Do You Purposefully Avoid Rank in Place of Employment

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

I also wanted to comment that I do understand why addressing people by title can be important. If they ask me to I will, but I don't do it by default.

I basically do the same thing as you, just in reverse as you mention. I tend to be more formal until the person tells me otherwise regardless of their level.

Perfect example, is the custodian staff here. When someone new joins I introduce myself using my first name and welcome them aboard. That is my "permission" for them to call me by my first name. I call them by whatever they introduce themselves as. If the custodian introduces himself as "Mr. Jones" that's what I'm going to call him.

Same with Doctors. There is one (actually a hospital administrator) that always introduces herself by her first name. I therefore know it is perfectly acceptable to call her by that, and I do in individual conversations or in private. I still refer to her as Dr. Lastname in more formal settings though.

Our former Chief Medical Officer on the other hand was ex-military, and one of those overachievers that was also a lawyer as well as a physician, and a gunsmith in his spare time. It would likely have been a firing offense on the spot to have called him anything but Dr.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by nikitopo

I believe one reason of the rudeness of the IT people is in the way they were educated. They have been told that IT will be the profession of the future, but they have not been told that the majority of IT will just serve other professions. For example an IT guy will fix another person's computer in a company, but this is not how the company will make money. It is basically support and in most situations it is either boring or it is not paid enough. So, these people realized this when they went to work and they were left in a kind of trap situation. It is not always easy going back to educate yourself and choose a different major and there aren't too many positions focusing entirely on IT.

Same can apply to any of the "service" departments such as me or HR. We just have to understand that what we do is indeed helping the company make money. A salesguy that can't get emails is costing money just as much as a broken down piece of equipment. It just isn't as in your face as some things.


I have the unpleasant task of dealing with two radically opposing priorities. My first priority is to prevent injuries or environmental impact. My second is to protect the company from excessive costs and impact to production. This means that at any given time one group or the other is pissed about something.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Also, I've never met a rude IT person but I am in Canada and everyone is polite.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

Also, I've never met a rude IT person but I am in Canada and everyone is polite.

I am in Canada as well. The IT guy at my current employer got fired for it he was so bad. We had a party when he was gone. Two years later his replacement is still dealing with issues he caused. New guy is only marginally better though.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I am in Canada as well. The IT guy at my current employer got fired for it he was so bad. We had a party when he was gone. Two years later his replacement is still dealing with issues he caused. New guy is only marginally better though.

bad as in rude or no idea what he was doing?

or both?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

bad as in rude or no idea what he was doing?

or both?

One of the most totally obnoxious people I have met in my life. Also lazy as hell and getting him to do anything was a battle. Was fired for attitude though not the lazy part. He knew what he was doing when you could actually get him to do it. Most of us just fixed each other's problems instead of having to deal with him.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

One of the most totally obnoxious people I have met in my life. Also lazy as hell and getting him to do anything was a battle. Was fired for attitude though not the lazy part. He knew what he was doing when you could actually get him to do it. Most of us just fixed each other's problems instead of having to deal with him.

I see. Good thing they're not unionized then haha. Our IT people are notorious for making things worse. I mean they do very complex stuff for us, linking programs and laboratory information systems, but I remember one time we called them cause of something so trivial, it was like a 2-minute fix. The fix ended up causing such a huge problem that the system was down for the next 2 days while they figured out what went wrong.

[x808drifter]

This thread makes me wonder how many of us do IT for a living.

[gtpvette]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

Sorry, you may have posted something useful, but I couldn't be bothered to read the musings of a peasant.

As a 40+ year IT guy,,, dam near spit my coffee out. Well done sir!


As to addressing your original question,,, they only let me talk to other IT people.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by x808drifter

This thread makes me wonder how many of us do IT for a living.

A shitload. Those that are not in IT are mostly in at least some other tech type field or school for them. We also have a oddly large number of serving or prior military when looking at such a small population.


There were a couple of threads but they have pretty much died out.

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Same can apply to any of the "service" departments such as me or HR. We just have to understand that what we do is indeed helping the company make money. A sales guy that can't get emails is costing money just as much as a broken down piece of equipment. It just isn't as in your face as some things.

I have the unpleasant task of dealing with two radically opposing priorities. My first priority is to prevent injuries or environmental impact. My second is to protect the company from excessive costs and impact to production. This means that at any given time one group or the other is pissed about something.

Yes that is true. A sales guy that can't get emails is costing money, but at the end of the day the sales guy will get the bonus and the recognition.

Anyway, I guess bad professionals can exist in every profession.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by gtpvette

As a 40+ year IT guy,,, dam near spit my coffee out. Well done sir!

WAIT! Are you the guy that swapped my 386 for the 486?


Or were you more into laptops?

[DarkPira7e]

Originally Posted by x808drifter

This thread makes me wonder how many of us do IT for a living.

I think it may show that people who enjoy the 86 are also more inclined to choose a profession that relies on technical aptitude. Also that those of us who own the car and are in IT, naturally will find a resource ( forum) and post frequently because that's what we like to do.

[gtpvette]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

WAIT! Are you the guy that swapped my 386 for the 486?


Or were you more into laptops?

Only the big iron for me, IBM Mainframe,, started on them in 1978,, some lesser systems before that (NCR).