There's always the story about the user whose calls are dreaded by the helpdesk staff, or the employee with the bad temper that the tech team avoids.
Aversion to difficult customers is human nature, but with IT departments often understaffed, and resources pushed to the limit, do these users end up being discriminated against?
A respondent to a recent IT manager poll regarding spam commented that users who ignored warnings about virus hoaxes ended up near the bottom of his 'to do' list. "I've found a day or so with no--or restricted--computer use is a fantastic teacher," he said.
As IT-reliance within organisations grows, in contrast to the large numbers of employees who still have limited technical knowledge, an IT department has a great deal of power within an enterprise.
Should personal attitudes to difficult users influence where a task is scheduled on an IT department's priority list? How do you manage tech staff so that users aren't discriminated against without being too controlling as a manager?
There are always procedures and policies in place about which problems and projects are dealt with first. Although this provides the basis for good ethics within an IT department it isn't the answer in itself. How IT staff interact with users is often an issue of personalities and the team member's own ethics.
As a CIO or IT manager how do you ensure your department handles tech requests ethically? Should difficult users receive different attention than users who are easy to deal with? Please send your comments to Talkback below or e-mail us your tips to itmanager@zdnet.com.au
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