Networks

along with ones sent to my manager.

When reviews come along, I need to supply 5 names for my manager to contact that will write a review. I open my contact list and say -- pick 'em.

over the last 5 years, I dont think any of the same people have been asked, and I have not received a bad review yet.

I get profuse thanks, and I end up feeling like they're being faked. I have a hard time accepting compliments because people who offer them are usually the least technically literate, so their gushing is not as meaningful as from someone who actually understands the level of effort involved.

On the flip side, I do try to let someone know when I really appreciate their above and beyond efforts on my behalf. I've sent notes, flowers, and home-made cookies as signs of my appreciation. Sending cookies usually results in the recipient asking why I'm in IT and not a bakery.

I always get the usual thanks from my clients, but the ones who are truly grateful are the people from my church who get free support.

"In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Nice to get a genuine thank you !!

I get the standard thanks a lot, but as you say, its not the same.
Only a couple times have I ever really gotten a heartfelt thank you, and funny enough, it was from people who had the simplest jobs for me to do.
I thought one guy last year was going to cry on the phone!! They had been using some sort of templates from a Paradox database that were wrong for a couple years and they asked if i knew anything about it, i said i'd take a look..figured it out in a couple of hours or so and I though the guy was going to offer up his firstborn!

Was great, compared to a few months back..spent weeks cleaning up data for our intranet, redesigned some of the pages, added a new page yada yada.. and email went out to the entire place saying "thanks to HR for all thier hard work on updating the intranet"

"Do you GET genuine thank you's beyond the polite ones?"


I will get a thank you from someone that I work closely with. This is always another IT person.

However, there are times when someone needs something or are otherwise in a bind, and the person who takes care of that system/task is gone, or otherwise not available. I'll spend hours on something that I'm not familiar with or that I don't have much knowledge of, just to get that person up and running.

On 3 occasions in the past few months I've done this, and the person has sent a wonderful letter to administration to be put in the Human Resources record thanking the person that wasn't even here, and never once mentioning my name. The best was the one where the person was on sick leave for 2 months and he got a thank you for all the work "he" did while he was on the operating table under anesthesia.

Come on people! I've traded 20 emails on this, multiple phone calls and several face to face meetings. Plus, I'm a girl, so it's hard to mistake me for a guy. A thank you like that is more insulting than anything.

In cases like that, I'd rather that the thank you never even be offered.

At the company where I worked previously one person in sales thought I walked on water. She would spend the entire day Monday creating this monster report. They would refer to it all week, but by mid-week it was not that useful anymore.

I asked where she got her data (various places on the computer) and what she was doing with it and created an up-to-the-minute report she could request at any time.

It saved sales one day per week and earned me the eternal gratitude of this person and her boss.

For my part I go out of my way to recognize service people for service beyond the norm. I usually ask if they have a manager around and they get this "deer in the headlight" look. When I explain it is to compliment how well they resolved my situation they are quite relieved and very willing to go get the manager. They usually never get compiments because they'll tell me no one has ever asked to speak to a manager for good reasons.

We had an amazing young lady at our local Verizon store who was able to save my sons Philmont pictures from his phone (once in a lifetime event and others had given up). When I spoke to her manager they directed me to the website as they have a formal recognition system. I got on-line at home and she later received an award from the company. Made us both feel good. :)