopes and meters, read schematics and understand logic and boolean algebra. I worked for a company that expected the techs to troubleshoot to the component level, repair at component level. I also received good training by the company because their equipment was unique and not copied by other computer makers (they were all different in philosophy, design and support).

The current practice of modern IT has eliminated training and has replaced that with certifications; the certifications can mean something at first but gets watered down because anyone can pass the certification with help. The ironic part is that much of what I experienced does not get taught in computer science classes and new techniques are old solutions from the DP days.

Our users don't get that the IT field has grown so complex that there are experts in a given area who may know nothing about a different area. Hence the guy who is an expert in Exchange server management gets called incompetent when someone calls him in to fix A/V equipment and he's not instantly familiar - any more than the guy whose expertise is Marketing would be. We get paid "so much" we should know everything, as far as the users are concerned. It has buttons it it, so it's ours. ^_^

Our users don't know enough and aren't trained in the mindset that would compensate to allow them to work well with us when developing new complex projects. We may try to develop a program that will complete the steps they need in a logical order, but without the mail guy thinking to tell us that there is a manual step to stamp everything "received" there isn't going to be a comparable point in the end result. We do our best to compensate from our side, but if we aren't experts in the job process we're modeling, things can be missed and the ultimate result = GIGO.

User merry-go-round - when every user or department has priorities and goals which directly conflict with those of every other user or department - but none of them talk to each other, they all talk with IT instead:
User 1 - Why are you so controlling? You have the whole network locked down so I can't receive 200MB files in my mail, so fine, I'll put them all on the communal storage drive. And by the way, your spam filter just sent one of my real mail messages to my junk mail folder! User 2 - Why don't you protect me better? I just got a spam message in my inbox - and a virus from a link I clicked! And why is the communal storage drive full? User 3 - No, I don't have money in the budget to expand storage - work with what we have. And you'd better not delete anything the users put on the storage drive, they might need it!

To me, it is about approaching people with the correct attitude. IT for a business is a TOOL, like a saw and hammer to a carpenter. People have jobs to do and they need the right tools to do them and we - as IT professionals - maintain them. I have explained to end-users this perspective when necessary and I think they do appreciate it. We are there to help, and not to show off or "be better than them".

If there is anything that gets me a little irate in this profession, is the lack of respect or recognition that IT professionals do get. Going back to the carpenter analagy, a carpenter maintains his tools by keeping them clean, changing the blades and batteries so they'll last longer... IT does not often get a pat on the back for a job well done... while (e.g.) sales people often do in part because of their relationship dynamics. IT relationship dynamics can be challenging also!

the author brought up some good points, but a lot of you already said, "well paid"? not.
as a guy who used to be in sales exclusively, I'm all about the customer service with a smile. but, it just doesn't take very long before that nice guy attitude is confused with "I own you now" attitude from the user. It doesn't help that most users aren't very knowledgeable either. And most don't want to know. It's best to just get what you can done and move on as quickly as possible. It's not uncommon to be expected to work thru supposed break times, sacrifice lunch hours, work late etc. with users thinking that's the norm. It's burnout city.

IT geeks like me have an ego. Yes we do get paid better, but with great power comes great responsibility. We are the first ones on the scene when something goes wrong, we are the first ones to be asked if something can be implemented, we are the first ones called when we have to install something, plug something, turn something on, and so on. Yes we have this knowledge and I am glad to be in the IT department. We have this reputation because when career day in school came along we were not "checking a box" we were creating the box that you mere mortals were checking. Don't hate the player hate the game.

I have to agree with Hobyx's last item. I am always stuck in the middle. Implementing solutions that the front line workers see as makinig their jobs harder. Of course it is always gratifying when, a month or two later, that same solution breaks and they now can't do without it.

it's now way dated..... but how many remember "Nick Burns-- the company computer repair guy" a skit on SNL? it's funny because so much of that was true. MOOOOVE!

>> However, one mystery remains: Why do geeks always come in pairs when they are portrayed on TV?

No mystery-- comic relief.

Glad I could help clear that up!

"Why do geeks always come in pairs when they are portrayed on TV?"

