# The IT group here **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 20, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768 "2012-06-20T17:39:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/21 "2012-06-21T13:18:10Z")
\*\*Me \*\*(client): We have a problem and we need you to fix our [insert doesn’t work message here] **Vendor IT guy** : Yeah, just fill out a ticket on our on-line trouble report system and we will get right to it. **Me** : We hired you because you said you could quickly fix our problems and your trouble ticket system is an incomprehensible time stealing mess. **Vendor IT guy** : Sorry, can’t work on it without a ticket **Me:** I talked it over with my partners and we decided that one of the criteria for hiring the guys we plan to replace you with is that we could call them directly in an emergency. **Vendor IT guy** : I will fix the problem and enter the ticket myself then. **Me:** Thank you very much And they thanked me later for my input in improving their trouble ticket system. I actually use it now. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/22 "2012-06-21T13:34:41Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > A couple of years ago, IT upgraded my computer. Nice, right? Well, not so nice because my comp was doing what I needed and the upgrade meant that I couldn’t print labels on my very old Zebra printer. > > IT’s solution was to make me buy a DYNO printer, which was pretty and fit on my desk, but TRIM didn’t get along with it. IT didn’t support TRIM, so the workaround was for me to log onto a comp without Windows 7 and print labels from there. Look, I was confused enough by “FTP drive.” Now what the hell are a “DYNO printer” and “TRIM”? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/23 "2012-06-21T13:35:59Z")
Open a ticket and we’ll tell you. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/24 "2012-06-21T13:38:56Z")
It’s right here in my pocket. Think I figured out TRIM, and I’m assuming he meant “DYMO printer.” If that’s the case, you can close the ticket. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/25 "2012-06-21T13:39:22Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > They’re supposed to be on the same side. > > Whatever this drive is for I would tell the boss to abandon this project altogether because IT’s asshattery has already delayed it by a year. I would also advise them that the entire IT department should be dismissed immediately with prejudice for holding up company business for a year just for shits and giggles. Exactly. We’re not in the business of ripping off customers, we’re in the business of saving lives. If the IT department would rather laugh at us than doing something so simple as creating a shared folder, then they indeed deserve to be fired. I get requests like this all the time. I don’t laugh at patients and coworkers, I help them. If they don’t know what they’re doing, then I take the extra steps to figure it out and help them understand. If I instead laughed at them, then I would expect to be fired. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/26 "2012-06-21T14:31:32Z")
Yes they are a slack lot in IT. Perhaps your ticket ended up with one of the idlers like that amiable but useless guy Bucket? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/27 "2012-06-21T14:35:19Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Wait - why doesn’t the first ticket simply escalate? Doesn’t the service desk environment have SLAs? If not then it’s essentially just a virtual trash can where requests and complaints get “filed”. Exactly. I assumed that a ticket would go “Code Red” or something after a certain amount of time. My guess is that the metrics went to someone then gathered dust. I was amazed that such a large corporation was using such a broken system. > [@BubbaDog](#): > > **Me:** I talked it over with my partners and we decided that one of the criteria for hiring the guys we plan to replace you with is that we could call them directly in an emergency. Ah, would that I had the power. My guess is exactly what you said: The system wouldn’t get fixed until someone with power felt the pain. Another way the system was broken was that no one, including my boss (a senior vice president) apparently knew who to complain to, another reason she was worthless. One of the IT guys eventually screwed up and sent me an e-mail with his phone number in the signature line. I used him as my personal little help desk, daring him to tell me to use IT protocol. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/28 "2012-06-21T14:41:33Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > One of the IT guys eventually screwed up and sent me an e-mail with his phone number in the signature line. The person in question put her cell phone number in her signature. I called her while she was on her way to work. I told her that I was done with creating tickets and that this problem should have been solved over a year ago and just make it happen. To her credit she was very apologetic and promised me it would be solved today. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/29 "2012-06-21T15:10:04Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > One thing I can say about the oil industry is that no one runs off incompetent employees with more alacrity. Largish legal firms are pretty good with competent employees, too. Things are usually too time sensitive and frequently have BIG money riding on them for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to be dicking around. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/30 "2012-06-21T15:50:24Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > The sell-by date hasn’t expired, though. I hate to point this out but FTP was a nasty rotting pile of fuzz decades ago 🙂 Your IT department should be fired for allowing you to deploy a new instance. If you are in a hipaa environment and you are setting up shared FTP you should contact your legal department. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/31 "2012-06-21T15:59:25Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > \*\*Me \*\*(client): We have a problem and we need you to fix our [insert doesn’t work message here] > > **Vendor IT guy** : Yeah, just fill out a ticket on our on-line trouble report system and we will get right to it. > > **Me** : We hired you because you said you could quickly fix our problems and your trouble ticket system is an incomprehensible time stealing mess. > > **Vendor IT guy** : Sorry, can’t work on it without a ticket > > **Me:** I talked it over with my partners and we decided that one of the criteria for hiring the guys we plan to replace you with is that we could call them directly in an emergency. > > **Vendor IT guy** : I will fix the problem and enter the ticket myself then. > > **Me:** Thank you very much > > And they thanked me later for my input in improving their trouble ticket system. I actually use it now. :mad::mad::mad: You know how you’re patiently waiting in line for your turn at the customer service desk at a physical store, and some angry person rushes to the start of the line and demands to be served immediately because they’re more important than everyone else? Yeah, yeah. That’s you, buddy. The pushier you get, the less I want to help you. I want to help the nice, patient people first. Now, if you file a ticket and label it with the highest priority, I will go look at it immediately to see if it is actually an emergency, and if it is, I will drop a lower priority ticket to help you. **But you do not get to butt in line.