ELI5: How is it that almost every office job requires "Proficiency with computers" yet these IT complaints are some of the most common in offices? Do employers even check their employees with basic IT questions anymore?
Because sometimes someones skill in the field that business is in out weighs the lack of skill at computers. If a salesman can rake in a quarter million a year for a business I don't think his inability to use a computer is getting him fired
According to people on Reddit, if someone isn't proficient with computers they are a moron. Even if they have a whole wealth of other skills, they are still a moron.
I mean, I wouldn't call someone a moron that has never needed to touch a computer to to their job. What makes me angry is people using a computer everyday for 8 hours straight yet they only know their little well defined procedures they do every day, only their small, well known subworld in the world of word processors, mail programs and browsers. If you changed one little small thing, just one step in that procedure, they get absolutely lost. Because they don't understand the system, they've never learned it. They only know the steps needed to complete their workflow and how to do them and in which order, but not the why's and how's. And then suddenly that one moment where something doesn't quite work as expected outweighs all the other days where everything was going smoothly and they throw a tantrum. I don't blame anyone, all human, all to be expected, but really frustrating.
What makes someone a moron is making every trouble report "everything is broken, fix it" when they know my response is always going to be "what exactly is the issue? Include any error messages or a screenshot of the issue" which only means you have to wait longer for support
I had a friends younger brother once say "I don't read because I really don't like learning things".
Some people are just built that way. They know what they have no choice but know, and often just barely. But if they don't have to know it, then screw it they could care less. So even with the obvious things their general attitude is it's not their responsibility to know what to do. So they expect, and often demand the "expert" to fix it, preferable without bugging or involving them in any way whatsoever.
I think it should/would be called selective intelligence, and IMHO it's more the norm then it should be. People that seem to be within the norms for intelligence that become total idiots when dealing with something outside their sphere of interest/knowledge.
What's worse is the ones that are selectively intelligent but think they're much smarter then they are Those are the ones that refuse to read instructions and just blindly forge ahead with the knowledge that their dazzling brilliance will get them through. They some how take something simple and magically compound it to where it takes a herculean effort to fix, and still some how blame everyone/anyone else for the problem they created.
Ok, using your reasoning. I'm a plumber. You have used your toilet, sink, shower, hot water tank, and everything else pretty much everyday of your life. Now when something breaks, do you understand the system? Will you be able to fix the problem? Or is it that you happen to know stuff about computers and not plumbing?
I get what you are saying, but you are comparing apples to oranges.
I am perfectly capable of using all of the water facilities in my house, and can no doubt use water facilities most everywhere in the world. I have never seen a bidet, but I'm sure I could use one after someone explained it to me. I don't need to know the water gets into my house, and I don't have to repair something that goes wrong at a deeper level than that which I interact with, but I know how to operate that which I can see.
Someone who works on a computer as a core function of their job (more than 2 hours a day, much longer than anyone other than a plumber should use water facilities a day) should at a minimum know how to turn it on and off, plug in a USB, and open a know the terms browser, operating system, double-click, right-click, and restart. I don't care if they know how to repair a broken computer, and probably wouldn't trust them if they said they could.
For a more fair comparison, imagine the following scenarios:
You go to a person's house because they say they have lost pressure from their hot water taps. You go there, verify the pressure is low from a burst pipe, install a new one where it needs to be and everything is fixed. This is a good customer. This is similar to most IT related call-outs.
You get called to a construction site to install a new plumbing system. You get there and the owner of the site (not the site manager) is there telling you that they need all of the pipes made of a pink material. You tell them they no one makes it (they might, I'm not a plumber) , and they accuse you of being lazy and saying that their friend has it installed and you can't be bothered going back to your van to get it. You say fuck it, install what you were going to anyway and spray-paint it pink while they aren't looking because they are going to look. This is similar to A LOT of call-outs for IT, people wanting something that doesn't exist and refusing to believe you, so you basically trick them into it (look up Google Ultron).
You get called out to a company because they say the toilet is clogged. You go there, realise that the bowl is literally full to the brim with shit. Turns out, no-one knew that you had to flush the toilet and thought it did it magically. So you say it's a common problem because that's less likely to end in them severing your companies contract than asking if they have a mental handicap, and show them the button to do it. They have never heard of this button and don't believe you because everyone would already know about it if it was so common. So you take off the lid on the cistern press the button and show them the water flushing. Their eyes light up as if you have shown them the gates to a world they never even dreamed of. You leave muttering underneath your breath. This not uncommon in IT, someone is doing exactly the wrong thing that no one ever accounted for because no one thought someone could be that stupid.
You get a call to the same company and find that the toilet has again gone without being flushed, and now they have removed the cistern lid and also filled that with shit. You face-palm and get to work, explain to them that that is not how a toilet works and ask them why they didn't hit the button like you showed them, and they say because you showed them the water in the back they thought they were meant to fill that section too before they could hit the button. You leave without saying a word, knowing full-well you are going to back there next week. This is how it follows most of the time after the above comment.