Answers so far:

1. Comic relief - bratwizard
2. It takes two geeks to describe what is going on - l.j.pinson@..., hippiekarl, JJFitz, jjones, dragonator and lawbyter@...
3. One geek plays off the other geeks geekiness - that %#$*@ing writer guy
4. -Binary, 01 - bkindle@...
5. Why TV Geeks come in pairs. Because they won't fit in Apples. - rdinning (I vote this the "worst" pun of the day which is actually a good thing)
6. (And I say this tongue in cheek) Two be there must -- a master and an apprentice. - zentross
7. Complementary skill sets are required and a reasonable amount of redundancy. - zentross
8. Because it's safer that way. - Camellia55
9. I suppose one answer would be that misery loves company. - patrickm76

Edit: Changed format, added names and additional answers

(Between #2-#3: It's necessary to have one to translate for the audience----hippiekarl).
Someone else can paraphrase (or just repeat) my comment further down the page, and it will be treated (and 'thumbed') as an original thought. That's how we roll in TR Discussions ('hippie' serves me the way 'geek' does you: you aknowledge that's what society calls you, without agreeing on the specifics of their definition. I know what the world calls a 'hippie' and you know what they think a 'geek' is; we don't see ourSELVES that way, do we? We aknowledge the monikers, though, and do our best to upset the stereotypes to which they refer. When you're in a socially-maligned subculture group (like 'geeks'), coalition-building is a good thing; marginalizing/ignoring/paraphrasing-later comments from a similarly-maligned social group is the act of becoming a version of your own tormentors. I wouldn't have lit up like this (since this is my normal TR experience), but you commented yourself above about how you react to the public's view of 'geeks'....Some of us are *both*.

Because we deserve it. That's why.
1.When the business needs to do something our immediate resonse is 'No' (because we don't do it that way or want to take the time to investigate the request). We are an obstacle to business efficiency.
2. We condescend to the user. Rather than pleasantly assisting with the problem we make them feel foolish or run them in circles resolving the problem. As a result they will live with the problem rather than call for assistance.
Gang, we need to get with the program or we will all be replaced with smart business area computer savvy go getters... The new technology supports them.

It is sad to say but my salary (end user support) is more than just about everyone in the section I support, including my direct supervisor (non-IT). So in my case number 1 and number 8 are legitimate views. So I work very hard to dispel views 5 and 6 and feels like I accomplish 4 every day. and I do not ever consider myself or my position number 9 (indispensable). Because I always put forth an effort to help and fix issues as they arise - my coworkers do not resent me nor my work.

I think one of the biggest issues is that IT folks tend to speak a language that normal folks don't understand. We need to learn how to be more personal/personable as we serve our clients. It's not hard to do really - just something we have to put our minds to. People will like us better when they realize we're on their side and they can only know that if we communicate it to them in a way they understand.

"How big can IT get? A group of highly influential programmers and hackers could band together to head up The New World Coders in an attempt to control the world. Okay, that probably won???t happen."

They could never get past arguing about what platform to use.

commiserate - verb, com??mis??er??at??ed, com??mis??er??at??ing.
verb (used with object)
1.
to feel or express sorrow or sympathy for; empathize with; pity.

commensurate - adjective
1.
having the same measure; of equal extent or duration.
2.
corresponding in amount, magnitude, or degree: Your paycheck should be commensurate with the amount of time worked.
3.
proportionate; adequate.


Really, is high-powered technology permitting near instant verification of almost any item of information an excuse to tolerate glaring contextual errors?

Another possible reason IT is disliked might be that on-balance IT has a net-negative impact on overall quality of life. This proposition is not presented as a given, but only as possibility in fact, an in perception.

Anyway, it may be worth consideration.

It's may be as simple as "You folks think you are geniuses, when the fact is you really don't know anything at all" applied not to individuals, but the entire technology.

The goal of corporate IT is to help employees and customers (both of which are effectively "customers" of the IT dept.) In the ideal world, IT enables employees to work more efficiently, improves the delivery of service to the customer, all while reducing cost and increasing market share vs. competitors. Reality can be much different.

