5 Valid Reasons No One Likes the IT Guy/Gal – and Why They’re Wrong

Imagine being the IT person for a second – having to swoop in like a bespectacled Batman, saving the ignorant populous from their own mistakes.  Of course, after these incomparable feats of heroism, the IT person is not held up as a savior. Instead, they are villainized, receiving nothing but a half-hearted “thanks.”

Why is the reaction to such an important role so negative?  Here are five valid reasons no one likes the IT person.

1. They Force You to Have Discipline

How many times do you need to be told not to save your important files to your desktop, or send sensitive data via your personal DropBox account?  In a world where 62% of all cyber attacks hit small to medium businesses, instilling and maintaining digital discipline in the workforce is of the utmost importance. This is something we can all agree on.  Still, this is hard to always do, and it becomes incredibly easy to blame the one person for holding us to these standards.

2. They Know What You’re Up To

It’s easy to forget that the all-knowing IT Department has a vested interest in monitoring your habits – not to be creepy or uncover the things you’ve been accessing on the internet, but rather to ensure the stability and resilience of your IT defense system.  So, try not to condemn the IT person because they know you read an article entitled “10 Amazing Beyonce Outfits.” It’s their job to know these things.

3. They are Disappointed in Your Knowledge Gaps

Let’s face it – most of us have no idea what’s going on behind the technology at our company, and we resent the fact that we are judged based on our minimal knowledge.  Turns out, there’s a lot happening in the IT infrastructure game.  With the average IT budget at over 4-6% of annual revenue (and 42% of IT professionals saying they expected to increase investment in the next year), there is often considerable energy being expended to keep your business up and running smoothly.  In addition, IT professionals must not only focus on maintaining current business operations, but also forging the relationships and identifying the trends that will propel the business forward over the next ten years.  So when you forget your password three times a week, understand why your IT person may be disappointed. They have a lot on their plates!

4. Things Don’t Always Run Smoothly

Just because the IT person came in and saved the day, it doesn’t mean your lack of discipline and knowledge won’t potentially sabotage the next few days.  Things happen, and nobody is perfect, but it can be easy to blame the IT person for future problems, even if they had very little or nothing to do with it.  This is where you should give the IT person a break.

5. We Blame Them for Our Outdated Tech

The IT person must have something to do with the fact that we don’t have brand new computers every year, right?  Wrong.  The IT person doesn’t control the budget, and although they make informed recommendations to the people in charge, they aren’t intentionally holding you back from having a new MacBook.