What Are Your Ethical Pet Peeves? 17

[BJCooperIT]

I am basically a tree person. I get lost in the details, which is to say, I am busy tending the leaves while others are looking out for the forest. There is a another thread regarding the most serious ethical issues faced by IT professionals and my question is not as lofty. I am asking for your ethical pet peeves. Not the earthshaking moral dilemmas but the little rights and wrongs that drive you crazy.

One of my high ranking personal gripes is DOCUMENTATION. Yes, I agree, it sometimes is a PITA to write. I know some coders perceive it as a waste of time. It is however an important legacy to leave good quality documentation. Sometimes I am called back to do some additional enhancements or bug fixes (yes...I do make mistakes) for a previous client. I go back into code I barely remember writing let alone remember the business rules the code is supporting. I am usually shocked to learn I would be lost without the liberal comments I left sprinkled around. Without the system documentation I wrote would I be able to tell the user how to achieve that complicated procedure run once in a blue moon? Definitely not. If I need the documentation for my own code, then user needs it even more.

My position is that I am a paid professional and when I code an application, the documentation is an integral part of the whole and it is ethically required. Is it acceptable that the documentation is of a poor quality and thus useless? IMHO, absolutely not. How is it that so many professionals deem it appropriate to leave unintelligible bits of information scribbled on napkin scraps, jumbled instructions typed at 3:00am that make no sense, or worse yet nothing at all? I am not just referring to a programmer documenting a program here. I am including most IT deliverables - networks, applications, security, and ________ (you fill in the blank).

Assuming I posess the necessary intellect and skills, if I read a manual and cannot figure out how the system functions then time and money were squandered on useless typing. If a technical person cannot glean information from it, how did the author expect the users to use it as a resource?

Case in point. My users bought a software package. The documentation is sub-standard. No, that is too kind, quite frankly it is crap. Even the project manager from the vendor admits their documentation is absolutely awful. My observation is that the person who wrote it was a detailed technical person who has no concept of how to present information to non-techs. Reminds me of the line from the movie Beetlejuice: "It reads like stereo instructions". Even that is giving it too much credit.

If documentation is not provided or is sub-standard then my feeling is that an ethical boundary has been violated.

OK, what drives you up a wall? Rants acceptable.

select * from Life where Brain is not null

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[butchrecon]

To me it is not the short answers. Heck I give them as well. I am not the best at explaining things. My peeve is when someone gives an answer and another tech says something like "Are you stupid" " Thats a lame answer" etc...

Short answers we all do from time to time. Short expalanations as well. Its the demeaning (dont think I spelled that right) responses that get to me. As stated by some of colleagues above a reply of "That would work. Now let me give you an easier way to do it" or "This may work better for you".
As I stated before I am not the best at getting my point across.

James Collins
Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP, MCSA, Network+

 

[BJCooperIT]

I got your point just fine James. Perhaps I was not completely clear with my intolerance post. I think everyone deserves to be treated with respect as long as they give what they get. What I was trying to get across is that sometimes our answers may be misinterpreted as intolerant if we neglect to re-read our post to see if it "sounds" as though we have a "chip-on-the-shoulder" attitude.

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[sleipnir214]

Don't knock the usefulness of deliberately giving someone a little "chip-on-the-shoulder" at the appropriate time.

An example is the question-poster who has the temerity give me attitude when I wasn't able to read his mind to give him an instant answer to his ill-posed, ill-conceived question.

In those cases, I'm a pitcher who's facing down a batter who's crowding home plate. Sooner or later it becomes necessary for me to throw one high and inside -- just to get his attention.

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[manarth]

BJCooperIT
"Day 1 - question
Day 1 - good answer
Dsy 2 - same answer"
Sometimes it is needed - I've seen day 1's answer; it's correct, makes perfect sense to ME, but the user stuck at the start of the thread can make neither heads nor tails of it. The same answer clarified isn't always a bad thing.

As for short answers / no diagnostics - as long as it's made clear the no-diagnostic post is a "my best guess is it's...", then no prob... and a user who posts "My internet isn't working" should know better - hopefully, a short answer will make the point. At least, I wish it did. Some users, you really cannot help

Pet peeve - ppl who CANNOT admit they got something wrong. They'll deny all knowledge of their previous stance, or continue defending their previous stance whilst also promoting their current, completely contradictary stance.
Head - meet brick wall. Repeat.