People who have the political skills to ascend into upper IT management are seldom the people with skills to get the job done. Heavy on policy and procedure but light on technology, they hire people who worship the edicts they receive and issue supporting edicts of their own. The sycophants are unable to undermine their bosses by exercising technical superiority. None of this is by coincidence.

Filling the technological gap is "rogue IT", the corporation's workaround to a dysfunctional IT department. Sometimes the rogue operators are worse than the original problem, but they would not exist if corporate IT did it's job without earning a reputation as the "preventers of information systems".

I saw an environment where corporate systems were plagued with gigantic security flaws, excessive downtime, insufficient backup and DR planning, serious scalability issues, and generally not meeting the expectations of anybody. And yet, IT would thwart any attempt by anyone to improve the situation, using such excuses as "security", "need approval from the architecture committee", etc. The only possible path was using the people and the tools that were officially "blessed", even though both were responsible for the status quo. This brings to mind Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.???

For example, "security" was the overriding buzzword that was used to kill off any potential use of any software that users might want to install on PCs. The corporation had an anti-open source policy that was made me wonder, "Where did they copy and paste this from?" In a classic case of "Do what we say, not what we do", corporate IT pirated software like WinZip, while banning free alternatives like 7zip. But the overseas division played by it's own rules, and they liked to send .rar attachments via e-mail -- none of which could be handled by WinZip. After hundreds of "help desk tickets" and a few rogue installs of 7-zip, the gods of "security", "licensing", and "architecture review" finally acknowledged the inevitable and solved the .rar problem by quietly installing 7-zip for users who complained of .rar files that would not open. But only after years of wasting everyone's time.

Funny how the emphasis on "security" never addressed the concept of liberating the users from IE6. It seems underperforming legacy systems were designed by outsourcers who guzzled a bit too much MS Kool-Aid, leaving behind a house of cards that collapsed when it saw a browser that was not IE6.

Although the company bought a commercial spam filter appliance, I have to wonder how they configured it. Users would regularly receive spam addressed to group aliases in Exchange. How the spammers got possession of these group names suggests infected PCs. How the company accepted incoming mail addressed to groups that were for internal use only suggests operational incompetence.

Each attempt to honestly describe a serious problem was treated as an assault on their wisdom. The IT response was generally a form of "We know more than you do", with the ironic circumstances proving otherwise.

In an internal company survey, employees were asked to rate the competence and helpfulness of various departments. You might think that HR would be dead last, but not in this case. Legal and IT were tied for that dubious honor -- which surprised absolutely no one.

A year later, I saw a presentation by one of the corporate lawyers. She explained how their department had changed their strategy, to emphasize defense against liability but no longer by obstructing new business. They took down most of the internal obstacles, without any increase in lawsuits against the company. That gave IT sole possession of last place.

Each wave of downsizing weakened the technological side of IT, while strengthening the paper tigers of administrative red tape. Sooner or later, the pendulum must swing the other way -- should be an exciting ride.

try being a mechanic it is the same for us except for trying to steal some ones job.Oh yes we do both jobs mechanical and work on computers .An nine times out of ten you think we are tring to rip up you off when we say its not a smiple fix and wish it was are selves.

I like this article and I agree with it.

Peter

"IT" takes in a very wide spectrum of jobs. In my hometown in southen Oregon, a major local company offered listed jobs for software testers, payhing a range of about $8.50 to $13.00 per hour. 500 miles north, in Seattle and nearby Bellevue, jobs for "software testers" (also a wide spectrum of jobs) range from about $20 to $80 /hr, with higher rates for specialized skills. Wages for IT personnel maintaining networks, virtual labs, server farms, etc. range widely as well. You'd think that skills that were in high demand would get paid the most. The reason that caring and responsible kindergarten teachers, who are (to listen to the parents of small children) in high demand, don't get paid much is that the funding isn't available. The incredibly low wages paid to software testers in the S. Oregon company I mentioned are explained in part by that company's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early in 2011. So, some IT workers are well paid and some aren't, and there's a raftload of reasons.