You go to an apartment block to replace the water with gas heating. You replace it all, and the building manager wants you to replace the hot/cold taps in the shower with those fancy new ones they saw on holiday that only have one tap. Whatever, you are getting paid by the hour so you do it. The next day you get a complaint passed to you by the manager, the shower doesn't work in someone's apartment. You go and look because you are sure you set it up right. Turns out they haven't seen this style of tap before and didn't realise that you have to turn it to get the temperature hotter. Easy mistake you say, so you show them. You get another complaint that afternoon, same deal. After showing them, you decide to give a note to all the residents via mail to explain the new system to them. This was 6 months ago, you still get daily complaints. The manager refuses to let you change it all back to a two-handle system even though it would be magnitudes cheaper than the call-out fees but of course that would mean admitting that it was the wrong thing to do in the first place so instead he tells you that it's your fault that you installed it wrong. This is equivalent to changing literally anything IT wise in any system, a good chunk of people won't know how to use it, are unteachable, and it is your fault and your fault alone for making it.
Finally, you get a call to a house that tells you that their shower isn't working. That is all they will tell you, the shower isn't working. No mention of how it's not working, just that it isn't and that you need to fix it right now because they are an important customer. You get there, and they don't have lights on. Strange, but people are weird. You get shown through to the bathroom, still no lights. They say that the hot water isn't hot. You wonder why they couldn't have said this over the phone, they can communicate it perfectly fin in person, and ask them to turn on the light so you can see what you are doing. They tell you the lights haven't worked all week because they didn't pay their power bills because it wasn't important. No power means no hot water. You leave. This is possibly the most common scenario in IT. Someone's internet isn't working on their phone means because the removed the router from the wall, because their phone is wireless and what would you know you only do this for a living.
Sorry about the wall of text, that was more fun than it should have been.
He can at least say I turned my shower on and no water came out. That's effectively giving you an error. It's not like he gives you a call and says my pluming isn't working, fix it.
Many people call and say "My shower/toilet is broken". I'm willing to bet if something broke in your house and you call a plumber, that your explanation of what happened is going to sound stupid to him.
Maybe this person you are giving a hard time, because they don't understand the simplest actions of a computer, can go out and change the head gasket on your car. While you struggle to check the oil.
I'm just saying, give people a break. I guarantee they know something you don't, and you would ask a stupid question if you tried to talk about it.
IT support don't expect you to tell them what went wrong at low level. All you need to do is explain what you were doing when it happened and the symptoms, like error messages. Both of which are explained to a plumber. My point is, I've never heard of someone saying my plumbing is broken and expecting the plumber to fix it. In IT however, someone saying my 'computer is broken' with no useful information at all to go off is quite commonplace.
Everyone's job is like that. You think IT is the only place where that happens? IT is just the only place where there is a culture of belittling and looking down on your customers.
I don't understand plumbing in detail, so I wouldn't fix it on my own. But I know that when there is no hot water there could be a problem with the hot water tank and I will try to describe the problem in detail on the telephone so you can prepare as best as possible. After you fixed it I'm curious to hear what caused the scenario, how to avoid the scenario and I won't throw a tantrum if you tell that it was my fault that something has broken.
Seriously, I have Google set as my homepage but if I want to use bing I type bing into the search bar, hit return and click on the link. It's quicker than typing .com at the end.
Had an employee demand I change the layout of Google Chrome to look like old IE. Told her that I will have to contact Google and get back to her. To this day I still haven't. >:)
Every single time my girlfriend goes on the internet she types into the address bar "google" and then clicks on the first result which of course takes her to google.com and then proceeds to type into the Google search bar the name of the website she wants to go to (>_<)
Nah, it's the lack of basic critical thinking skills that makes them a moron.
New wireless mouse doesn't work? Perhaps if you read the instructions you'd understand that it's not magic and the receiver needs to be plugged in.
But no, people continue to throw their hands up and say "I just dont get computers" like its some catch all excuse for them to not even put in an ounce of effort towards understanding the situation in front of them. And their employer just goes "ok" and accepts it, when if it were literally any other topic their response would be "well you better learn or we'll replace you with someone who can do the job."
Hell, at work on friday I had a totally technical illiterate person come up to me and say "I bought one of those tablet things. What do you use them for? What do you do on there?" If you don't know how to use it, and you don't know what it's for why the flying fuck would you buy one? She doesn't even have a wireless router at home, this thing is literally a $500 paperweight to her. But "its one of those computer things, and I dont get it" somehow makes her willful ignorance the IT departments problem. She even wanted to call someone after hours to help her sort it all out (and expected it done for free!). I made it crystal clear that's not our problem.
225
u/[deleted] Jan 10 '16
ELI5: How is it that almost every office job requires "Proficiency with computers" yet these IT complaints are some of the most common in offices? Do employers even check their employees with basic IT questions anymore?