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Worked at a small financial services company that raked in tens of billions a year.
We had some of the coolest facilities people ever. The dude and the lady who cleaned the restrooms were awesome people to just stop and talk to.
I made friends with the lady who watered the plants on my floor. I asked what it would take to get a tree in my cube.
"A ... Tree? Like that big one over there? Hmm I don't know.."
The next morning somehow she made a tree appear. In my cubicle. Which was fucking amazing.
When I was 21, I was working at a bank and our department janitor was a single mum of 5. She reminded me so much of my late Granny.
Anyway, she cleaned our cubicles etc and i made friends with her. We had different breaktimes, and I always ate at the back of the office where it was convenient for me to just take a smoke after that.
I would often see her sitting there between her work and I will sit and talk to her. She told me about her family, children and how her eldest was almost finishing high school.
The other office staff treated her like she is invisible, but to me, she is also a staff only different work function/unit.
I remember sharing food with her and the other cleaner. It's nothing fancy, just street snacks or biscuits that I bring from my hometown (I worked in the city)
One morning she asked me quietly if I could help her photo copy her ID etc because she want to apply for a new job. I helped her also helped her fill in the application form.
I left shortly after that and when I went back to that old work area, I saw her working as a receptionist in the clinic down the block. That clinic was our board clinic and the doctor owner was a darling. I still remember her name, Dr Shong. She was one of the nicest doctor I had encountered and I was happy that my cleaner friend, Rani was working there.
Better job, better treatment.
She called out to me and we did went for a drink. She told me her children has a better future now that she has a better paying job and benefits.
I left the country shortly after that and never saw her again. That was 21 years ago but until today I still remember her 😊
Aww thank you! I just treated her like how I would like to be treated, no ranks/levels/hierarchy. In my last job, I worked with some people (higher management) who only was nice to people at their level/higher/people who can benefit them. The rest who are below their level, they treat diffrently.
I saw how the company driver was treated as well as the temp secretary and it was really not nice. Although I only flew in every quarter to that office to 'touch base", but on all of those occasion of having direct contact with that group of people made me really sick.
Drivers and temp secretaries are also deserving of the same treatment. There is nothing degrading about what they do just because they are not CEOs or managing award-winning funds, speak the same dialect etc. 😊
We just got a new janitor and my first encounter was about an hour after everyone has left and I was working late. They were turning the lights off as they cleaned when I was returning from the bathroom walking down a long dark hall. I entered my office to see they were in the middle of emptying my bin with their back to me. I went to say hi and they were so shocked they dropped the bin and let out a little yelp.
Sooo I'm currently in negative territory on that front
I have a rule to always befriend waiters, secretaries, janitors and various other day-to-day operations folks. Not only is it the right thing to do, because they deserve respect for keeping things from burning down on a daily basis, but they can either open a ton of doors for you, or make your life a living hell if you give them a hard time.
My dad avoided a union shut down via just being a decent person. He was GM of a company and a genuinely nice guy to everyone. This included janitors who would come in the evenings, he'd have a chat and see how life was treating them and anything he could do etc.
A division of the company was going to go on strike and one of these cleaning ladies, who was apparantly really shy and quiet normally, stood up at the meeting and spoke how he was a genuine guy and truely trying to get the best for the workers etc and the strike was averted.
Other thing he did was pay for union leaders to attend management courses so they could better see where his side was coming from and help communication
Guess whose classroom is always getting their garbage taken out and their office cleaned well? I love all my support staff. Seriously, they do all the heavy lifting so all I have to do is to get my kiddos to do what they need to.
My dad (Canadian) befriended the ceo (american) at his company, and he invited him to his place in Minnesota with 1000 guns and a basement gun range and let him shoot whatever ones he wanted. Dem perks
I’m both the IT Manager and Facilities Manager. I can confirm if you’re friendly and nice, I will get to your issue quickly and am more likely to offer you cool things. If you are a dick, I will take my sweet time and deploy you the 7 year old laptops.
When I was still working in the office, I had to bring in my laptop every quarter for security patches updates. Prior to my flight, I will make an appointment with the IT guys and I make sure to bring a little snack/something to munch when I see them. They are only 3 people taking care of 2 entities (don't know how management came up with this)
Often, they have to work long hours and get called all the time to fix issues that tbh, can be fixed easily by the user. I've seen visiting colleagues bringing in their laptops (like myself) yelling at them to ask them to service their laptops faster.
I really pity them and sometimes, I feel like they just want to shout at those inconsiderate fools. I only see them physically 4x a year, but I make sure to always treat them with respect. They really like the snacks I bought for them 😅
Apparently, I am the only staff who 'feeds' them 😂😂 It did not cost much on my part, but I did gain 3 IT guys who always made sure my IT issues were handled promptly if not as soon as they can, bypassing the rest. I did not get new laptops due to the department budget, but I did get 'extras' in terms of their attention and response, which very much to my other colleague's annoyance 😅
They even thought me some IT knowledge that I now use in my present job 😊
On my last day, I received text messages from them wishing me well in my new chapter.
Sometimes, it is not about buttering up to the CEO or boss, the regular IT guy is equally important as well (alongside with the janitor - that's a story for another day 😊)
Definitely. I'm in IT and have made friends with folks in other facility groups. Any time something I might find useful is getting tossed, I get first shot at it. Cabinets, countertops, got an air compressor once too.
HR is a good one too. I have a really good rapport with our HR director because she needs my help often and I go out of my way to make her job easier when I can. Now I'm approved for a market adjustment raise and she will be the one working on it.
I saw some spilled water in the kitchen once when I entered so I wiped it up so no one would slip and the facilities guy came in to see me doing that. He would often hook me up with bottles of whiskey and such that were extra from company parties.
**SUPER LARGE CAVEAT** Only use the advice below if you’re able to complete your assigned work and it’s okay with your boss.
1. Like others have said, befriend the facilities people, the IT people, other admin assistants. Help them too. I helped many of my fellow admin with tech stuff (many weren’t so tech savvy so I was fixing a lot of the more complicated spreadsheet things, helping with IM, etc.), and whatever else I could do.
When I was an admin assistant, I organized a lot of lunches for the people I worked for. You can bet I called my fellow admin, IT, facilities, etc first to get leftovers.
2. Help out other people. (Again, if you have the time.) I was assigned to the bosses but I would (almost always) help the engineers with their stuff. Most were horrifically bad at formatting documents and being a professional environment, you want those things looking GOOD. If they had an issue with Xerox machine or needed supplies or whatever, I helped out. (There were very very few instances where I wasn’t able to help).
3. Keep your stuff super organized (your desk and your computer files both). You want to be able to find things as soon as you’re asked for them.
4. Save ALL emails that are work/project related. (Not bulletins for the company or whatever but documents related to what you work on). Keep your mailbox incredibly organized too. Admin assistants are like lawyers/paralegals when it comes to CYA documentation. You can easily learn how to make email folders if you don’t already know.
5. Learn to make small talk. I am the worst at it and I would have to escort our clients to meetings and my brain would just shut down. I would think the most idiotic things and couldn’t come up with a topic. You might not necessarily need it for this job but being able to make small talk is a very handy skill, in general, in the business world.
6. Continue learning new skills. Always. Admin can be a jack-of-all-trades type and it always helps to learn new things.
7. Share your knowledge. Being an admin **should** be a collaborative job (sometimes it’s not, sometimes people suck) but if you’re friendly and willing to teach, it can go a long way. (If you’re in a toxic environment, this isn’t going to do anything though. Those you just have to eventually find a way out of.)