One other aspect you failed to mention was the long hours we spend trying to fix a computer,We are often expected to DROP what we are doing and attend to who has the computer issue,and then they whine about how much time WE take attending to them.In my 25+ years of working in Computers,I have dealt with this often.I have even heard all of the "Lame" stories about how their pc got in the shape that it is when it is brought to me.I had one computer brought to me that had weeds growing out of the case (again i was expected to create a miracle).It took me 3 days to fix that particular computer.
Regular people are jealous of our ability to repair any tech gadget simply because they have to realize they themselves don't know a thing about something like technology.Usually at this point,I'd be the one who is left scratching my head wondering why the person ever got a computer in the first place.They love us when we fix their gadgets,and they hate us because we deal in technology and they do not.Another thing that they don't like is when we charge them for repairing their PCs.So,the reality is we are underpaid,overworked,and highly disrespected.

Love Monty Python, and Yes Minister since they both reflect some real life elements. About the only reference to pop culture that reflects what I see in IT each week is DILBERT. Anyway, service is the right way to go in all things IT. And doing guides. If the guides can help people I am paid to help, help themselves, then many seem to like it. However, many seem to avoid that side of things. My biggest battle front is cost cutting, that basically puts me in the same position as Sir Humphreys definition of the "Eunuch", Responsibility without power, AND managers that enforce rules that create extensive enmity, and then they wonder why people hate the IT department. And the scariest is the manager/supervisor who says that is not needed to fix problem "A" because we have never had the problem before ( think Security problem prevention).
Of course the best instruction I ever got in recent times was "don't ask any questions", just fix the problem; so, how do I diagnose ? And I put in for clairvoyant training As for pay, yeah right, some places cultivate downward mobility...

Hmmmm.

Well paid? Maybe. But you don't see too many office staff coming in on weekend or working until late night to fix problems. Most have your typical 9 to 5 jobs. It guys get phone calls at 4 AM saying a critical server is down. Come in.

I did not even bother to read the other points as wages are far to low for the amount of work we do. We have to work a lot more than other employees, when the day is over we have to study to keep up with new technology, they think we work for fun, i assure you I don't, I work for money, that's why I bother going to work - MONEY!

Programming is fun when creating new exiting stuff but that is a very small part of our job, we need to be disciplined, work hard and fast, keep impossible timelines create systems that preferably work flawless and get paid less than a dentist or a doctor, indeed many times even less than the plumber.

IT pro wages need to double if you want us to continue inn our business and not choose another job, a job that pays and does not require us to work as much and as hard as we do.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I am not going to add millions of value to other peoples businesses unless I get a fair share of the profit.

For number 1. Unless your a SAP expert then I have not seen any large pay packets in IT.
Outsourcing has ruined IT because after, the service is crap and all services to the client are reduced to cut costs, your no longer on call ASAP your on a ticket system and reduced staff.

"The technical gap between the customer and IT is wide and grows wider every day. It is becoming ever more challenging to communicate to customers in simple and personal terms what we need to do to fix their problem."

As more and more people are online and using the systems every day, the communication gap almost seems worse than earlier in my career. Once upon a time, I went in and fixed the customer's problem and they smiled and went back to work. Now so many people believe they are "tech savvy" and demand I explain in detail what I am doing and why. There is no way I can give someone 15+ years of UNIX or system administration training in a few minutes and their facebook, email and web surfing experience does not prepare them to understand any of my answer.

After reading Time magazine or watching CNN or a movie, our users seem to "knight" themselves as "experts" in the field.

Just like with the power and anything else, people like to think that everything just works and that it works whenever they need it. So they like to blame the IT pros for doing something that brought down their needed IT services. When usually, it was something a few clueless users had done themselves that got their precious IT service brought down.

it's the biggest failing in IT in my opinion, the business generally doesn't understand how specifically we work, we use figures given from the business to build solutions tailored to fit the plan, but because the business doesn't speak geek we tend to then attempt to gloss over the cracks in the plan or don't implement an addon because it's not asked for so it's assumed it's not required.
Then when it goes live it's seen that there's a missing part of the puzzle something not originally in the plan (the assumed part). This leads to failed delivery or delayed delivery and once you lose the initial momentum people then don't want to adopt the new technology.
One classic missed delivery from my past was with a large(ish) scale web deployment being brought back inhouse, figures from the marketing team suggested that the website would have a million hit's per week so the solution was designed and built to support the volume with the 25% yeah 1 growth (we thought we'd be optomistic) with additional year 2-3 spend in increasing capacity. We went live and crashed and burnt inside an hour given marketing were proven incorrect on capacity and the site actually had over 1 million hits per day.
Needless to say failed back to previous offsite platform and then went back to the business with real capacity figures and a bill for extra hardware requirements.
The business saw it as a failed delivery from IT because the systems should and I quote directly from the Operations Manager at the time "be able to cope with a few more visitors than we expected".

