Hey guys. I’ve been wanting to write a rant for some time now and today I’ve decided to. The reason I chose to share it here is because there’s other tech heads here that would understand.
To start off, I work for one of the larger PC and Server Re-distribution companies on e-Bay, and in general. For this company, I am the inventory manager as well as the head data tech. Basically, I handle each departments (Chassis, Procs, RAM, Hard Drives,etc…) databases and logs as well as some other data tracking for the company. When I started off, the company was smaller and had very primitive inventory applications. I had noticed this and immediately started to build a real inventory system. Over time, I’ve gained an unbelievable amount of experience in programming, data tracking, and specifically VBA-Excel experience. I’ve built a complete inventory system, and have really pushed the boundaries of what Excel is capable of.
Fast forward about a year, and I’ve added “I.T. guy” to my list of positions in the company. At first I liked it cuz it was something new. Something different, ya know? Employees couldn’t possibly have the same issues every time, right? The monotony would be broken up, and my days would go a little easier. So, I continue about my work as I’ve always done and I get hit with a “Hey, I need help with my spreadsheet” randomly (This is every day, 5x times). I stop everything I’m doing to assist my co-worker with his issue. I take a walk to the back of the warehouse and start to assess the situation. Today, the issue was the Alt Key, it had been shoved down by a nail he had just placed there to hold his keyboard. THE ALT BUTTON! I fix the problem and go back up to my desk and start getting back to work within a minute.
Now lemme explain something to you guys. I am a coder. I write VBA and literally make a living by programming and manipulating Microsoft excel. If you’ve ever done anything that consist of writing a code or programming, you would be familiar with the term “Plugged in”, for those who arnt it’s called “in the zone”. For most people, it takes a considerable amount of concentration to get there, especially when you’re doing something as tedious as programming. When you’re taken out of that state of mind for something simple it can be extremely irritating, especially if you’re needing to get stuff done. I’ve reached that point plenty of times, and now I’ve taken it to a rant.
Today I’ve had two other instances like this and it’s only 12:30 PM. First one was a pop-up explaining that links to be updated and if they wanted to update. The user wanted to know why that kept coming up and it was urgent. When I explained that it just wanted to know if it can update the links, all was said and done and I could go back to my desk. The second situation was a user not being able to edit his log. Now, this would have been a real issue if he had not been ignoring the LARGE YELLOW BAR at the top of his screen with the “Enable Editing” button on it. The list goes on and on with questions about sizing, filtering, links, WHY NO HAZ COLORZ!@?!?, and other dumb stuff like accidentally locking a cell and not being able to edit it afterwards.
The issue is that not everyone has problem solving skills. I feel like people have gone to the point of becoming so lazy that when they know there’s someone that can fix the issue, they don’t even try to solve it themselves. Is it really that hard to just look around and see what kind of user error could be causing your problem? I never understood why the stereotypical “I.T. Guy” you see on TV was an A hole, or sarcastic as all hell until now. I find myself holding my tongue while fixing the simplest issues, meanwhile my actual work is being put on hold. And i know it's not just me and the company i work for, but for ALL of the I.T. error fixing whatever you wanna call it type people. There's a reason they ask if it's plugged in when you call for help. I've always thought that question was dumb, but man i feel like a lot of people need to be asked that. Imagine the amount of times customer service has tried to aid someone in figuring out their issue, just to find out it's not plugged in.
/rant