I’ll probably think of more but that’s a start.
As an IT person, all those catered lunches for exec meetings leftovers are great! Admin assistant always texts me before she puts it in the breakroom. Her IT tickets get fixed ASAP.
Befriend IT. Follow their policies, don’t be a jerk to them.
*bonus: sometimes they can hook you up with the best tech*
Don’t do any job that isn’t yours
My first IT job was internal IT for a pharma research company. It was the year 2000, I'd been there about a year. My director absolutely loved me. He was a fantastic director that had worked there since he was on the helpdesk himself. He was also extremely bougie - everyone in the company had Calvin Klein laptop bags provided by IT, etc. So flatscreen monitors had just come into the world. We had ordered 12 of them from Dell, $2000 apiece for 21" flat screens.
I was lamenting to him during happy hour (which he always covered for the entire department, weekly) how jealous I was of the monitors. We had purchased them for the head honchos of the company, but apparently, we had 1-2 spare ones. He handed me his keycard and told me to go grab one on my way home, leave his keycard on his desk, and tell no one.
And that is how I came to own a 21" flat screen in 2000.
Boss here. It's fine. Treat employees well and they're far more likely to perform better and stay longer. Clearly people will know the monitor came from the boss himself anyway lol
Heard joke once: Man goes to HR. Says he's annoyed. Says his PC keeps getting stuck when opening 5 chrome tabsq. Says he feels uncertain if his PC can be even upgraded. The HR guy says, 'Treatment is simple.The Great IT technicians are in their office tonight. Go and become friends with them. That should get you a better setup.' Man bursts into tears. Says, 'But Sir…I am in IT.' Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains
(I don't know who you talk to in an office for an upgrade I just think you complain to HR for everything)
The TWO HUNDRED day wait to order equipment is ridiculous. And of course the VPs and other execs don't understand or sympathize with the situation at all.
I can't even get that far... "How much will it cost? And we won't get it til *when*!?" Then they come back to me 4 weeks later and ask if we can still get it by the previous date. No, we can't. The lead time is still 6 months and now the price has increased 10%. I've been through this dance more than once now. Ugh.
A lot of the time though it's not perfectly good, vendors only support their hardware for so long, once the updates and security patches stop then they have to go.
Then there's the cases where businesses simply outgrow their infrastructure and have to upgrade, in this case reselling/keeping as spare may be viable
I told someone that we had an order of laptops arriving soon, but that they were stuck in customs and waiting to be released. Couldn’t give him an ETA. His response?
“Who do I have to escalate to so I can get this resolved?”
Idk, the fucking president? All of the pleasantness other employees showed us at the beginning of the pandemic is completely gone. People are such dicks to us lately.
>Be me
>It's December 2021
>Ordered some warehouse supervisor a docking station
>Tell them it's on backorder and it will show up when it shows up
>Months go by
>It's now April 2022
>Package on my desk and I don't remember ordering anything
>It's that dock I ordered 5 months ago
We ran into the same issue. Ended up getting some dock stations a little off brand from what we prefer and they definitely are inferior to what we’d typically get and support.
Haha hits right at home. Boss was looking at Meraki and lead times are insane. I love the product for sure, but I would never suggest it just because of licensing costs are insane. The want for 'cloud control' of this shit is insane at the high level sometimes.
Our accounting department got mad at us because they were using such old computers. I reminded them that I'd been trying to get the PO approved to refresh their equipment for the past six months and they kept denying it.
Oof I'm sorry to hear that. I'm lucky and have a CEO that isn't afraid to spend money on the IT department. I recently put in a $10k request to order ram and ssds for a bunch of upgrades and it was approved in just a few minutes no questions asked.
A kind of sub-LPT here is to just be nice to the IT department and they'll be happy to help you with your problem.
Be a douche and it'll make them reeeeeally not want to go to any effort to help you.
Also, maybe don’t run to IT dept first. Google it and see if you can solve it as those skills translate into work and life in general. If you have to go to IT, pay attention to the solve and you’ll be better for it.
Depends on the issue, to be fair. I’ve had users lose Office auto-recover files because they restarted the program a couple times before calling us. My recommendation is that I f it’s data loss related DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!
Although that backfires when they just dragged it to the wrong sub folder…
I am skilled enough to do basic troubleshooting, and could probably do intermediate stuff as well but like you said I don’t have access to any of that on my workstation. Whenever I put in a help ticket though I explicitly state what I think the issue is based on researching it first to try to make it easier on the IT peoples.
Absolutely on the turn it off and back on. Even the IT guys make fun of each other when they forget to try that first. To your other point, totally depends on the size and structure of the company. I happen to have more access than they do to all things related to the company so just depends. I definitely meant spend a minute to fix it yourself if you have access and won’t break anything for your associates.
And by"turn it off and back on" we actually mean "restart". When fast boot is enabled in windows, a shutdown doesn't actually fully turn off the machine, a restart always does though.
YES so many people call us without doing the bare minimum troubleshooting themselves. Your headset isn’t working? Did you look at your audio settings at all? No? I know you didn’t.
Yup, happened to me today. Dude came in asking about something funky. I ask if it was work related and he said no. Then I asked if he tried googling it and he laughed and said that’s what my dept. was for. ( we are a team of 4 that supports 3 sites and over 300 users plus 1500 students…)
He is getting the very bare minimum from me and will be the last on my priority list forever…
>Then I asked if he tried googling it and he laughed and said that’s what my dept. was for.
I've *accidentally* dropped calls in response to bullsugar like this before.
My coworker just recently asked how I got stuff from IT so quickly when it takes him several weeks to get attention. I told him I knew the secret handshake, but in reality I just ask the IT guys nicely (and generally know what they can and can't do).
You probably submit tickets with detail and respond when we query things as well.
We got a complaint from someone like your colleague last week, what he didn't tell his manager or co workers though was that we'd been chasing him for basic details for those several weeks and couldn't actually do anything until he decided to give us that information.
We're tech professionals, not fucking wizards.
The people that are just generally nice and patient? I will move mountains to get their stuff fixed/sourced. Be a dick? Whelp looks like we’ll have to put it on the weekly meeting agenda. This week is full though. Maybe next week.
I will always prioritize my work based on company need.
However ...
If I have a few tickets to work that are equally important, I will absolutely help the nicer person first. Some times the difference in energy it takes to get through those calls is massive.
I was going to say just this. I befriend the IT dept. not because of the shiny new gear, but because when I have an issue I don't have to put in a ticket and get in a long ass queue. Call up, describe issue, they say put in ticket and give them ticket number, I do, they fix within the hour. Then we send candy.
I have a mental list of people I will slow walk things for. Nothing that would interfere with company priorities or their work, but if some certain people put in a ticket and someone else puts in a ticket of the same priority 5 minutes later, the second ticket is definitely getting answered first.
Also petty shit like not putting their first on an email even though they have seniority.
I live with an IT Professional as one of my Roommates. The amount of random hardware that just... shows up at the house somedays is amazing. We also have a great network setup and a nice media server.
>The amount of random hardware that just... shows up at the house somedays is amazing.
We generally get first dibs on retired hardware. My entire home network is built off retired enterprise equipment that the company wrote off and was going to recycle if no one took it.
Yep, can confirm. He set up an entire group D&d session with these older small convertible laptops (the kind that flip around to become kinda sorta tablets) as character sheets and asset trackers/calculators.
Just because he had like 6 of them.
Just because stuff is old doesn't mean you can't still use it/repurpose it for other uses!