11. "... Computers are so cheap and their prices keep falling, so the price of your support should also be cheap and get cheaper every year, too ..."

12. "... I'm a doctor/lawyer/professional-specialist in my own highly complicated industry, but the computer industry MUST be simple and easy: see the glossy ads from Apple touting one-click operation? That proves I'm right -- computers are simple and easy, therefore computer support, service, and repair should be really simple and easy, too ..."

13. "... You touched it last, you're responsible for it failing. I'm not paying another nickel, you're staying until you fix it ..."

14. "... I'll be out of business if you don't stay as long as it takes to fix it, overnight, over the weekend if need be ... but I gotta go home now, it's 5 o'clock and dinner's waiting, and the kids have soccer tomorrow, but you stay -- see you Monday morning, you'll have it fixed by then, right? ..."

15. "... Wow, you got here so quickly, and got my one-and-only never-backed-up source of all my data working again SO FAST, you saved my multi-million dollar business! You're not going to charge me a lot for this, are you? You only worked 45 minutes! ..."

16. "... We got your accounting system to go from 20-minutes response time down to 2-minutes response time -- great or what? ... Oh, after 15-seconds, you don't wait for the screen to refresh, you get up and do other things for about half an hour anyway, you don't notice nor care if the task now only takes 2-minutes to complete, so you're not paying?!? ..."

17. "... my request can't be unusual, surely loads of people need the same thing and it's been done before, it can't be custom, it can't take a lot of time, and it can't be expensive! ..."

18. "... I bought it myself over the weekend and got a great deal -- can you now set it up to run my business for me? ..."

19. "... we change the backup tapes every day, what do you mean they're all blank? ..."

20 . "... Them: Can you automate my accounting? Me: What kind of accounting system do you do on paper now? Them: None. Me: Then, no, I can't automate something you don't do manually already ..."

... I have 30+ more years of these!

=8^o

Geeks have to be portrayed in pairs, or at least more than one at a time, otherwise they don't have anyone to generate dialog. A normal person talking to a geek? Come on, what planet are you living on.

I agree with most of these, but for the average user, bedside manner can be the real deal-breaker. I have joined support teams with dismal reputations and single-handedly improved perception of the group simply by fixing problems quickly and being civil (sincerely helpful) to the clients.

My company brought in an outside consultant to look at our department and make recommendations for future growth. That wasn't all bad but we were never told it was going to happen. Funny thing is the recommendations made by the consultant matched our recommendations almost verbatim and basically we were given a very good review. The whole process was handled wrong and didn't inspire a good attitude from the people involved. I think, because we deal with "things" most people don't understand, management feels like they need a second opinion. Who are you going to trust, your people or the outside consultants who know less about your business?
We questioned when the other departments were going to have an outside consultant look at them. I'm guessing never.

The trouble with the indispensable argument today is that there are ways around IT (BYOD, consumerization). We are not the center of the company technology universe anymore. We are essentially consultants working with other teams to solve the high-level technological problems. If you just say no all the time, nobody???s going to consult with you. They will just find a way to do it alone.

http://www.real-user-monitoring.com/its-reputation-problem/

To well paid! I worked for CSC in UK and was on 17k, expected to have the bed side manner of a saint, fix desktop issues within 6 mins and answer 60 calls a day. I now work in gov departments and still on a poor pay. Maybe its me and my colleages that just don't bargin well? As for hate from users, I can understand when IT make all the decisions about how, when, if we use email, storage and access sites. Then tell them to sign acceptable use policy without lawyers present and basically restrict everything hard working people do with the same old enterprise way. What happens when people complain? The same answer "its the corporate system" it is about time IT got back to being a service and not a boss. Rant over have a nice ITIL day