Working with Rude People

Blessed are the Geeks, for they shall internet the earth

Working with THE Rude: Douglas Chick

I think working in an IT department can be compared to working in a hospital emergency room; people come see you when they are pain and angry, they want to fix it immediately, they dont care about the others that you are helping, and they are rude. In an emergency room you can at least understand many people are in a crisis medical emergency; so why are computer users this way?

On my last visit to the dentist for a root canal, upon entering the office, the person in front of me was being extremely rude to the front staff. I wanted to say: Idiot, youre being rude to people that are going to stick sharp instruments into your mouth! but I didnt.  I didnt need to because he was loud and obnoxious; they rushed him away to the room with all the poking, stabbing, gum tearing, tooth splitting tools where. If I were the dentist or dental assistant, I would have sat him down and said, Lets do this thing!

In an IT department, our patients are computers and are very polite. The computer user is more like the patients parents or guardians, and they are the ones that can be difficult.  Often, I have to explain to the people in my department, not to take what the computer user has to say personal, especially in e-mail. There are many reasons why someone may be upset or have a bad attitude when you are trying to help:

1.       They may be scared for their jobs, and a down computer means stopped productivity?

2.       They may have dead-lines associated with the way they are paid?

3.       Or they may have so much porn and other inappropriate material on their computer that if they are extremely rude and insulting to you, you may show them mercy once the machine is up and material discovered.

4.       It is also a possibility they are simply having a bad day. Everyone has a bad day, right?

5.       And 5. They are being mean to you because they want you to make the remainder of their time there as miserable as possible?

Also dont forget that many computer people are also described as rude, and obnoxious.  Although some may also say that we have a reason to be. J

Just kidding.

...well, sort of.