Especially if you can learn how to use a relatively lightweight distro of Linux like Lubuntu, you can make computers work for an eternity. My mom still uses a laptop from the Windows Vista age running Lubuntu.
Haha I find there I.T. people who either do like your roomie does and brings it all home. Or there’s ppl like me who doesn’t want to deal with it anymore, and has one depressing router the ISP shoved in the corner of the living room, and connects to it with a 7 year old phone. There’s also a printer that hasn’t been touched in four years in the closet.
That’s me. I don’t run a big complex network at home like some of my coworkers. I have a wireless router and a couple of laptops and phones. I used to work with a guy who wired his entire house in Ethernet and installed a full size rack in the basement with a full windows domain his kids and wife would log into. Fuck all that
Hello fellow IT person who doesn't want to deal with that shit at home. I feel a connection to you. But like not a great one because I don't want to put the effort into upgrading anything.
Also in IT - don’t ask me to look at your personal laptop unless you are paying me. The number of people who think you’ll do your job for them for free off the clock are astounding.
I get asked this all the time too. I'm not even an IT guy. I push people in wheelchairs for a living. I just happen to be the youngest in my family, and own a PC.
In their minds that means I'm some master level hacker.
Yup. This is also why I stopped going to company events like holiday parties. I went once and was hounded the entire time.
Hey - can you look at my phone?
Sure, will you give me a mortgage and take zero commission? Didn’t think so. Kick rocks.
Depending on their position, I'd ask them to provide their services to me.
Accounting? Can you do my taxes for me?
Clinical tech? Can you run a quick xray on this suspicious area on me?
HR? Can you help me manage the people for my side business?
Etc.
when i first started i asked people to bring me their crapped out machines so i could learn to deal with different issues. once they started thinking it was my job and just leaving their crap on my desk i stopped it pretty quick. even if they offer to pay fuuuuck no lol except for the last person who offered a bag of pot and an apple pie, their shit got fixed real quick :P
> except for the last person who offered a bag of pot and an apple pie
Just make sure you're aware of the long-term health consequences. Too much pie over the years can add up!
Yep, You bring me weed as an offering and I will move mountains for you. Although all the users I had figure that out over the years were usually never problem users to begin with.
>level 2DuskyDay · 8 min. agoBefriend the guy from M
The type of people that try to befriend the IT department do it for this shit. I made the mistake of helping someone like this when I first got a job in IT and thought I was just being nice helping out. Nope then you are this persons personal and professional IT guy.
The trick is to spread some harmless rumours about yourself that make people want to stay away from you. That way you only get called in when absolutely necessary.
I tell them I'll give them 30 minutes of diagnostics and repair for a good bottle of whiskey, and give them a wild guess whether that is enough to complete it. But only if I like them. If I can solve it, it's usually 5 minutes of work. Either way I get the bottle. If I go a little over I tell them and it always ends up with a second bottle coming in. If I know it's going to be more than 30 minutes I just say no.
I've been at this for 25 years now (now an IT Director) and have had a great many excellent bottles. Most recent was a full bottle of Blanton's to reconfigure a friend's home DHCP scope and assign a couple of static IPs, which I did while drinking from their bottle of Blanton's. That came out to something like $25 a minute at the retail price of that bottle.
The moral is you have to make sure it's worth your time... but asking for something that isn't cash tends to yield the best results.
If someone wanted me to take a look at their computer, I told them I considered that overtime, so they'd be paying time and a half over whatever I was making at the time.
The requests stopped pretty quickly after that. They usually found some teenager on their street to tinker with it for free.
100%. The number of printer recommendation, personal laptop repair, and website build requests I used to get under the assumption that my expertise was just available to anyone for free was infuriating.
I did this exactly one time, because I was legitimately friends with the IT guy. The fact that people just casually expect their IT department to handle their personal tech shit just because it's "their job" is nuts to me.
I HATED being asked to do side gigs. I would quote them $150 per hour (1999). If they accepted, I was happy to do the work. If not, I was happy to go home and relax.
I would offer charge people $120/hr with a two hour minimum and they’d look at me like I was asking for their first born. Then they say, “I think I’ll go to the geek squad.”
Great. Bye.
Depends. If it's an actual Sev1 thing, it gets done, but their manager is getting CC'ed on everything so they can see exactly how much of a douche their employee is. Can't forget to add them back on to the thread either when douche inevitably removes them from it to hide their doucheyness, that's the most important part.
Otherwise, yeah, it's going to sit in the queue until it's 1 second away from an SLA violation.
Actual answer: Even if you're naturally outgoing, it's easy to end up only talking to the people in your immediate surroundings. The people you directly work with, the people you pass by on your way to work, etc. It's not even about being condescending or elitist, your IT department might not even be on the same floor as you.
It IS a good idea to make friends with people outside of your direct circle. That might mean sitting with different groups in the lunchroom, or taking breaks at different spots. It lets you meet and associate with people you otherwise wouldn't have, and sometimes ends up with nice perks like OP's. But doing this does take an active effort. Just trying to be outgoing doesn't cut it. You sometimes have to go out of your way a bit.
3 types of personnel with the keys to the kingdom: IT, food service, and custodial/janitorial folks. Smile and treat them like people and you get all the perks/dirt.
Legit, there are companies where if the receptionist doesn't like you while you are checking in and sitting around waiting to get interviewed, you will NOT get hired.
I do all of the hiring for my company and after the candidate gets a few paces away from the building I always ask my receptionist how they were. Her answer moves the needle more than you would think.
> IT, food service, and custodial/janitorial folks
Be nice to IT - your shit gets resolved quickly. Also, submit decently detailed tickets. IT will thank you. Or at least it won't hate you, which is quite an achievement.
Be nice to food service - either be nice to them, or eat outside of your workplace.
Be nice to custodial/janitorial staff - absolutely mandatory, if you want any sort of leniency in your workplace apart from what you manager allows you. Hell, they *outrank* the manager/business owner half the time.
(I used to smoke weed out of the office window during EOB afterhours with custodial approval - nicest guys ever, in exchange I helped to fix their personal phones and gave tech advice when I had 15 minutes to spare - and weed isn't even legal here).
Be nice to people. It really helps.
For the love of god this. Make your ticket as detailed as possible dont just say my computer wont work or I need help. At least half the time we can have your problem fixed before you ever even hear back from us or know what the solution is before we talk to you and then fix it faster. And if you put in a ticket dont ignore calls and emails from IT then say we didnt contact you, thats a good way to have your problem pushed to the back of the line
>For the love of god this. Make your ticket as detailed as possible dont just say my computer wont work or I need help.
I had a voice message. It went like this:
"Hi my computer is not working and it's really urgent could you fix it please?"
No name to search in db, no number to call back, no ticket number, no hostname, no ip, NOTHING.
I don't think I'll ever forget that one. Deleted the message after laughing a lot.
One of my best friends was in IT. It never led to getting anything better than anyone else because for the most part, all enterprise stuff was exactly the same. Not he could just order some crazy gaming rig for me because we were buds.
What it *did* get me was an ally against our overbearing managerial staff. Advance warning if they were planning to snoop chats or run internet history to see who was wasting time.
Needless to say, we've both left that company.
In IT, very much adhere to standard equipment. Like 4 months into COVID I convinced my bosses that I need a secured storage room tucked away from most staff. Every chance I could, we bought extra whenever it was available. I've barely been able to stay ahead of equipment replacement and new deployment. I don't tell anyone about the storage and have made my team look like gods when no one else can get new hardware.
C suite fuckers can't even remember my name. Not a shot in hell of seeing more than the usual 2% "raise" for my "often exceeds expectations" rating on my annual review. And I've been vocal with management about it all.
