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Why don't we tip our IT service people?

1K views 53 replies 24 participants last post by  Zero 
#1 ·
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/07/18/why-dont-we-tip-it-service-people/

You tip the pizza man, you don't tip the Fed Ex driver. You tip the bartender at the pub, and you don't tip the McDonald's clerk; but you do tip the barrista at Starbuck's. The United States has ritualistic levels of tip etiquette, which admittedly don't exist other places in the world but, the question remains; Why don't we tip our IT service people?

You know just as well as we do, you couldn't function without your computer. You'd find yourself on the floor in a fetal position, crying and sulking if your PC were to decide to go AWOL at any particular moment. And, much like a herion user out for another fix, you'd wipe your tears and head to the nearest coffee shop with pay access machines to obsessively check your email. We understand, we'd do much the same thing ourselves. If your computer is that important to the fluid function of your day-to-day life, why wouldn't you slip the IT guy a little extra to make sure you get top priority next time you pick up the phone and scream Mayday?

Perhaps it's something in the way we view our IT guys. Nerdy, socially inept, awkward in ways your high school science teacher could have never achieved. Maybe it's time we took a fresh look at the value our IT service men and women make life a little easier; And, even if we don't offer them a tip.. maybe a hug wouldn't be so bad?
 
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#7 ·
+1. If the IT guys want to work for $4.30 an hour + tips, I'll tip them. Actually, I just fix my own computer at work but that's besides the point.
 
#8 ·
At a fracking $90 an hour to mess around with a computer for hours on end for something that should take 1/2 the time I'm not tipping my IT guy anything! As far as I'm concerned he owes me! :neener:
 
#9 ·
I bought mine lunch yesterday and we buy them beer every Friday - We do of course have a full stocked full size lounge with 7 Bar Stool, a Hightop 2 seat table and couches (along with a pool table) in our office that is open 24 x 7 so most of the time, they are in there helping themselves

I could not survive without my IT Engineers
 
#26 ·
No it was just an amusing post.

To add to the "move my hard drive", I'm not sure if it's because they think they are cool or what...but back when I used to work help desk people would ask me to move their CPU's. "Can you move my CPU to the floor so I have more desk space?" "Sure, did you have other ideas of what to plug into the motherboard aside from the CPU in order to save space?"
 
#28 ·
My flucking boss (the senior network administrator of my department) calls computers CPUs!!! And he has all of my users calling them CPUs too. This man makes at least 2.5x what I make and he doesn't know where the CPU is? I hate that as much as calling them hard drives.

My predecessor made exactly $103,000 (it's a school district, so salaries are published) and called them CPUs too. She was the Technology Coordinator for the entire district.
 
#33 ·
Sometimes I call it the "CPU/Hard Drive/Thing under your desk" but support is part of my job so I'll say whatever I have to to get them to understand what I'm telling them to do. The rarest thing in the IT world from my point of view is empathy, very few have it. Many IT people don't see that they are there to help the business do what it does better.
 
#35 ·
Yea, part of the job is understanding that you're the waiter that comes to the table with food that's too cold, salty, or tastes bad. Doesn't matter that it was the kitchen that goofed, you're going to be the one being yelled at to fix often someone else's problem. Doesn't matter that the pc's have cheapo crappy video cards in them that don't last long, you're being yelled at because the executive that stayed late the other night had his go out and no one was there to help him at 8pm. So part of working in the field is being calm and able to take people yelling at you sometimes.
 
#34 ·
For everyone outside of IT. Let's understand that IT is considered the lowest of the low's in many companies. Last contract I was on, IT was treated like garbage and given no money, while the salesmen were our greek gods. This is because many people view IT as an almost unnecessary evil cost. We're hired as contractors so that it's easier to get rid of us when the time has come. This isn't to suggest that other jobs which pay even less don't have this, but IT in general is truly the place to skimp and cut when the times are bad. And when the times are good, you still have to battle to get a laptop that can hold a charge since you're last in line on the budget. I'm an IT contractor and in a very specified area (Crystal Reports). This means that I do well so long as I keep up to the second with the market. If some other software becomes hot, then I need to learn that, jobs are more limited, etc... To top it off, I'm a contractor, so they can say "see ya" at any moment without hesitation, not that they wouldn't with an employee, it's just that it's even easier with contractors...no benefits, no unemployment to pay them and so on.

So the tipping and mocking end users is our little way to let off some steam and joke around. In a job that pays fantastic one day, you might find yourself in a bad market where technology always takes the first financial hit, and struggling to find even half the hourly rate you were making a week ago.
 
#36 ·
Not treating people like they are stupid fucking idiots (even though you may think they are) goes a long way to changing the attitude of the company about IT. If you act like the IT stereotype, don't be surprised to be treated like the IT Stereotype.
 
#37 ·
I was a Systems Support Tech for an insurance brokerage. I cost the company money, and they made sure I never forgot this fact. The users I supported made the company money. I was shit and they were the shoe trying to scrape me off. I got pay freezes when my users couldn't produce and I got nothing when they did produce. It didn't help that I had a spineless yes-man manager that didn't hesitate to sell me out and take credit for everything I did. Just left me with a bad taste in my mouth and completely turned me off to IT.
 
#41 ·
Agreed with Biggy. IT is a major expense that does not bring in any money for most non-IT companies. We are a necessary expanse though, if a company is to produce at a certain level. No company could survive with out one form of IT or another, outside of the mom & pop shops. To defend the business side; I have seen IT go off spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for no particular reason, i.e. I have 2 $250K Hitachi disk arrays in my Data Center than have been sitting for a year unused (ever since I installed them) because the person who was going to develop them for the business decided to scrap the project.
 
#43 ·
Sorry to hear so many have had a tough go, but I must have done all the right things because I have made more money (and I don't mean a 2% raise) and I have been paid a bonus (equal to my raise and often higher) every single year since 1995. I have never (knock on wood) been unemployed.

Excuse me while I got pat myself on the back.
 
#45 ·
I'm more than willing to bet that your job can't be shipped over seas easily & moving a CPU or the Hard Drive onto the floor does not fall into your greater responsibilities.
 
#48 ·
Tipping the starbuck person for them making you an over priced coffee in the first place is crazy. I guess thats the same for bartenders, but at least they are getting me drunk with a good turn around time. Beats a coffee anyday.
 
#51 ·
Didn't know a Calvin. I know a Chad, but he quit a couple weeks before I did for many of the same reasons.
Hahahah - AWESOME - Chad works for us now - Calvin pretty much pulled our Managed Services Contract since Chad left AJG and came to us

Small frickin world - Chad is cool in my book and he is happy as hell here
 
#52 ·
Chad F? What company? Chad was pretty quiet, I never really worked with him. He was always swamped and mean-mugged me every so often (I'm sure it was unintentional). I'd mean-mug me too, so it's all good. He had it way worse than me, pressure-wise- but was also way higher ranking than I'll ever be or care to be. Put it this way, he probably has no idea who I am. He talked to Anthony a lot and Anthony was in my department.

Ask Chad what he thinks of Randy. Randy was my manager and the single biggest piece of shit I've ever met.

Did Calvin work for Gallagher Bassett? or was he in AJG Corp?
 
#53 ·
Yup, Chad F - He just got back from Germany where we had him working for a week with one of our bigger clients (not mine though) - He is all smiles now that he is no longer AJG - He was our contact with AJG and worked closely with him for years - He was fed up and came to us - We knew his talent and skill set and as I stated earlier, we always have room for good talent
 
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