** My coworker is currently tied up by people who call her and want their problems fixed right now and will continue calling back multiple times a day. Meanwhile, she doesn’t get a chance to help the nice people who email her requests and wait patiently for a response. Those people who call and want their non-emergency problems fixed immediately go to the top of the Shit List. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/32 "2012-06-21T16:07:50Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > I hate to point this out but FTP was a nasty rotting pile of fuzz decades ago 🙂 Don’t even get me started. What I really want is to access the data from an XML call. But no, they “can’t do that.” Instead they will copy and paste the data into a word document, then FTP it into the shared folder that doesn’t exist, where I can retrieve it and put it somewhere where code I haven’t written yet will turn it back into data. Yeah, it’s colossally stupid. Several people have dropped the ball on this. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/33 "2012-06-21T16:10:54Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > :mad::mad::mad: > > You know how you’re patiently waiting in line for your turn at the customer service desk at a physical store, and some angry person rushes to the start of the line and demands to be served immediately because they’re more important than everyone else? > > Yeah, yeah. That’s you, buddy. The pushier you get, the less I want to help you. I want to help the nice, patient people first. Now, if you file a ticket and label it with the highest priority, I will go look at it immediately to see if it is actually an emergency, and if it is, I will drop a lower priority ticket to help you. **But you do not get to butt in line.** > > My coworker is currently tied up by people who call her and want their problems fixed right now and will continue calling back multiple times a day. Meanwhile, she doesn’t get a chance to help the nice people who email her requests and wait patiently for a response. Those people who call and want their non-emergency problems fixed immediately go to the top of the Shit List. That’s your problem, not **BubbaDog’s**. If you can’t do the job you were contracted to do, he’ll find somebody who will. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/34 "2012-06-21T16:12:44Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m not 100% sure myself. We need a place to store documents. Yes, it’s on me to ask for what I want. But someone keeps telling me exactly what to ask for, so I word it exactly how she did, then she comes back and tells me I didn’t ask for the right thing. It is always better to tell them what your needs are vs. concatenating random jargon. IT doesn’t expect you to know all the terms but we can provide a solution if you tell us what task you are trying to complete. FTP the protocol was broken from the start and it transmits username and passwords in plain text over the network. If you had said, “We need a place to store documents to share between Joe, Sam and accounting” you would have had less problems. Using the word FTP and Drive as a phrase is nonsensical and we have to break out the divining rod to figure out what you mean. It is like to going to mexico and thinking you are speaking Spanish by adding an -a or a -o to the end of English words. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/35 "2012-06-21T16:20:58Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > It is always better to tell them what your needs are vs. concatenating random jargon. Except that I used the words I was told to use, and the very same person then told me that I was using the wrong words and to start over. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/36 "2012-06-21T16:22:53Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Don’t even get me started. What I really want is to access the data from an XML call. But no, they “can’t do that.” Instead they will copy and paste the data into a word document, then FTP it into the shared folder that doesn’t exist, where I can retrieve it and put it somewhere where code I haven’t written yet will turn it back into data. > > Yeah, it’s colossally stupid. Several people have dropped the ball on this. An XML call to what? that is another nonsensical concatenation of jargon. I seriously hope this is not sensitive data, or if you can name your Org please I would like to prevent them from serving me. The fact that you are moving forward with this is more seriously an issue, I would not complain about the competence of the IT department when you yourself are implementing this process. If this task “saves lives” like you inferred above I would say this is seriously bordering on criminal negligence. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/37 "2012-06-21T16:27:32Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Except that I used the words I was told to use, and the very same person then told me that I was using the wrong words and to start over. Find a contact that is not on the help-desk then, they are the EMT’s of tech. I can promise you your infrastructure team would be happy to help you with this vs. implement anything similar to this “workaround” Assuming your “IT” department isn’t comprised of one guy who was the bosses “computer guy” ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/38 "2012-06-21T16:33:43Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > That’s your problem, not **BubbaDog’s**. If you can’t do the job you were contracted to do, he’ll find somebody who will. This is probably overly harsh, but the point stands. **BubbaDog’s** company has certain IT requirements, and once they make their requirements clear it’s up to the vendor whether they’re going to meet them or not. If the vendor chooses to take on **BubbaDog** as a client, they have to figure out how to prioritize stuff their own work internally. There’s no reason for **BubbaDog** to worry about that process at all - that’s one of the things he’s paying the outside IT vendor to do. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/39 "2012-06-21T16:35:30Z")
XML call being nonsensical because it doesn’t tell us anything. is it an rpc call to XML data? or calling XML data in ASP? If you are writing the end program it should be trivial to have that program parse XML data without the use of FTP word and Excel spreadsheets. That is the point of encoding data in XML it is semi portable and both human/machine readable. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768/40 "2012-06-21T16:37:03Z")
> [@rat\_avatar](#): > > An XML call to what? that is another nonsensical concatenation of jargon. Huh? We use the term XML call all the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-it-group-here/625768.md?page=3)