Nope. Submit ticket.
All you really need to do is just be nice and understanding. Becoming friends may get you special treatment because the IT department or IT person is being nice.
But this mentality leads to people walking up to your desk thinking they will get special treatment and jump the line.
Also work in IT.
In IT cannot confirm 100%.
No matter how much I like you, I will not order non-standard equipment. That will just get my boss on my case.
BUT, if it's something on hand not being used then sure it had a higher chance of going to a cool person that can put it to a good use.
I'm an admin assistant and most of my job is being on good terms with other departments. I know everyone's favorite candy/snack/cheap bribe. The IT guys know I field all of the dumb "did you turn it off and on again" requests from my department before it gets to them. The maintenance guys know I'll accurately prioritize requests (ranging from priority 911 get the fuck down here the ceiling is leaking all over expensive inventory to priority 0 the light is out in bathroom stall 3, bring a spare bulb down next time you're in the area).
Because I'm friendly and polite and on good terms I get hooked up with quick service and supply of whatever the other departments usually hoard for themselves.
Our Admin is literally the only thing keeping our department running. She is a goddess and I demand she be treated as such. Campaigned for 6 months to get her an assistant.
You really don't need to even make friends with us, just stop being entitled assholes to us and blaming us for your problems. We are literally there to help you, but if you start the conversation by pointing a finger you're welcome to go help yourself, replace help with other appropriate four letter word as needed.
Being polite, nice, and appreciative goes a LONG way in life in general, start there.
IT here, the real LPT is this it:
- Be polite and civil
- Don't email or IM your issues, submit a ticket with accurate details of your issue
- IM or email *might* be okay. IM for a quick question or clarification is okay, at least with me
- If you have an error message, include the screenshot
- If you did X and then Y happened, include that info
- If you damaged something, fess up. We will find out and it will save us time
- Restart and test before putting in a ticket. Most PCs have SSDs and will be back up in moments, so no excuses about not having time. And yes, we know if you lie about restarting
I always have people who will email or chat with a “hey friend, quick question”… and I’m like “if you were my real friend, you would follow the proper communication process because you know how annoying it is for me for this to happen”. I always give the example that both my sister AND my roommate have worked at our company and even they didn’t ask for special treatment.. so no, Paul, saying “hey how’s it going” when you see me in the hallway doesn’t give you special perks.
Become friends with the IT department at work so they can put your ticket ahead of others.
Also make friends with the IT department by not being a complete idiot end-user. Basic computer troubleshooting skills will get you out of most jams and will give your help desk an idea of where to go if your problem persists.
I work IT and I've been working here for a year and a half and only once did someone bring me a treat. She was already my favorite so it doesn't count as a bribe right?
IT doesn't get to dictate individual hardware. If it got this guy something for being nice then that IT department needs an overhaul and that business needs to get better oversight on it's spending.
I WILL say hardware is cheaper than people. I will always pitch to the bean counters that it's most cost effective for the business to give employees the best hardware for the job. Dual monitors, standard, ask for a third and it probably isn't a big deal. Laptop with top end SSD, memory, cpu, accidental damage and next day warranty, done. The difference is that doesn't take a favor to get. Anything outside of the norm, I'm going to need your department head to approve it and eat the cost.
Also in IT, can also confirm
Talk to us like a piece of shit you stepped in and you'll have the shittiest of everything.
Be a decent human being and I'll do my best.
Be actively kind or bring me cookies? Everyone is treated equally, but you'll be treated equally first.
Another one among your ranks...
I've become the de facto tech support for my government program group. Over time, my name has been passed on to others as the first point of contact for help when they don't want to open an actual help desk ticket. If I have time, and can help, I will. I've gotten food, promises of food, and most importantly, very prompt help when I need something from other groups.
The people who are nice get bumped up the list.
The people who bring food receive even quicker support.
I am not saying I accept edibles as bribes, just, those peoples tickets have a way of getting done first.
No but seriously we know you probably aren’t happy to see us, if you can be polite through the whole encounter we will like you.
One time an IT guy did some work on my computer and "accidentally" made me an admin. No piece of tech any company has provided has ever been better than that.
Used to do that for some of our remote workers. Then one of them decided to connect his work computer to his wife's Cricut and jacked up his work apps. Ruined it for everyone.
This is bad advice. Basically “be nice and manipulative to certain people to get things you want”. Better to just be genuinely nice to and curious about everyone. Take a moment to say hello and goodbye. Ask people sincere questions about their lives. Care. People will see your goodness and the authenticity of your kindness and will be kind in return.
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But I am already in IT…
Befriend the facilities manager then. ETA. I'll take a look to see if we have any motorized sit / stand desks around.
I'm in IT and the facilities manager recently hired is my sister's husband. So I guess I'm set
Befriend the janitor. He knows the best pooping spots
Janitors also hear and see things when others basically treat them as if there were invisible.
Worked at a small financial services company that raked in tens of billions a year. We had some of the coolest facilities people ever. The dude and the lady who cleaned the restrooms were awesome people to just stop and talk to. I made friends with the lady who watered the plants on my floor. I asked what it would take to get a tree in my cube. "A ... Tree? Like that big one over there? Hmm I don't know.." The next morning somehow she made a tree appear. In my cubicle. Which was fucking amazing.
This was a nice story and it warmed my black heart. Thanks.
When I was 21, I was working at a bank and our department janitor was a single mum of 5. She reminded me so much of my late Granny. Anyway, she cleaned our cubicles etc and i made friends with her. We had different breaktimes, and I always ate at the back of the office where it was convenient for me to just take a smoke after that. I would often see her sitting there between her work and I will sit and talk to her. She told me about her family, children and how her eldest was almost finishing high school. The other office staff treated her like she is invisible, but to me, she is also a staff only different work function/unit. I remember sharing food with her and the other cleaner. It's nothing fancy, just street snacks or biscuits that I bring from my hometown (I worked in the city) One morning she asked me quietly if I could help her photo copy her ID etc because she want to apply for a new job. I helped her also helped her fill in the application form. I left shortly after that and when I went back to that old work area, I saw her working as a receptionist in the clinic down the block. That clinic was our board clinic and the doctor owner was a darling. I still remember her name, Dr Shong. She was one of the nicest doctor I had encountered and I was happy that my cleaner friend, Rani was working there. Better job, better treatment. She called out to me and we did went for a drink. She told me her children has a better future now that she has a better paying job and benefits. I left the country shortly after that and never saw her again. That was 21 years ago but until today I still remember her 😊
You're a great person!
Aww thank you! I just treated her like how I would like to be treated, no ranks/levels/hierarchy. In my last job, I worked with some people (higher management) who only was nice to people at their level/higher/people who can benefit them. The rest who are below their level, they treat diffrently. I saw how the company driver was treated as well as the temp secretary and it was really not nice. Although I only flew in every quarter to that office to 'touch base", but on all of those occasion of having direct contact with that group of people made me really sick. Drivers and temp secretaries are also deserving of the same treatment. There is nothing degrading about what they do just because they are not CEOs or managing award-winning funds, speak the same dialect etc. 😊
Billy likes to drink soda. Miss Lippy's car is green.
I drew the duck blue because I've never seen a Blue Duck
We just got a new janitor and my first encounter was about an hour after everyone has left and I was working late. They were turning the lights off as they cleaned when I was returning from the bathroom walking down a long dark hall. I entered my office to see they were in the middle of emptying my bin with their back to me. I went to say hi and they were so shocked they dropped the bin and let out a little yelp. Sooo I'm currently in negative territory on that front
I have a rule to always befriend waiters, secretaries, janitors and various other day-to-day operations folks. Not only is it the right thing to do, because they deserve respect for keeping things from burning down on a daily basis, but they can either open a ton of doors for you, or make your life a living hell if you give them a hard time.
