Here are 5 quick tips for improving your relationship with the I.T. staff at your place of work. Tech people are an intelligent, analytical sort who are attentive to detail and appreciate co-workers who are able to effectively articulate their computer problems. The first two tips clarify exactly how you should use a few commonly misused technical terms in order to build some “street credit” as an educated computer user. The last three tips offer some guidelines for communicating and getting along with your I.T. staff.
1. How to refer to the Internet
“The Internet” is a proper noun that refers to the global system of interconnected computer networks that we use to do work, exchange information, play games, et cetera. Many people speak about the Internet as if we each had our own copy — they say things such as “my Internet is down”. There is only one Internet, to which each of us has a connection. When your Internet connection goes down, you call I.T. If the Internet were to stop working… well, that would make the 5 o’clock news.
2. Know the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web
The Internet is a global system of computer networks. There are many different applications for this technology, one of which is the World Wide Web. The Web is a vast ocean interlinked hypertext documents over which various forms of information are made available — images, audio, video, text, and more. The Internet makes the World Wide Web possible. The Web is accessed over the Internet, however they are not the same thing and should not be referred to interchangeably.
3. Be attentive
I.T. workers who are continually handling the same problems may guide their co-workers through the steps necessary to resolve the issue, hoping to lighten their future workload by helping others become a little more self-sufficient. “Teach a man to fish” and all that, right?
If you end up seeking help on a problem that has popped up before, iterate through the specific steps you took trying to solve it. This will give the help desk insight into what solutions may or may not work, as well as let them know you were attentive to their suggestions the last time this came up.
4. Be specific. Very specific.
When asking for help from I.T., people often describe their issues in a very generic manner that offers few clues as to what has actually gone wrong. I.T. workers have become very skilled at analyzing the questions they field and drawing information out of their co-workers, but at the same time they greatly appreciate those who are able to supply as much specific information as possible right off the bat.
When something goes wrong with your workstation or a piece of software, stop and go over exactly what you were doing before the error came up. What software were you using? Were you working with a specific file? What did you click on? Did you press a button, or type in a command? What button did you press? What command did you type? Was there an error message? If so, write down the error message word-for-word.
Why go to all this trouble? Because frankly, “my computer isn’t working” means nothing, and if you don’t offer this information in your phone call or trouble ticket, I.T. is going to coax it out of you one way or another.
5. Don’t cross the line with personal computer problems
Be considerate and respectful of your co-workers in I.T. when you approach them for help with personal problems. A helpdesk employee who answers phone calls and resolves support tickets every minute of the work day probably enjoys taking a break from the grind at lunch just as much as you do. Pulling up a chair and asking why YouTube videos do not load at home is like dropping in on the accounting table with your tax forms in-hand. Realize that you are asking someone for a favor, and approach it as such — try mentioning that you are have a few tech problems at home, and asking whether the person would mind speaking with you at a convenient time.
Photo by Justin Marty.
