Today I friended someone on Facebook and as soon as I went to their page this is the first thing I noticed:
I had to watch it and I started coughing I was laughing so hard. It's really what gives IT a bad name. I work very closely with our help desk staff in my position. They are very dedicated and have the patience of Job. I have no idea how they do it but they can remain calm even when trying to teach someone the difference between right clicking and left clicking a mouse. Sometimes this might take a half hour by phone. The subject in this video is of course, quite unprofessional but I think he represents what people imagine when they call their help desk. Some geeky young upstart who was happily playing computer games until your inconvenient call. It couldn't be farther from the truth in our case. Both techs at our company are women, both are patient, kind, competent and knowledgeable. They do enjoy the occasional practical joke and cubicle high jinx but overall they are consummate professionals.
There is also the notion that IT folk are condescending to non techies. This is probably somewhat true. If you call in to report that your Internet is missing from your computer and we discover the problem is that your PC is turned off, there is probably going to be a little chuckling in cubicle world when you hang up the phone. Overall though, most of us aim to spread our knowledge and passion for all things geek to others. It's true some of our heroes might not be the same as yours, case in point:
It's true that we might get all hot and bothered by things you could care less about, most of which have acronyms. Essentially though, we want the same things you do, happy home lives, enjoyable work, people who care about us and people to care about.