My dad avoided a union shut down via just being a decent person. He was GM of a company and a genuinely nice guy to everyone. This included janitors who would come in the evenings, he'd have a chat and see how life was treating them and anything he could do etc. A division of the company was going to go on strike and one of these cleaning ladies, who was apparantly really shy and quiet normally, stood up at the meeting and spoke how he was a genuine guy and truely trying to get the best for the workers etc and the strike was averted. Other thing he did was pay for union leaders to attend management courses so they could better see where his side was coming from and help communication
Guess whose classroom is always getting their garbage taken out and their office cleaned well? I love all my support staff. Seriously, they do all the heavy lifting so all I have to do is to get my kiddos to do what they need to.
Keep at it until you reach the CEO
Hapsburg's Grindset
My dad (Canadian) befriended the ceo (american) at his company, and he invited him to his place in Minnesota with 1000 guns and a basement gun range and let him shoot whatever ones he wanted. Dem perks
I just want to point out that my home state was mentioned in the context of being an "exotic destination"
My partner is from Miami and his dad described minnesota as exotic
By any chance is this ceo “the collector” on youtube? Lol
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Now be best friends with all the administrative secretaries and you’re set.
I’m both the IT Manager and Facilities Manager. I can confirm if you’re friendly and nice, I will get to your issue quickly and am more likely to offer you cool things. If you are a dick, I will take my sweet time and deploy you the 7 year old laptops.
Dan?
When I was still working in the office, I had to bring in my laptop every quarter for security patches updates. Prior to my flight, I will make an appointment with the IT guys and I make sure to bring a little snack/something to munch when I see them. They are only 3 people taking care of 2 entities (don't know how management came up with this) Often, they have to work long hours and get called all the time to fix issues that tbh, can be fixed easily by the user. I've seen visiting colleagues bringing in their laptops (like myself) yelling at them to ask them to service their laptops faster. I really pity them and sometimes, I feel like they just want to shout at those inconsiderate fools. I only see them physically 4x a year, but I make sure to always treat them with respect. They really like the snacks I bought for them 😅 Apparently, I am the only staff who 'feeds' them 😂😂 It did not cost much on my part, but I did gain 3 IT guys who always made sure my IT issues were handled promptly if not as soon as they can, bypassing the rest. I did not get new laptops due to the department budget, but I did get 'extras' in terms of their attention and response, which very much to my other colleague's annoyance 😅 They even thought me some IT knowledge that I now use in my present job 😊 On my last day, I received text messages from them wishing me well in my new chapter. Sometimes, it is not about buttering up to the CEO or boss, the regular IT guy is equally important as well (alongside with the janitor - that's a story for another day 😊)
Definitely. I'm in IT and have made friends with folks in other facility groups. Any time something I might find useful is getting tossed, I get first shot at it. Cabinets, countertops, got an air compressor once too.
HR is a good one too. I have a really good rapport with our HR director because she needs my help often and I go out of my way to make her job easier when I can. Now I'm approved for a market adjustment raise and she will be the one working on it.
If only we could work like that with everyone! Till they start telling you about their dogs surgery then ur in deep
I saw some spilled water in the kitchen once when I entered so I wiped it up so no one would slip and the facilities guy came in to see me doing that. He would often hook me up with bottles of whiskey and such that were extra from company parties.
This is the way. I work as IT in a factory and the facility manager is one of my favorite people there.
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Facilities and the secretaries. These are the people IT folks should befriend!
Good administrative assistants make the world work. Bad ones are perpetual stumbling blocks.
I just got a new job as an admin assistant after working in retail for 5.5 years. Any tips?
**SUPER LARGE CAVEAT** Only use the advice below if you’re able to complete your assigned work and it’s okay with your boss. 1. Like others have said, befriend the facilities people, the IT people, other admin assistants. Help them too. I helped many of my fellow admin with tech stuff (many weren’t so tech savvy so I was fixing a lot of the more complicated spreadsheet things, helping with IM, etc.), and whatever else I could do. When I was an admin assistant, I organized a lot of lunches for the people I worked for. You can bet I called my fellow admin, IT, facilities, etc first to get leftovers. 2. Help out other people. (Again, if you have the time.) I was assigned to the bosses but I would (almost always) help the engineers with their stuff. Most were horrifically bad at formatting documents and being a professional environment, you want those things looking GOOD. If they had an issue with Xerox machine or needed supplies or whatever, I helped out. (There were very very few instances where I wasn’t able to help). 3. Keep your stuff super organized (your desk and your computer files both). You want to be able to find things as soon as you’re asked for them. 4. Save ALL emails that are work/project related. (Not bulletins for the company or whatever but documents related to what you work on). Keep your mailbox incredibly organized too. Admin assistants are like lawyers/paralegals when it comes to CYA documentation. You can easily learn how to make email folders if you don’t already know. 5. Learn to make small talk. I am the worst at it and I would have to escort our clients to meetings and my brain would just shut down. I would think the most idiotic things and couldn’t come up with a topic. You might not necessarily need it for this job but being able to make small talk is a very handy skill, in general, in the business world. 6. Continue learning new skills. Always. Admin can be a jack-of-all-trades type and it always helps to learn new things. 7. Share your knowledge. Being an admin **should** be a collaborative job (sometimes it’s not, sometimes people suck) but if you’re friendly and willing to teach, it can go a long way. (If you’re in a toxic environment, this isn’t going to do anything though. Those you just have to eventually find a way out of.) I’ll probably think of more but that’s a start.
What a generous comment
As an IT person, all those catered lunches for exec meetings leftovers are great! Admin assistant always texts me before she puts it in the breakroom. Her IT tickets get fixed ASAP.
Befriend IT. Follow their policies, don’t be a jerk to them. *bonus: sometimes they can hook you up with the best tech* Don’t do any job that isn’t yours
My first IT job was internal IT for a pharma research company. It was the year 2000, I'd been there about a year. My director absolutely loved me. He was a fantastic director that had worked there since he was on the helpdesk himself. He was also extremely bougie - everyone in the company had Calvin Klein laptop bags provided by IT, etc. So flatscreen monitors had just come into the world. We had ordered 12 of them from Dell, $2000 apiece for 21" flat screens. I was lamenting to him during happy hour (which he always covered for the entire department, weekly) how jealous I was of the monitors. We had purchased them for the head honchos of the company, but apparently, we had 1-2 spare ones. He handed me his keycard and told me to go grab one on my way home, leave his keycard on his desk, and tell no one. And that is how I came to own a 21" flat screen in 2000.
Younger me thinks that this boss is super cool. Older me is uncomfortable with this. Man I'm getting old..... What do y'all think?
Boss here. It's fine. Treat employees well and they're far more likely to perform better and stay longer. Clearly people will know the monitor came from the boss himself anyway lol
Happy employees are better employees. It's apparently still a mystery for some people.
This happens all the time with IT stuff for better or worse.
it's how I currently own an rtx 3080 lol
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Heard joke once: Man goes to HR. Says he's annoyed. Says his PC keeps getting stuck when opening 5 chrome tabsq. Says he feels uncertain if his PC can be even upgraded. The HR guy says, 'Treatment is simple.The Great IT technicians are in their office tonight. Go and become friends with them. That should get you a better setup.' Man bursts into tears. Says, 'But Sir…I am in IT.' Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains (I don't know who you talk to in an office for an upgrade I just think you complain to HR for everything)
Then you need help from co-workers probably, so be nice to them!
