User lubed PC with butter, because pressing a button didn't work

"The "trump" gene again"

There are utterly incompetent primitives whos only notable skill is an exceedingly keen instinct of self-preservation. As they are idiots they _will_ make howler-level mistakes, and the only way they know how to avoid getting blamed for them accordingly is yelling louder than the other guy - the best defence being an offence and all that. The truly delusional ones might even actually believe it's all the other guy's fault.

Yes there are procedures, yes there are SLA's etc prioritising jobs, but then IT will always respond to bribery and flattery.

There's a balance to be had with IT, I'm sure those who have worked in IT departments know this, there are always bad eggs (like every department).

If the organisation hero-worships IT then it'll never work properly, the bad eggs will do next to nothing and consider themselves above the rules that apply to other stuff. If the organisation treats IT like sh!t, they'll only have poor staff and a high turn over of decent workers.

Personally I think IT should always be treated like any core service department, it's given the funds it needs but oversight is fairly strict, importantly that oversight should be by someone who understands how IT functions e.g. a Director who has worked in IT hands on. You'd never have a finance director who'd never worked in payroll or accounting after all.

you my man are a top fella. Please come and work where I work! IT departments are one of those departments that you really, really, REALLY don't want to feck off. I never need any of our users to do anything for me, but 99% of them rely on us for loads of things. The ones who always want everything done right now go to the top of our sh1t list and any job they need doing takes at least twice as long for us to do! My old dad was a stone mason and he had what he called the "Tradesmen's test" If you had worked for a customer who was the biggest twat going, ask yourself this. If you were out of work, your kids were starving, your house is going to be taken back by the bank and they phoned up saying they had a job, would you take it!? Its these kinds of arseholes that try and make our life's hell, but we always get our own back and never forget.

If it were but simply rue,

All the users were just like you,

IT folk generally tend to be hardwired to be helpful (even if only by accident because we playing with something). Give the front line an excuse (ballistic chocolate is a good one) and they'll move mountains for just a wee Ack of their effort.

The Other Side ™:

This brother did not have things properly in hand. There is a Zero Percent chance that I'd allow another department raid *my* budget because Their User poured *butter* in a damn machine. She would have been Frog Marched to the company parking lot ("car park" for my UK friends) with her box of personals in tow. I'd have looked at what my Bullet Stopper (Help Desk) minion showed me (butter in nice boxen) and I'd have personally stripped her company credentials, asked (told) Facilities to drop her access card, and had a meeting with her Department Head (marketing was it? So, it would have been ugly-ER on this intervention) and HR WHEREBY IT WOULD BE EXPLAINED that the user in question isn't qualified to be employed, period, no debate, and no she cannot have access to company resources of a digital nature because look at what she did to hardware: Explination to include business continuity while someone is playing with matches and a few hundred feet of RDX.

From IT I've had to restructure other departments, against their will, because of twots like this user.

1. User goes, not a debate or discussion as my deportment simply won't let her log in to anything, ever, period.

2. Who in your department interviewed this ass and hired them? We having words as well starting with "How the hell did you think this person was qualified... nay, company in any form? It's that person's fault were all getting both barreks today.

3. Department Head... and you hired This fool? You also think I'm paying for this? (Any department head would know who I am, Director Of IT if I'm corporate, and be aware of my Zero Tolerance For Blatant Stupidity policy)

4. And to Hr, you signed off on this crap, you get to fix it... next task is the Exit Interview!

Go Team! Rah-Rah! Get the hell to work fixing this.

5. Return to IT, take my team for pizza and beer to soothe their PTSD over a user putting $diety-forsaken BUTTER in a machine Of Any Sort, and their inevitable bummed-ness over a nice PC being separated from its preferred warranty status.

6. Return to IT to enshrine box to mock the user and serve as a warning to others.

That is Precisely how I'd play it. Distilled down to this simple fact:

If you microwave butter in a cup and pour that into a computer, you Are Not Qualified to work with computers (the Excel thing is just sprinkles on that cup cake).

In a previous job I travelled a lot to customer sites, & I made sure to get on with "Systems, Security & Secretaries" - duty-free chocolate smoothed many a trip.

And then there was the time Security had to escort me from a customer site - it sort of spoiled the effect when I was on first-name terms with the guy who turned up :-D

Always be nice to the IT folks.

I've done IT support as a many-hats activity from time to time, and I know how that world feels on the inside. So for many years I've made it a practice to ALWAYS establish a friendly, supportive relationship with the IT and facilities people. (Not that it's a *good* idea to make enemies anywhere, for that matter.) And always admit your mistakes to IT, especially the bonehead ones.

Aside from making everyone's life easier, this approach yields immense benefits when you really, really need some help from IT or the facilities crew. What goes around, comes around, and when it comes around with a replacement hard drive and a friendly greeting, you'll be glad.

I get paid when ever i get called out, I also get paid for each call, and paid for being on call. The number of incidents probably decreased not because they were made up but due to various other reasons, first being there is less incentive to make sure things are running ok and there are no possible problems before you leave for home. Also when there are smaller things that really could wait until the morning if you are paid to fix it, you go, if you are not paid, you just wait until the morning.

I try not to have to go in when called as i live 40 minutes from where I work (no remote access to the production systems), usually it occurs in the middle of the night and i still have to go in the next day. But if its a few hours before i have to get up, and i know i will not get back to sleep or its pointless trying i will go in, get the pay for fixing it and then start the days work and go home early.

Re: Sounds all too familiar

Which is all very well as long as said retiree doesn't hit anyone or anything on the way home whilst under the impression he is fit to drive...