Among the range of projects, hacks, tricks and life tips on Wired.com’s new collaborative site, IT support makes the list of critical coworkers worth “sucking up to.” Having these people on your side will make your life easier, the post reads; creating an enemy of them can make your life miserable.
Of course, the reasoning isn’t exactly about being “friends” with IT support as much as manipulating their egos, lack of social skills and intelligence to an employee’s advantage. In other words: same stereotype, different day.
Workers are encouraged to make friends with IT support and stroke his or her ego.
“Let’s face it,” the multiauthor entry reads, “Let’s face it, he is a techy type and may not have the greatest of social skills (may not), but he is smart and likes it when you tell him so. The key here is be his buddy and flatter him. ‘What would I do without you? You saved my documents.'”
Doing so will ensure that the next time this worker has a problem, they’ll go to the line ahead of their boss, having wielded the IT worker’s alleged need for approval to his or her advantage.
However, the list of “Don’ts” for dealing with IT support staff reads a little closer to the reality of the daily grind of a technology pro. Employees are discouraged from calling the help desk multiple times with the same problem and trying to cover it up with chit-chat.
“He knows why you’re calling when you’ve got a tech problem, and it’s not [to] discuss your date last night. In fact, he likely resents your calls and drop by’s that are merely fake friend visits meant to mask what you really want. He may even get annoyed and push you further down the list.”
So, according to the Wiki, ravishing the IT support desk with exaggerated praise to better their response time: good. Pretending to be friends with IT support staff in order to get a problem solved more quickly: bad. More or less, it sounds like the average employee still doesn’t know how to respectfully ask the IT department for help.
Tell us, how is it in your office?