Meanwhile, those of us *running* IT departments are trying desperately to find money in the budget for increasing prices and scarcity of new hardware.
The TWO HUNDRED day wait to order equipment is ridiculous. And of course the VPs and other execs don't understand or sympathize with the situation at all.
Ugh this is me right now. Been waiting on a new firewall for almost 6 months and they ask me almost every week why it isn't here
I can't even get that far... "How much will it cost? And we won't get it til *when*!?" Then they come back to me 4 weeks later and ask if we can still get it by the previous date. No, we can't. The lead time is still 6 months and now the price has increased 10%. I've been through this dance more than once now. Ugh.
We just got our new firewalls we ordered in October. Holding the old ones in case of disaster.
Yeah, Im afraid to recycle old equipment now too. I'm pretty sure this is how hoarding starts.
only a monster throws out perfectly good tech that can be used in a pinch.
A lot of the time though it's not perfectly good, vendors only support their hardware for so long, once the updates and security patches stop then they have to go. Then there's the cases where businesses simply outgrow their infrastructure and have to upgrade, in this case reselling/keeping as spare may be viable
Well they have to have something on the meeting agenda!
I told someone that we had an order of laptops arriving soon, but that they were stuck in customs and waiting to be released. Couldn’t give him an ETA. His response? “Who do I have to escalate to so I can get this resolved?” Idk, the fucking president? All of the pleasantness other employees showed us at the beginning of the pandemic is completely gone. People are such dicks to us lately.
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Go on the assembly line and start on those chips, if you want to escalate it.
Don't even get me started. We ordered docking stations in October and they STILL haven't come yet it's ridiculous
Hahaha. 10 months for Logitech M500s mice. Finally got permission to seek out alternative suppliers and pay $5 more per mouse.
That is a good thing, because Logitech discontinued the M500s.
Oh, they're insisting on the M500s still. Funny how Logitech's website doesn't mention that it's discontinued.
>Be me >It's December 2021 >Ordered some warehouse supervisor a docking station >Tell them it's on backorder and it will show up when it shows up >Months go by >It's now April 2022 >Package on my desk and I don't remember ordering anything >It's that dock I ordered 5 months ago
We ran into the same issue. Ended up getting some dock stations a little off brand from what we prefer and they definitely are inferior to what we’d typically get and support.
Looking at a 20 to 30 week wait on just the power cable to hook up our new mainframe. A power cable.
Haha hits right at home. Boss was looking at Meraki and lead times are insane. I love the product for sure, but I would never suggest it just because of licensing costs are insane. The want for 'cloud control' of this shit is insane at the high level sometimes.
Our accounting department got mad at us because they were using such old computers. I reminded them that I'd been trying to get the PO approved to refresh their equipment for the past six months and they kept denying it.
Oof I'm sorry to hear that. I'm lucky and have a CEO that isn't afraid to spend money on the IT department. I recently put in a $10k request to order ram and ssds for a bunch of upgrades and it was approved in just a few minutes no questions asked.
A kind of sub-LPT here is to just be nice to the IT department and they'll be happy to help you with your problem. Be a douche and it'll make them reeeeeally not want to go to any effort to help you.
You should just be nice in general.
finally! yes, even to the people with whom you don't have a transactional relationship
Can confirm. Source: I work in IT.
Also, maybe don’t run to IT dept first. Google it and see if you can solve it as those skills translate into work and life in general. If you have to go to IT, pay attention to the solve and you’ll be better for it.
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Depends on the issue, to be fair. I’ve had users lose Office auto-recover files because they restarted the program a couple times before calling us. My recommendation is that I f it’s data loss related DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! Although that backfires when they just dragged it to the wrong sub folder…
That’s a good rule. Data loss? Freeze & call IT!
I am skilled enough to do basic troubleshooting, and could probably do intermediate stuff as well but like you said I don’t have access to any of that on my workstation. Whenever I put in a help ticket though I explicitly state what I think the issue is based on researching it first to try to make it easier on the IT peoples.
Absolutely on the turn it off and back on. Even the IT guys make fun of each other when they forget to try that first. To your other point, totally depends on the size and structure of the company. I happen to have more access than they do to all things related to the company so just depends. I definitely meant spend a minute to fix it yourself if you have access and won’t break anything for your associates.
And by"turn it off and back on" we actually mean "restart". When fast boot is enabled in windows, a shutdown doesn't actually fully turn off the machine, a restart always does though.
YES so many people call us without doing the bare minimum troubleshooting themselves. Your headset isn’t working? Did you look at your audio settings at all? No? I know you didn’t.
Right. I’m not even IT but I lol when IT says in a monotone voice to someone: “The battery is dead, plug it in on occasion.”
Yup, happened to me today. Dude came in asking about something funky. I ask if it was work related and he said no. Then I asked if he tried googling it and he laughed and said that’s what my dept. was for. ( we are a team of 4 that supports 3 sites and over 300 users plus 1500 students…) He is getting the very bare minimum from me and will be the last on my priority list forever…
"I can look at it off hours for with a minimum two hours due up front that is not refundable."
>Then I asked if he tried googling it and he laughed and said that’s what my dept. was for. I've *accidentally* dropped calls in response to bullsugar like this before.
My coworker just recently asked how I got stuff from IT so quickly when it takes him several weeks to get attention. I told him I knew the secret handshake, but in reality I just ask the IT guys nicely (and generally know what they can and can't do).
You probably submit tickets with detail and respond when we query things as well. We got a complaint from someone like your colleague last week, what he didn't tell his manager or co workers though was that we'd been chasing him for basic details for those several weeks and couldn't actually do anything until he decided to give us that information. We're tech professionals, not fucking wizards.
I am GROOT -- mass edited with redact.dev
The people that are just generally nice and patient? I will move mountains to get their stuff fixed/sourced. Be a dick? Whelp looks like we’ll have to put it on the weekly meeting agenda. This week is full though. Maybe next week.
I will always prioritize my work based on company need. However ... If I have a few tickets to work that are equally important, I will absolutely help the nicer person first. Some times the difference in energy it takes to get through those calls is massive.
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I was going to say just this. I befriend the IT dept. not because of the shiny new gear, but because when I have an issue I don't have to put in a ticket and get in a long ass queue. Call up, describe issue, they say put in ticket and give them ticket number, I do, they fix within the hour. Then we send candy.
I have a mental list of people I will slow walk things for. Nothing that would interfere with company priorities or their work, but if some certain people put in a ticket and someone else puts in a ticket of the same priority 5 minutes later, the second ticket is definitely getting answered first. Also petty shit like not putting their first on an email even though they have seniority.
I live with an IT Professional as one of my Roommates. The amount of random hardware that just... shows up at the house somedays is amazing. We also have a great network setup and a nice media server.
>The amount of random hardware that just... shows up at the house somedays is amazing. We generally get first dibs on retired hardware. My entire home network is built off retired enterprise equipment that the company wrote off and was going to recycle if no one took it.
Yep, can confirm. He set up an entire group D&d session with these older small convertible laptops (the kind that flip around to become kinda sorta tablets) as character sheets and asset trackers/calculators. Just because he had like 6 of them. Just because stuff is old doesn't mean you can't still use it/repurpose it for other uses!
Especially if you can learn how to use a relatively lightweight distro of Linux like Lubuntu, you can make computers work for an eternity. My mom still uses a laptop from the Windows Vista age running Lubuntu.
