Are You a Bad IT Person?

If you think being an IT person is easy these days, you might be in for a surprise. Just a few years ago, it seemed that anybody and their brother could be an IT "professional" with little more than a screwdriver and a basic knowledge of Windows. But times have changed and a true IT professional has again become a valuable asset. Whether you're an "IT guy" yourself or simply in need of one, here are some things that make for a bad IT person:

1. Selling clients hardware and/or software that they don't need - If a client has a problem that you are certain that hardware or software will fix, be sure that that's the real problem. Don't make them waste valuable resources on a solution that only masks the underlying problem. This will nearly always come back to bite you because, more often than not, replacement hardware or software merely masks the problem or simply changes nothing.

2. Keeping administrative passwords top secret and/or users on lockdown - All too often, I get the call: "I need help. My regular IT person is on vacation and I can't access my [insert software or document title here]..." If you are the only one that has access to passwords or can install hardware and software, lighten up a bit. Be kind and share these privileges with another trusted person in the organization, if for no other reason than in case of emergency. Your position with the company is already justified so don't make life difficult for others when you go on vacation or just need to take a sick day.

3. Backing up over the internet - This is one of those things that sounds great, but only until you actually have a problem. Backing up over the internet is slow and the only real purpose it serves is to maintain an off-site backup. So what happens when you don't have a speedy internet connection (or for that matter, one at all)? That's precisely when you'll have someone that has accidentally deleted a document that they absolutely must have recovered right away! Worse is that it was their mistake, but if for any reason you can't get to the backup, it'll look like yours. After all, this is what you get paid for, right? You can backup data over the internet simply for redundancy, but remember to physically take off-site backups off-site, and always keep on-site backups as well. If you do, you won't have to count on your internet backup to always be available or reliable.

4. Deploying hardware or software when it's first released - This is a mistake that I used to hear about quite often when working in the technical support department for a software development firm on the East Coast. Users would call and say "I just got this great new [insert software or hardware type here], but now I have a problem with..." It usually turned out that they recently upgraded to the latest version of the operating system they were using or that they bought new hardware that wasn't a very close fit to their existing hardware. Remember, your computer users are not beta testers! The sad reality is that hardware and software often get released way before they are tested thoroughly enough to be deemed trouble free. Vendors will then begin releasing updates or patches over a period of time that typically do fix things, but the early adopters are often forced to weather the storm. Always use tried-and-true upgrade paths (unless you have a testing facility for those great new bells and whistles).