Working in IT is interesting, adding people to the mix makes it even more interesting. As humans we have a need and desire to connect and be connected to other people and events. For some it’s the base from which they jump, it’s what drives them, the need to always be accepted by their peers.
Working in IT I see some interesting human-socio dynamics come into play in the subtlest form. It’s the typical ‘Keeping up with the Jones’ mentality. I’m sure there’s a thesis on this topic somewhere, if you know of one drop me an email at copelandjNOSPAM@gmail.com (remove the NOSPAM part) it might make interesting reading….
What I’m talking about is the ‘What you have I want” scenario. It plays on all levels and facets throughout our lives but I see it so clearly in action at work and it’s here that it operates on an innocent plane. One of my duties is to manage the ordering of new equipment such as laptops/ desktops for new and existing users. We have hardware standards that we stick to but these get revised once every 6 months or so. Whatever the latest thing is, we’ll set that as our standard and buy it. Sometimes we’re ordering upwards of 25 laptops per quarter. These would go to either new people starting with the company or go to existing users that have been authorized to receive upgrades. And here’s the thing. I find that when somebody gets an upgrade, suddenly the whole atmosphere changes and everyone in that department wants one, they don’t say anything but you can smell it as distinct as a foul odor. I mean User-X has it so why can’t I?
But they know they’re not going to get one unless there’s a valid and business-justified reason behind it. And this is where it gets interesting. In my experience, what I have found is that post-new-laptop-deployment I start to hear about ‘issues’ and ’seemingly unsolvable problems’ with pre-generation equipment. I get a lot of “Jon, my laptop/desktop/pre-gen gadget is slow” and “Jon, I get this re-curring problem with my system, I need a new laptop“. I laugh at that last one. The funny thing is these sorts of issues only crop up after something new and flashy is deployed into the office stream. It’s amazing to observe this event in action. Guaranteed every 6 months I see this. Suddenly everyone wants the wider screen because of –>insert business-justified reason 1 here<– and my old laptop needs an upgrade because of –>insert business-justified reason 2 here<–. It can get wild sometimes. The problem I think is that these business justified reasons are completely valid, which is annoying. The requests to upgrade sound just plausible enough to not be declined. In other words problems are created with enough validity to warrant purchasing a new laptop. Heck I’ve even had people outright lie about a problem in order to justify getting something new….those were declined. “No, there’s nothing wrong with your laptop….trust me…it’s all psychological and you need to see a shrink, take a number.”
If you’ve been around long enough your keen observation can identify the real reasons for these upgrades. A lot of the time it boils down to the fact that they just want a laptop to watch DVD’s or to surf the internet wirelessly from their couch. We have systems in place that allow people to connect to the company network from their home machines and do their work…but no…they still want the laptop. When I suggest that to them they come up with all kinds of interesting excuses as to why their home PC’s wouldn’t work for them and why a new laptop will.
Amazing.
Filed under: Adventures @ Work, Humour, Life | Tagged: human it factor, laptop
With regards to the list of excuses why a laptop would work, but a home computer wouldn’t, do you really want to support their home computer too?
At least with a laptop, there is some level of corporate management. If a machine gets too bad, you can flatten and start over. Try that with a user’s home PC.
Of course the worst part about the whole thing is that most people that manage to justify a laptop probably never do any real work outside the office, this was definitely the case amongst the management (who all got laptops automatically) when I suffered a few months at TELUS.
What I don’t get is why users end up with both a desktop and a laptop, especially when the laptop is more then sufficient to meet the user’s day to day needs. Why don’t you automatically give up your desktop PC in exchange for a docking station when requesting a work sponsored laptop?
We give a ‘best effort’ if users are experiencing problems connecting to our network from their home machines. We try, we really do but there are also limits to this. At the same time though our systems are so foolproof that any monkey with a wrench and an IQ over 3 can use them so we shouldn’t really be seeing any problem from home users.
On your second point; “Of course the worst part about the whole thing is that most people that manage to justify a laptop probably never do any real work outside the office”.
I wholeheartedly agree. I once deployed a laptop to a user, okay well, I’ve seen this more than once, where upon receiving the laptop they proceeded to ask me how to lock up the laptop at night. Those were ones that were forcefully given a laptop by a mid level manager with the expectation that they would work from home, evening, and weekends. So they have a laptop, but never actually take it home with them, it just sits docked on their desks like a desktop. And then I tell them they can use the laptop in the boardroom for their presenations…but they never do.