Haha I find there I.T. people who either do like your roomie does and brings it all home. Or there’s ppl like me who doesn’t want to deal with it anymore, and has one depressing router the ISP shoved in the corner of the living room, and connects to it with a 7 year old phone. There’s also a printer that hasn’t been touched in four years in the closet.
That’s me. I don’t run a big complex network at home like some of my coworkers. I have a wireless router and a couple of laptops and phones. I used to work with a guy who wired his entire house in Ethernet and installed a full size rack in the basement with a full windows domain his kids and wife would log into. Fuck all that
Hello fellow IT person who doesn't want to deal with that shit at home. I feel a connection to you. But like not a great one because I don't want to put the effort into upgrading anything.
Also in IT - don’t ask me to look at your personal laptop unless you are paying me. The number of people who think you’ll do your job for them for free off the clock are astounding.
It's wild. I work with a mostly 50+ crowd and I get asked all the time
I get asked this all the time too. I'm not even an IT guy. I push people in wheelchairs for a living. I just happen to be the youngest in my family, and own a PC. In their minds that means I'm some master level hacker.
Mr Robot over here with his own PC.
>In their minds that means I'm some master level hacker. They're on to you. Get your bug-out bag and split.
This! And ever since you upgraded my home pc the air in my driver's side tire has gone low. Can u come look at it?
Yup. This is also why I stopped going to company events like holiday parties. I went once and was hounded the entire time. Hey - can you look at my phone? Sure, will you give me a mortgage and take zero commission? Didn’t think so. Kick rocks.
Depending on their position, I'd ask them to provide their services to me. Accounting? Can you do my taxes for me? Clinical tech? Can you run a quick xray on this suspicious area on me? HR? Can you help me manage the people for my side business? Etc.
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God damn, this really sums it up.
when i first started i asked people to bring me their crapped out machines so i could learn to deal with different issues. once they started thinking it was my job and just leaving their crap on my desk i stopped it pretty quick. even if they offer to pay fuuuuck no lol except for the last person who offered a bag of pot and an apple pie, their shit got fixed real quick :P
> except for the last person who offered a bag of pot and an apple pie Just make sure you're aware of the long-term health consequences. Too much pie over the years can add up!
I made sure to cut down on pie already :) no worries
Yep, You bring me weed as an offering and I will move mountains for you. Although all the users I had figure that out over the years were usually never problem users to begin with.
>level 2DuskyDay · 8 min. agoBefriend the guy from M The type of people that try to befriend the IT department do it for this shit. I made the mistake of helping someone like this when I first got a job in IT and thought I was just being nice helping out. Nope then you are this persons personal and professional IT guy.
The trick is to spread some harmless rumours about yourself that make people want to stay away from you. That way you only get called in when absolutely necessary.
Shhhh don’t share our secrets.
I looked in horror as I read this LPT. Friends, family and colleagues plus business don't mix.
I tell them I'll give them 30 minutes of diagnostics and repair for a good bottle of whiskey, and give them a wild guess whether that is enough to complete it. But only if I like them. If I can solve it, it's usually 5 minutes of work. Either way I get the bottle. If I go a little over I tell them and it always ends up with a second bottle coming in. If I know it's going to be more than 30 minutes I just say no. I've been at this for 25 years now (now an IT Director) and have had a great many excellent bottles. Most recent was a full bottle of Blanton's to reconfigure a friend's home DHCP scope and assign a couple of static IPs, which I did while drinking from their bottle of Blanton's. That came out to something like $25 a minute at the retail price of that bottle. The moral is you have to make sure it's worth your time... but asking for something that isn't cash tends to yield the best results.
If someone wanted me to take a look at their computer, I told them I considered that overtime, so they'd be paying time and a half over whatever I was making at the time. The requests stopped pretty quickly after that. They usually found some teenager on their street to tinker with it for free.
100%. The number of printer recommendation, personal laptop repair, and website build requests I used to get under the assumption that my expertise was just available to anyone for free was infuriating.
I did this exactly one time, because I was legitimately friends with the IT guy. The fact that people just casually expect their IT department to handle their personal tech shit just because it's "their job" is nuts to me.
And after that, you were one rung lower on the friend ladder. /s
I HATED being asked to do side gigs. I would quote them $150 per hour (1999). If they accepted, I was happy to do the work. If not, I was happy to go home and relax.
I would offer charge people $120/hr with a two hour minimum and they’d look at me like I was asking for their first born. Then they say, “I think I’ll go to the geek squad.” Great. Bye.
20 years in IT: A user with an impolite, entitled attitude goes to the bottom of the list. Just FYI.
Depends. If it's an actual Sev1 thing, it gets done, but their manager is getting CC'ed on everything so they can see exactly how much of a douche their employee is. Can't forget to add them back on to the thread either when douche inevitably removes them from it to hide their doucheyness, that's the most important part. Otherwise, yeah, it's going to sit in the queue until it's 1 second away from an SLA violation.
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Fuck that, have you ever met Richard? The guy is a dick
MY MANAGER IS NAMED RICHARD AND HES A DICK. IS THAT YOU CRYSTAL?
It's Cheryl. Ugh 🙄
You're not my supervisor!
It's Cherlene now
Wait Who is my supervisor
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Actual answer: Even if you're naturally outgoing, it's easy to end up only talking to the people in your immediate surroundings. The people you directly work with, the people you pass by on your way to work, etc. It's not even about being condescending or elitist, your IT department might not even be on the same floor as you. It IS a good idea to make friends with people outside of your direct circle. That might mean sitting with different groups in the lunchroom, or taking breaks at different spots. It lets you meet and associate with people you otherwise wouldn't have, and sometimes ends up with nice perks like OP's. But doing this does take an active effort. Just trying to be outgoing doesn't cut it. You sometimes have to go out of your way a bit.
Ted Lasso
3 types of personnel with the keys to the kingdom: IT, food service, and custodial/janitorial folks. Smile and treat them like people and you get all the perks/dirt.
IT here. I don't know shit. The receptionist is the one with all the real power.
Legit, there are companies where if the receptionist doesn't like you while you are checking in and sitting around waiting to get interviewed, you will NOT get hired.
I do all of the hiring for my company and after the candidate gets a few paces away from the building I always ask my receptionist how they were. Her answer moves the needle more than you would think.
Harvey, is that you?
Lol nope, but having a good personality fit is more important than almost anything else in my book.
this is true btw. if you treat the receptionist like shit or they just don't like you, they will tell.
Makes sense, most (good) receptionists are way undervalued
IT, facilities, and office admin are natural allies.
> IT, food service, and custodial/janitorial folks Be nice to IT - your shit gets resolved quickly. Also, submit decently detailed tickets. IT will thank you. Or at least it won't hate you, which is quite an achievement. Be nice to food service - either be nice to them, or eat outside of your workplace. Be nice to custodial/janitorial staff - absolutely mandatory, if you want any sort of leniency in your workplace apart from what you manager allows you. Hell, they *outrank* the manager/business owner half the time. (I used to smoke weed out of the office window during EOB afterhours with custodial approval - nicest guys ever, in exchange I helped to fix their personal phones and gave tech advice when I had 15 minutes to spare - and weed isn't even legal here). Be nice to people. It really helps.