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[KimberTech]

Head - meet brick wall. Repeat.

You all HAD to know Kimber would post in this thread!

My April Rant:

Pet Peeves

#1. People who deny any wrongdoing even when it is obvious.
eg: &quot;I can't find my data and it just disappeared&quot; found in recycle bin.

#2. Know it alls. In any walk of life, on any topic.

These people are infuriating no matter how understanding and diplomatic you try to be. If they ask you a question about your opinion on a subject...DO NOT ANSWER. They will argue with you! If they ask you to recommend something, they will tell you that your opinion is wrong for some reason or another. Enough to make your head explode!!!

#3. People that blame others for mistakes they have made themselves.
eg: System crashes and it has to be my fault because I had the machine apart last week. Only to find out that some internal IT wannabe has installed seven malware shareware pirate apps that messed up the system and added a virus. Of course I am expected to fix it under warranty!

#4. As previously stated, people that call me DEAR to try to patronize me.
I am a professional and only my husband calls me dear, and just because I am female.....well you get the idea.

Ranting is quite therapeutic. My hope is that this thread will make some people aware of what irks others. Maybe it will be an opportunity to grow by being more considerate of others and how they feel.

Happy Day!

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[Tarwn]

To continue the rant

Kimber: Nice calls as always

Though a comment on #2, the next time someone asks for your opinion and then tells you its wrong, look them in the eye and say, &quot;My gosh, you read minds? I could have sworn that was my opinion...so what is it really?&quot; >


manarth: heh, head meats wall, mind if I re-use that?

sleipner: You, throug a high inside? I'd never believe it

Lots of good points here people, makes me feel less alone in my circumstances.

1) Non-tech people who claim patents and then attempt to wring money out of half the tech people in the world. For example, the guy that tried to prove he had patented HTML, the lawyers that think they have patents on eCommerce, etc

2) People that back out of arguments or get overly angry when you present differing views on design and/or development plans. Rather than explaining why they are doing something a certain way they expect their experience/certifications/education to be the proof that their way is better

3) Blanket statements. I'm a programmer, throw me a blanket statement and I'll find the bed bugs In other words, don't say this one technology is better in all cases. I will find a case it isn't better, ask for proof, and ask for reasoning on why it is thought ot be better. Another example is the MS/everyone_else wars that go on, they always tend to attract people that will not admit that an MS product can be used better in some situations than whatever they are trying to sell people on

4) Managers who can script a little in VBA telling a programmer the best way to do things. For example, I had a 1000 line long CSV file the other dat that I had to remove several columns, add several columns, convert several values from one mapping to another mapping, and split into three files. This is in preperation for another project coming up where I will be doing something on the order of 15k to 20k lines. I started to write a script to handle it. I was told it would take longer to write a script for the small one than it would to open it in excel and use search and replace. I agree, but that same exact script could then have been applied to the 20k line CSV and finished it in less than a minute rather than the several hours it is going to take...

5) Customers who expect you to teach them exactly what your doing as you do it so that they can do it on their own from then on. Ie they stand over your shoulder for every step of the way, ask for very detailed lists of how your going to accomplish the tasks, and generally make everything take 3 to 4 times longer than it should, than wonder why you didn't get done in the time frame you originally quoted.


I could go on, but I think I covered the major points

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[ANFPS26]

One of my pet peeves was with people who don't have &quot;I don't know&quot; in their vocabulary. They will give an answer to every question asked them even though they don't know what they are talking about.
Another one is with people who ask a question or make a statement in the forums just to stir things up. They usually don't believe in what they are saying they just say it to get a heated debate started.

Jim

 

[butchrecon]

Another Peeve...
Non-Tech managers mangaing techs. This itself is not bad, what is is when they start going 101 (basics) on you. Example you are working on a PC, it does not boot, the manager asks &quot;Did you push the power button?&quot; Then asks &quot;Is it plugged in?&quot; (This actually happened, the PC was right in front of us with lights on!). Dont you think the power is on if there is a couple of lights on the panel? Oh, must be comming from the internal CMOS battery.

