this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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You're in the same boat I am. I'm doing IT support and one user couldn't navigate their file system to save their life. They almost exclusively used "file open" dialogs to get to their files. They seemed to have zero understanding that using word's open file dialog to open a PDF file with Adobe, was strange.
It broke my brain for a minute watching it all unfold. So much so that I didn't even try to correct their methods. I was just like, "okay", and moved on.
It's not like the person was new, or a temp worker or anything. They were middle aged, and had used that exact system for years in this manner, and saw nothing wrong with how they did things.... Look, if it gets the job done, okay, and that's probably the main reason I shut up about it, but the way they were doing it was so backwards and slow.... They definitely were not stupid, they at least had some level of university and they were working in a legal field. They just did not "get" that there's a much better way to accomplish the tasks they were doing and had no interest in figuring it out more than they already had.
Definitely one of the more painful moments of my career, but certainly not the only demonstration of how people are willfully ignorant when it comes to computers and technology.
I hate hearing "I don't know computers" or "I'm not very good with technology" .... You use it every day. There's some fundamental that you should have picked up by now. Being "bad" with technology is not an excuse. An infant is bad at walking, then they learn and figure it out, which is more than I can say about you Janice.
Flashbacks to a few months ago when Adobe Reader pushed out an update that changed how the menu looks and I had an employee freaking out telling me he was "trying to do my PDFs, and it won't let me"... All because the menu didn't say "file" anymore, it was just 3 horizontal lines (and still in the exact same spot...). It took me like 10 minutes to understand what the hell he was trying to tell me his problem was, as he points to an open PDF document and tells me the computer won't let him "do his PDFs"...
I know it's fun to complain/rant about users, but to most people, computers are just a tool. You and I would probably agree that a good tradesman learns his tools intimately, but that's because our jobs are mechanically focused, so it's a requirement. People who work jobs like accountant can maybe be bothered to learn one application well and that's really due to a lack of training or education, you can't expect people to learn secondary skills unless they're led. I've been able to train the worst of users into people that can troubleshoot their own issues, though there are always users that say "idk, you're the one who needs to fix it" because in their minds we're impeding their progress. But most of the time users don't want to call helpdesk either if they can avoid it.
It's always a good idea to practice your soft skills with difficult customers and be compassionate because they don't go away the more you climb the ladder, you just have to deal with them less frequently. Something that someone once told me many 10+ years ago when I was starting my career was that were it not for the users/customers, we wouldn't have a job to complain about.
Yep. I definitely agree that if users knew everything, there's basically no need for the admin team. Most of us would be unemployed.
I'm not trying to say they are a burden, it is simply confounding that someone who works on computers every day for work, who needs to get into network drives and open everything from word to excel to PDF, and so much more, doesn't even have the ability to competently navigate the file system using Explorer.
The only thing that I cannot abide is the willfully ignorant crowd, who will refuse to listen at every turn.