On Users

So there I was, slaying IT dragons and trying to keep all the green lights green and I get a call from a user. He wants me to come up and take a look at something that he wants to use at work. Now, this user is a sort of prima donna. Actually, where I work there are a lot of prima donna type users. But this user wants to bring in "a superior technology" then what we are presently using as the corporate standard PC. He wants to bring his consumer-grade P O S SONY VAIO (oh, it's sooo cute, it's PURPLE! IT MUST BE A GOOD PC then!) and use it on MY network. Well, to make a long story short, I will let the following do the talking:

From: (SENDER NAME REDACTED)

Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 4:00 PMTo: (RECIPIENT NAME REDACTED)

Cc: (SENDER NAME REDACTED)

Subject: (MY NAME REDACTED)Please guide me here.

(MY NAME REDACTED):

Your responses to me, both your voicemail and email were, as usual,unprofessional and indicative of your lack of commitment and dedication to providing excellent information technology to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the (COMPANY NAME REDACTED) Organization. In particular I would like you to know that I consider my integrity to be very important and I do not ever knowingly say things that are untrue or otherwise "breach" my word. I resent your accusation and deny it entirely. Regarding the new computer. I have a great deal of experience as a consultant working with many companies in many industries and also have a functional knowledge of information systems. In many cases, clients not only permitted, but encouraged us to hook our laptops onto their networks to ease the integration of our work with theirs. This sort of hosting of computers is routine and common. More importantly, I have had experience with myriad information technology professionals and the good ones, in contrast to you, are problem solvers.They look for creative ways to resolve issues. In my experience, you take precisely the opposite approach. You work very hard to find a way to say no and then do so in a pompous and infuriating manner hoping to intimidate people with your limited knowledge of information technology. This case is just one example. Upon hearing the request, your first reaction was to launch into a tirade and spout a flury of (many nonsensical)reasons to say no. You did this before asking a single probative questionto see whether there might be a way to help me, and, potentially, the (COMPANY NAME REDACTED)Organization. For example, you don't even know what kind of computer it isthat I am hoping to hook up. You don't know what it is running; you don'tknow whether it might be something that could be in improvement that we could work together to beta test for the organization. All you knew when you reacted was that you had an opportunity to flex your authority and you leapt at that opportunity with gusto. "You wanna be on my network; you gotta play by my rules" is just one of the high handed remarks that you left for me on my voicemail. A better approach would have been to look for asolution. For example, if the issue is ownership, perhaps the solution isfor (COMPANY NAME REDACTED) to lease the computer from me; or buy it outright. However it isc lear to me from your pattern of behavior that you are not interested infinding solutions, you are only interested in self-aggrandizement while youare in the office and finding way to get out of the office as soon aspossible every day. But this is just one example of your incompetance and lack of dedication. . As I mentioned before I resent your assault on my integrity and am seriously offended by it, particularly since I have witnessed a number of occasions where it is you who have played fast and loose with the truth. Your email contains yet another such example. You say that you made an exception for my Sony laptop. This is simply not true. My Sony laptop has been connected to this network since before you were hired as a junior assistant to (NAME OF FORMER COWORKER WHO WAS FIRED REDACTED). It has remained on this network, not because you gave your permission, but rather because (COMPANY NAME REDACTED)(sensibly) declined the offer to spend money to replace a computerthat was working just fine. In addition, I have largely maintained the computer myself in order to help the organization as much as possible. You may recall that you were offered the opportunity to purchase a new computer for me from your budget but declined the opportunity as, apparantly, the risk to the network wasn't so great as to merit an expenditure of cash from your budget. (MY NAME REDACTED), your manner is abbrasive and your skills are limited.Please resign and let this organization go forward without your unfortunate contributions. (SENDER NAME REDACTED)

WAAAAAAAAAH!!! WAAAAAAAAAH!!! Some people clearly don't like it when you tell them they just can't drag any PC off the street and throw it on the network. Actually, in this case, I think he just didn't like it that I told him no. It amazes me (well, not really) that people think because they can walk into Best Buy and fill a shopping cart up with with "cool" stuff like Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/name a trendy technology that they can set up a reliable, scaleable computing environment.