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Your doctor and your lawyer may know a lot about you. But in a time when we are using computers to socialize, keep track of finances, do work and store family photos, your IT person probably knows more.

 

So when computers go down, it can cause intense feelings. There's an entire meme of online videos of frustrated peopledestroying their computers. Some psychologists have even coined the term "computer rage" to describe these outbursts.

 

Full article here.

 

What do you guys think?  This was something that attracted me to IT work in the first place, being that I got to marry both interests together.  I had started on a CS degree but found full time coding to be too isolating, and I enjoyed the mix of people interaction with technology.
Well thats true, people/users need at last as much care as their devices. You have to devlop a feeling for your counterpart regardless of your own opinion; every person needs a special treatment. One word can change everything, either to the good or bad.

I never thought about it but we really have some similarity to the job of a psychologists.
@ wrote:

Your doctor and your lawyer may know a lot about you. But in a time when we are using computers to socialize, keep track of finances, do work and store family photos, your IT person probably knows more.

 

So when computers go down, it can cause intense feelings. There's an entire meme of online videos of frustrated peopledestroying their computers. Some psychologists have even coined the term "computer rage" to describe these outbursts.

 

Full article here.

 

What do you guys think?  This was something that attracted me to IT work in the first place, being that I got to marry both interests together.  I had started on a CS degree but found full time coding to be too isolating, and I enjoyed the mix of people interaction with technology.

It's true. We do know more about people than some want to admit. We can learn their browsing habits, what they do online, if we have a keylogger installed, you can have some real fun...all of it it digitally traced and part of our digital footprint/fingerprint. We're all unique in this way. 
Good point AJ - sysadmins often need access to sensitive information as part of their job.  On the plus side it can help you understand your users, but it might also make them more prone to be afraid of us.  Having good people skills is critical to manage all of this.
@ wrote:

Good point AJ - sysadmins often need access to sensitive information as part of their job.  On the plus side it can help you understand your users, but it might also make them more prone to be afraid of us.  Having good people skills is critical to manage all of this.

Absolutely. Users, I think, often feel we invade their privacy all the time. We don't unless we have a reason to. People just feel powerless most of the time. That is why I am about empowering users as much as is safe. If they FEEL in control, even if they aren't, it helps us with our jobs going smoother. 
Yeah, nobody likes being monitored.  If only they knew that we didn't have time to go snooping even if we lacked ethics and wanted to.  The only time anything gets looked at is if there is an issue and HR gets involved.  Being a sysadmin is a job that requires high ethical standards, and I don't think sysadmins who aren't ethical last very long.
@ wrote:

Yeah, nobody likes being monitored.  If only they knew that we didn't have time to go snooping even if we lacked ethics and wanted to.  The only time anything gets looked at is if there is an issue and HR gets involved.  Being a sysadmin is a job that requires high ethical standards, and I don't think sysadmins who aren't ethical last very long.

Very true. You have to be committed to data privacy, security, and maintaining general privacy between departments, people and computers. I think a lot of users think we do things out of paranoia. If only they knew what we knew about security. 
That's another reason I'm HUGE on user education. The more they know, the less they are likely to complain or fuss when we say something has to be a certain way. Once users understand WHY, logistically, we do what we do, even if they don't know the technical reason, they feel empowered and will support us rather than fight us or try and find ways around what we do. 

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