James Collins
Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP, MCSA, Network+

 

[mudskipper]

butchrecon -- I definitely agree with the last one too! The funny thing, however, is that one time when this happened to me, I HAD forgotten the power cable! Ohhhhhh. How embarassing!! Just a reminder to me that I should never get TOO cocky, and also that I should always start with the small stuff!

all -- Of course, my peeve for the day is that, being reletively new at my current job, some still don't think that I can help in certain areas. Without going into specifics, we were having an issue that resulted in several people being unable to work. Not a small issue. Not knowing exactly what was causing it, I jumped onto TT and did some searches. Within about 20 minutes, I found some old posts by CitrixEngineer (thanks, BTW) that nailed the issue. Took my coworkers 3 days and a bunch of frustration before they finally tried my (actually CitrixEngineer's) fix. Would you believe that it worked?!!

Of course, you ask, how is that an ethical problem? Well, being that the fix would not have hurt anything, and they were stumped COMPLETELY, should they have not at least TRIED it earlier? How much money was wasted as a result?!!
Oh well....

Mudskipper
-----------------
Groucho said it best- &quot;A four year-old child could understand this!
Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!&quot;

 

[KimberTech]

Tarwn:

&quot;My gosh, you read minds? I could have sworn that was my opinion...so what is it really?&quot; >

Your sense of wit never ceases to amuse...I am still laughing.
I think the next time I get called DEAR I am going to respond with &quot;okay Hunny shall we begin?&quot;

Your #5. struck a real chord with me.
I would expand it to say that while you are explaining what you are doing because they insist, they then try to tell you how to fix it, or that you aren't doing it right.

hmmmm......they called you to fix it why?

Lovely to know that I am not crazy, and the things that I am hearing in this thread have lightened my day. I guess misery loves company.


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[Kjonnnn]

Here's more peeves.

1. You call me to tell me of your problem and I get there you tell me the solution. And of course my diagnosis is wrong.

2. You have a problem, but you tell everyone else about your problem (co workers, your superviser, my supervisor), but you don't tell me. Even though u walk past me 8 or 9 times a day.

3. You ask me about a problem and I give you an answer. Then you turn around and email me the same question, but CC all the execs in the company.

4. You're the sole user of a particular software package, but you've never taken the time or initiative to learn the software package. You expect me to learn it and show You.

5. &quot;Can you come change the toner in my printer.&quot; GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

6. You install software I told you not to install. (My solution ... you live with the problem til I feel like fixing it.)

7. I'm not &quot;on call,&quot; but you want my home number.

8. You've called me to fix your computer... but you won't get up and let me sit down at it.

9. You're as dumb as rice when it comes to computers, but you constantly ask me, &quot;Why did that happen?&quot;

10. When u call, you refuse to answer my troubleshooting questions over the phone before I come up. &quot;It doesn't work&quot; is not a valid answer.

 

[aixmurderer]

Hi all, my 1/2 penny worth, mostly a variation on what has been posted before:

1) IT salesmen with no IT experience, selling solutions we don't have, giving very little lead time to expected deployment, notifying you via a CC's email with the barest of bare information and not even capable of getting your contact details right in the email to the customer.

Result: Hours of wasted time to try and find out what was promised to the customer, overdue project (what project?), Operations being the dog for it not being delivered on time.

2) COO with no IT experience, wants to play IT Manager, recommending solutions based on his &quot;gut feel&quot; after ignoring all recommendations by Ops and Development teams. Employs staff according to paper value instead of ablility to do the job in the Company's environment.

3) So-called IT Professionals who after years still cannot (want not?) adapt to the company's OS environment to do their work, resulting in an additional load on Ops and Dev teams to &quot;wet nurse&quot; them on a daily basis.

4) The same IT professionals want's to constantly &quot;manage&quot; Ops and Dev staff, mainly due to their incapability to do something for themselves, a ruse to look as if they are being pro-active at their tasks. They are so very good at it, mentioning this to management falls on deaf ears, due to management falling in the same catagory.

5) Those who can do the job just gets loaded with more work, more responsibility, more meetings and less time to do the actual work. No incentives, we will rather imploy more useless staff at imflated salaries in areas where we don't need them, once again due to management not having a clue on what the real staff requirements are.

6) Dare ask for leave and there are all kinds of pre-requisites before you may have 1 week of your 6 weeks overdue leave. Others (dead wood) may have as much as they want, you WILL do their work (the little bit they do have!) while they are away.

7) No overtime since you are salaried, but you are by default on-call 24x7. Promises of time off in lieu, but that never happens. No incentive bonuses, that's reserved for the overpaid &quot;dead wood&quot; who so effectivey managed the non-existing projects you took care of in the end.

