How do you treat your IT Person

As I wrote earlier IT gets a bad reputation and rightly deserved in some cases. I was reminded yesterday though that IT also gets jumped on sometimes. I was at a client to troubleshoot a network issue. Looking at the entire situation I simply was... well looking at the setup. Not physically changing anything.

I came out of the back (where else would the systems be) and immediately was threatened by an end user whose computer had locked up. She said she was going to "kill me" because she needed to get her work done and I should not be playing with the system. Yes. That is why I was not touching anything. Of course I went to look at her computer to see what was happening.

It did not take much troubleshooting to figure out that the computer was full of malware from her surfing on the internet. Oh Did I mention that she said since I was there it had to be something I did. These are the kind of things that I look at and think if you are going to treat the person who can help you this way how do you treat other people like your doctor or the person making your food? Perhaps the anger came from knowing her machine was hosed because of her escapades during her lunch hour ?

Now this was an individual and one thing I have learned through the years is that people usually have more going on than just having the attitude. I have experienced and have witnessed people get so defensive when I simply try to fill them in with basic information. More or less they are saying "fix it and I dont care why it broke". That is why I think educating clients on the basics of good practices is important.

Anyway, I have always believed you reap what you sow. In any industry you will get much quicker service and cooperation by simply treating people with respect. That includes techies and consultants. Maybe that relationship then could build and be better for both sides.

My last word is this. Always remember that people who know more about ANY subject than you do can use that to their advantage. I personally do not do that. There are people in this industry who do though. Be careful who you are ticking off when you need to use that technology.