Is A Bad Attitude Damaging The IT Profession? 892
dtienes writes "Why does IT get a free pass to insult users? Slamming customers isn't acceptable in any other profession; doctors don't call their patients "meatbags" — at least, not publicly. But IT professionals think nothing of wearing their scorn on their sleeves (or at least their chests — just check out ThinkGeek). There's more at stake here than just a few hard feelings. IT may be seriously damaging the credibility of the profession. See the essay I'm An Idiot (And Other Lessons From The IT Department) for a former IT professional turned user's take on insults, attitudes and ethics.
(Full disclosure: The submitter is also the author.)"
Yes. (Score:5, Informative)
GROLIES (Score:5, Informative)
GROLIES: Guardian[1] Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt
LOBNH: Lights On But Nobody Home
CNS-QNS: Central Nervous System - Quantity Not Sufficient
[1] UK left wing newspaper
Re:An example (Score:2, Informative)
If an author doesnt disclose that he submitted his own work, 50% of the comments will be about how bad all the slashvertisements are, how full-of-him-self the author is and how the article is a piece of crappy self-promotion.
Re:Yes. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm reminded of a govt. study, days gone by, that claimed it took 7 hours average to train an employee on a Mac OS and 17 days for Windows.
Those 'basic skills' you mention are tied to the tools, no? Put an employee in a building where the door handles and light switches make sense and off they go - put them into another building where door handles and light switches are no longer consistent and you can expect call after call on how to enter a given room and where the hell is the light switch. File a complaint with HR about hiring unskilled workers and guess what...? You forgot to mention which building they would be assigned to work in, perhaps, and now who is root cause?
Now, don't get me wrong - I agree that too many staffers don't know their way around a virtual desktop. But blaming them is perhaps throwing a blanket over the entire problem. How many staffers lie on their resume about being 'MS OFFICE' capable? How many are even tested for basic typing skills? Clamp down on just those two examples and the workplace would come to a screeching halt. Then the real excrement hits the ventilator. 100% full resume and skills alignment from HR before hiring? 30 days to bring all employees into compliance?
Re:Attitude does not exist in a vacuum. (Score:3, Informative)
Certainly, there are plenty of times when the solution is totally non-obvious and requires real technical skill. But for a lot of questions, basically the answer is right there on the screen. IT people get frustrated when people don't READ what's right in front of them, choosing to ask over and over again like a techno-hypochondriac instead.
A lot of times people just click without reading, or don't think to check the obvious places. For example, someone will ask how to do something, and it turns out you accomplish the task by going to the Options dialog and finding the right checkbox -- annotated in plain English.
Generally there seems to be two classes of users -- those who explore the interface and try to figure things out before asking, and those who don't. Generally the former are far more likely to become computer literate more quickly. Naturally, some of the latter habit comes from fear. Usually misplaced fear of "breaking" things. Other times their inability to find the right option in a dialog just stems from semantics; not knowing the terminology well enough. That, to me, is an acceptable misunderstanding, as long as once it's explained, they retain the explanation.
But it can be extremely frustrating to help people with their computer problems when they basically refuse to read the text on the screen.
In contrast, in the medical profession, there is often no way to have the knowledge to fix a problem without asking someone who's read all the important textbooks and has experience dealing with similar issues in other patients. There is no dialog to read, no GUI to explore to find the right option, so we are left with no choice but to either consult textbooks which we may not have access to, or to ask a professional.
In IT, a large percentage of problems can be solved by simply trying it, before asking.
In any case, not to worry, I think this built-in "fear" of technology is a problem that will simply solve itself eventually. Kids growing up with computers around them is going to change everything.