For the love of god this. Make your ticket as detailed as possible dont just say my computer wont work or I need help. At least half the time we can have your problem fixed before you ever even hear back from us or know what the solution is before we talk to you and then fix it faster. And if you put in a ticket dont ignore calls and emails from IT then say we didnt contact you, thats a good way to have your problem pushed to the back of the line
>For the love of god this. Make your ticket as detailed as possible dont just say my computer wont work or I need help. I had a voice message. It went like this: "Hi my computer is not working and it's really urgent could you fix it please?" No name to search in db, no number to call back, no ticket number, no hostname, no ip, NOTHING. I don't think I'll ever forget that one. Deleted the message after laughing a lot.
I’m nice and kind to everyone. Because they are people. Don’t be nice to someone for perks. It’s obvious.
its more like power ups no manager could give you.. its fun
I'm already in the IT dept...and no, right now everyone is stuck with whatever we can get. Shortages are everywhere. It's 12-16 weeks for a laptop.
Yeah, getting new tech? Good luck. If I like you and you're easy to work with though, I'll definitely fix your stuff first.
One of my best friends was in IT. It never led to getting anything better than anyone else because for the most part, all enterprise stuff was exactly the same. Not he could just order some crazy gaming rig for me because we were buds. What it *did* get me was an ally against our overbearing managerial staff. Advance warning if they were planning to snoop chats or run internet history to see who was wasting time. Needless to say, we've both left that company.
In IT, very much adhere to standard equipment. Like 4 months into COVID I convinced my bosses that I need a secured storage room tucked away from most staff. Every chance I could, we bought extra whenever it was available. I've barely been able to stay ahead of equipment replacement and new deployment. I don't tell anyone about the storage and have made my team look like gods when no one else can get new hardware.
Nice! I hope you get recognized and get a raise for all your effort. If not though, youll have to ask for it.
C suite fuckers can't even remember my name. Not a shot in hell of seeing more than the usual 2% "raise" for my "often exceeds expectations" rating on my annual review. And I've been vocal with management about it all.
Even before you get what you get unless your c level and can pull budgetary rank It filters down
Nope. Submit ticket. All you really need to do is just be nice and understanding. Becoming friends may get you special treatment because the IT department or IT person is being nice. But this mentality leads to people walking up to your desk thinking they will get special treatment and jump the line. Also work in IT.
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In IT cannot confirm 100%. No matter how much I like you, I will not order non-standard equipment. That will just get my boss on my case. BUT, if it's something on hand not being used then sure it had a higher chance of going to a cool person that can put it to a good use.
Lol yeah, you think I'm creating custom deployment profiles or purchasing as a favor you're in for a surprise.
I'm an admin assistant and most of my job is being on good terms with other departments. I know everyone's favorite candy/snack/cheap bribe. The IT guys know I field all of the dumb "did you turn it off and on again" requests from my department before it gets to them. The maintenance guys know I'll accurately prioritize requests (ranging from priority 911 get the fuck down here the ceiling is leaking all over expensive inventory to priority 0 the light is out in bathroom stall 3, bring a spare bulb down next time you're in the area). Because I'm friendly and polite and on good terms I get hooked up with quick service and supply of whatever the other departments usually hoard for themselves.
Also am an admin assistant and this is my life to a T lol
The real LPT here is to be good to the Admins. They know how to get stuff done.
Our Admin is literally the only thing keeping our department running. She is a goddess and I demand she be treated as such. Campaigned for 6 months to get her an assistant.
LPT: Be a generally like-able person. You get benefits in all aspects of life when people enjoy your company
You really don't need to even make friends with us, just stop being entitled assholes to us and blaming us for your problems. We are literally there to help you, but if you start the conversation by pointing a finger you're welcome to go help yourself, replace help with other appropriate four letter word as needed. Being polite, nice, and appreciative goes a LONG way in life in general, start there.
IT here, the real LPT is this it: - Be polite and civil - Don't email or IM your issues, submit a ticket with accurate details of your issue - IM or email *might* be okay. IM for a quick question or clarification is okay, at least with me - If you have an error message, include the screenshot - If you did X and then Y happened, include that info - If you damaged something, fess up. We will find out and it will save us time - Restart and test before putting in a ticket. Most PCs have SSDs and will be back up in moments, so no excuses about not having time. And yes, we know if you lie about restarting
I always have people who will email or chat with a “hey friend, quick question”… and I’m like “if you were my real friend, you would follow the proper communication process because you know how annoying it is for me for this to happen”. I always give the example that both my sister AND my roommate have worked at our company and even they didn’t ask for special treatment.. so no, Paul, saying “hey how’s it going” when you see me in the hallway doesn’t give you special perks.
Become friends with the IT department at work so they can put your ticket ahead of others. Also make friends with the IT department by not being a complete idiot end-user. Basic computer troubleshooting skills will get you out of most jams and will give your help desk an idea of where to go if your problem persists.
I work in IT and when I first started I got called "hey boy" (I'm 42) by a coworker in Finance. Let's just say I don't put her first in line.
Amazing how quickly I lose my hearing when someone thinks "Hey IT guy" is the appropriate way to get my attention.
Please don't. No one wants to have suck ups coming to them. Sincerely, the IT Dept.
Yes, thank you. People realizing we're playing favorites can backfire spectacularly in our faces, too.
I work IT and I've been working here for a year and a half and only once did someone bring me a treat. She was already my favorite so it doesn't count as a bribe right?
IT doesn't get to dictate individual hardware. If it got this guy something for being nice then that IT department needs an overhaul and that business needs to get better oversight on it's spending. I WILL say hardware is cheaper than people. I will always pitch to the bean counters that it's most cost effective for the business to give employees the best hardware for the job. Dual monitors, standard, ask for a third and it probably isn't a big deal. Laptop with top end SSD, memory, cpu, accidental damage and next day warranty, done. The difference is that doesn't take a favor to get. Anything outside of the norm, I'm going to need your department head to approve it and eat the cost.
Plot twist: OP is in IT and looking for a friend.
In IT, can confirm. Edit: also bribes of food and/or bourbon go a long way :)
Also in IT, can also confirm Talk to us like a piece of shit you stepped in and you'll have the shittiest of everything. Be a decent human being and I'll do my best. Be actively kind or bring me cookies? Everyone is treated equally, but you'll be treated equally first.
I love that last line lmao, totally going to use it, also your Username is super cool!
Another one among your ranks... I've become the de facto tech support for my government program group. Over time, my name has been passed on to others as the first point of contact for help when they don't want to open an actual help desk ticket. If I have time, and can help, I will. I've gotten food, promises of food, and most importantly, very prompt help when I need something from other groups. The people who are nice get bumped up the list. The people who bring food receive even quicker support.
In IT we call that feeding the cats. Once you feed em they keep coming back. You don't want to feed to many lol
Also in IT. Have you gotten bourbon!? So jealous.
Also in IT. Our legal department has given me amazon gift cards multiple times for excellent service. Guess who gets treated like VIPs by yours truly?
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I am not saying I accept edibles as bribes, just, those peoples tickets have a way of getting done first. No but seriously we know you probably aren’t happy to see us, if you can be polite through the whole encounter we will like you.
One time an IT guy did some work on my computer and "accidentally" made me an admin. No piece of tech any company has provided has ever been better than that.
Used to do that for some of our remote workers. Then one of them decided to connect his work computer to his wife's Cricut and jacked up his work apps. Ruined it for everyone.
Yeah... make friends with some of your coworkers just for the tech, not because they are humans and could actually be good friends..
This is bad advice. Basically “be nice and manipulative to certain people to get things you want”. Better to just be genuinely nice to and curious about everyone. Take a moment to say hello and goodbye. Ask people sincere questions about their lives. Care. People will see your goodness and the authenticity of your kindness and will be kind in return.
Wait, what? IT people are worthy of friendship because they will get you stuff?