Weekend pondering

For all you user-support folks out there, here’s a question for discussion. We all know that keeping the lines of communication open between users and IT staff is an important part of any tech support operation. If people are afraid to come to you with questions, that’s bad for everyone involved. Sometimes that means saying yes to a project even though you don’t think it’s necessary or even work related, just to keep everyone happy, as opposed to being at odds with your IT staff.

Where would you draw the line and finally have to say “no” to a user? Does it depend on the user’s position within the organization? Does it depend on how they’ll react to a “no”? Does it depend on your own place within the organization? Let me know what you think.

I have many thoughts of my own, they’ll be forthcoming.

Tags: TechSupport

Similar Posts

  • Your government at work

    Saw this over at PocketPC Thoughts this morning. An article about the Air Marshals use of PDA’s: “The Transportation Security Administration spent $6.9 million to outfit the federal air marshal corps with voice-capable wireless handheld computers for in-flight use and then subsequently banned any voice usage because of potential interference with cockpit functions, according to…

  • Why user’s lie

    I think Andy’s comment on that last post hints at some of why user’s lie. He says: but then a reboot WILL cure a lot of problems but doesn’t actually fix the problem as to WHY it happens. I think a large part of why user’s lie is tied into their expectations. When you work…

  • Angry people

    So, if there’s science behind the idea that angry/negative people can be bad for your brain, does working on a helpdesk constitute a mental health risk? 😉 I’m kidding, but there is something rather serious to think about. If you can’t learn to not take things personally and let things roll off your back so…

  • |

    Another good newsletter

    Don’t remember if I’ve talked about this newsletter lately, but here are a few links that I will be looking at in more detail later from the latest issue of Tech Support Alert: Anti-Trojan Software Reviews ChimeNote -an alternative to emailing yourself reminders to/from different email accounts. Free Linux Desktop Guide for Non-Linux Users Qwik-Fix…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)