Re:Almost expected (Score:4, Informative)
Personally I found the professor to be an unqualified and pompous jackass whose only goal was to teach people that a "...For Dummies" programming style and slavish desire to corporate conformity were where it's at. The guy cared more about slamming Unix compared to Windows and "professional" programming and bitching that if you wanted to be a "hacker" (I'm amazed he even knew the proper meaning) to drop the class and take a C course instead (good advice, if only a C course were available and his wasn't a pre-requisite to everything else in the CS program). So it's not like the guy was particularly nice to begin with. He didn't give a shit if you were a girl, just if you wanted to write your code in vi.
Women in CS, a study of hundreds (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Almost expected (Score:3, Informative)
When I went to University in Australia in the late 1980s more than half of the computer science students were female - in comparison to less than one percent of engineering students. Where did all of those women go and why is the field almost entired staffed by men? Is that one of the reasons less women are enroling?
Re:Almost expected (Score:4, Informative)
I've known some really cool women that *really* knew what they were doing (and could run circles around other people) who went through CS programs. Unfortunately, I've also known several that were rabid man haters and thought they were the world's gift when they couldn't find their rear with both hands and a flashlight.
Of course, the same could be said of men (we have more than our fair share of incompetent jerks as well). However, using the excuse of "I'm a girl" for the reason that you're a misanthrope doesn't cut it. Everyone has to grow up and learn to play with others at some point - even the talking, non-feces throwing monkey.
It should also be mentioned that most guys do NOT get respect "handed over" to them. Most of us have to claw it out of wherever we can find it just like you. Anyone who thinks that we just get handed accolades over drinks is fooling themselves, because it just doesn't work that way.
As for being shut out by the "boy's club", you should see how nasty and vicious a bigoted female boss or professor can be. Yes, they do exist, and they are just as bad as any of the "boy's club" (if not worse) because they feel justified in having an axe to grind.
This wasn't anything directed to you personally. It just really needed to be said because too many people don't realize that it's just as bad on the other side of the fence.
Re:car mechanics do it too (Score:1, Informative)
I teach at a college and I know the IT people make more than twice as what I make. Actually (and unrelated to this), IT and I are not on talking terms because they insisted on managing my office computer which I refused to allow them to do (why don't you install a video camera in my office while you're at it, fascists) so I got a mac laptop and told them to F off. in case you are wondering they are idiots (I know more about computers than they do), arrogant, and completely unwilling to talk/compromise. They would reset things (servers of various importance) at most inopportune times and screwed me every time.
Re:An example (Score:1, Informative)
they is perfectly fine (Score:3, Informative)
The better way to determine usage is to look at distribution in actual use (see The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language [amazon.com]), not lists of pet peeves of Victorian and Edwardian era English professors and writers in book form *cough*Strunk & White*cough*.
Re:Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. (Score:3, Informative)
Sales people are a loss. Executives are a loss. HR is a loss. Janitorial is a loss. Production people are a loss. Administrative people are a loss. Accounting people are a loss.
Take away any of these functions, and the company cannot make money as quickly. Without accounting and HR, managers have to fill out their own forms, and employees have to deal with the insurance companies directly. Without janitorial, employees are emptying their own trash. Without IT, employees are back to pen and paper.
And guess what, they all have that holier-than-thou attitude. Sales people are the worst, because they think that they're the irreplaceable sole source of income for the company, and that one minute of their time is wasted money. And in a sense, that's true, but it is also true for every other department.
That "noob" who doesn't know anything about computers needs to be incredibly valuable to the company for your example to work. I'm not saying that the situation cannot happen. I'm saying that you'll have more instances where doubling the company's profitability will be more important than helping the "noob" learn how to operate a computer, on company time, at the company's expense, using company equipment and eating up your hours.
I used to work for a well-known mobile phone company, and basically every job description short of Janitorial included a requirement of "knowledge of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office." So when a salesperson comes on who doesn't know the first thing about a computer, I'm not going to drop everybody else's needs to show him how to use a mouse.
Re:car mechanics do it too (Score:2, Informative)
People interact with computer systems a little differently than they interact with walls and floors. Why do I have to explain this to you?