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Some things have come to light in the last year.  Being a member of an IT department things seem to come down to us at the last minute.  It is sometimes very frustrating being the last to know of a project.  Then we have to scramble to make everything run smoothly.  This post is for the managers and CEOs that keep IT in the closet so to speak.

Wonder why there are so many hiccups in that new project you just launched.  Survey says IT didn’t know about it.  On most occasions IT will find out through the grape vine first, or when it’s an absolute necessity to include us.  If you would have given us adequate notice, there could have been a level of planning involved to minimize the problems.

So how does this relate to abusing your IT department your wondering?  Okay from my point of view we receive all the frustrated calls from users that when having problems with something new.  We get bashed because what we have done, is sub par from what we could have gotten done with adequate knowledge of the project.  I know most people don’t care about this, we deal with all users alike, but this could be avoided at a very easy price like including them in the project planning discussions versus the project launch.

We get abused on more levels than one.  Being in IT you magically know whats wrong with everyone’s home machines too.  They come to you and ask, ” Now how do I setup that wireless router again.”  If your good you could come up with a small business just supporting your users at home too.  What happens to me on a fairly frequent basis one of the owners brings a PC in and sits it on my desk with a small list of items that need resolved.  You fix it, it disappears for a while then its back at your desk or one of the owners calls your cell phone over the weekend panicked that something is wrong with a server at work because they cant get there email.  Then to find out they are having a problem at home with their internet connection.  You feverishly jump on your laptop checking the status of everything and low and behold its actually working just fine, but the brief bit of panic sets in.

Here are a couple of things to remember when dealing with the IT department.

1.  Keep us in the know, and we will be much happier.

2.  When a problem arises give clear concise details, not just “Its broke.”

3.  If you give us some positive comments every once in a while you might just get better work out of us.

4.  Don’t expect us to know every single detail of every new device out on the market.  If you want us to research all the new products out don’t complain we are on the internet to much.

If you keep us happy everything will run smooth.  If were mad the “IT GODS” will reign fire.