8) Your's not &quot;on call&quot; for 2nd level AH support, nor are you for 3rd level, but 2nd level support staff calls you for further support. Dare log it though as a callout, then the &quot;your'e not 3rd level support&quot; gets rubbed in your face. Solution, turn the mobile phone off, don't answer the home phone.

9) Won't pay a decent travel allowance or decent own transport usage costs, but quite prepared to pay taxi fees to and from customer sites for staff without their on transport.

10) People who cannot take blame for their own stuffups and try and place it somewhere else by bulls**tting management. Due to management's non-IT experience this is accepted at face value, resulting in a all-staff email placing the blame with you without even discussed it with you in the first place.

'Nuff said, I think you guys get the idea that I am not impressed with the Micky Mouse outfit I am working for, but I'm not so sure it is any better elsewhere.

Please tell me if it gets any better than this elsewhere...


IBM Certified Confused - MQSeries
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[BJCooperIT]

So I am not the only one pulling my hair out? There may be someone out there to help us overcome our peeves if they appear as a problem in an individual post. For example: How can we get user signoffs? Best response to silence IT know-it-alls? How to survive a non-tech manager? And the list goes on...

A major pet peeve from years gone by:
The co-worker who takes every opportunity to sabotage you just for their own enjoyment (or some other reason). This includes withholding information, talking behind your back, insulting your abilities in front of the boss, or deliberately causing something you are responsible for to fail.

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[ThomasJSmart]

Yes aixmurderer it can be a lot better, i was in a similer situation i worked there for 10 months now i have my own company. whoohoo! i have never been so happy :-D

a lot of paperwork to do on startup but after that it's sweet. i am a one man company so i have to get clients and make the projects on my own. Also i do a lot of freelancing; i work for another company for the duration of 1 project and get payed on an hourly basis. more often than not i work at home and only go to the company for a meeting once a week.

if you think you can handle doing all your own paperwork and getting your own clients i would advise this.

good luck.

I learned a bit yesterday, today i learned a lot, imagine what i'll learn tomorrow!

 

[KimberTech]

I agree...
self employment.....the only way to be in the position to decide whether you will work for someone, and on what terms.
You decide when you work, what the rates are, and what your policies are.

I have done it, and it also was a way to put into practise my ethical beliefs when it comes to how to run a business..and how not to.

The freedom is amazing, but the financial picture is a little scary until you get established.

Kimber

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[Tarwn]

Darnit, just remembered one:
1) people who post their homework to freelance sites - Um...I think this should be a clue they need to change majors

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[ThomasJSmart]

I agree Tarwn, and would like to add the following:

i went to a Multimedia Design school, A lot of students in the first and second year went to the school because they liked quake and they had found out from there mom that the school let you use computers.

the idiots i had to work with in my first years!!! AAArgh! hate!!

of course the classes went from 120 students in year 1 to 80 in year 2 to 40 in year 3 (work experience year) to about 20 with a diploma



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[sha76]

On the whole homework posting issue: the worst post I've ever seen was from a student not only asking for his entire project to be done for him, but done at a standard that would give him a C grade! I'll admit I still have much to learn, but I did find that pretty insulting!

I'm also with KimberTech on the whole patronising men problem: last week an electrician, who had come to discuss a problem with me, addressed the entire conversation to my colleague who had opened the door to him! This despite the fact that my colleague's replys were along the lines of &quot;right&quot; & &quot;OK&quot; as he tried to edge away!

I may be back to rant more later, but on a positive note, a big thanks to anyone who has pointed out that a question I've posted needs more info, or that there's a better solution than the one I've replied with, it's always been done in a very positive way & it's an important part of the learning process. I have noticed a few scathing replies though & often directed towards obvious newbies, thankfully these seem pretty rare, they're certainly something we can do without!

Sharon

 

[KimberTech]

sha76
I love the homework post...
as Tarwn said &quot;Um...I think this should be a clue they need to change majors &quot;

&quot;I have noticed a few scathing replies &quot;
When you see replies like that, make sure you use the Red Flag feature and let management have a look.

This site is for professionals to help one another, and it is not professional to respond in that manner.
Members who do these things need to be corrected or removed from the site, and posts like that need to be deleted.

We are already here looking for answers to frustration within our work, we don't need any additional stress!

Have a great day!

Kimber

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[sleipnir214]

sha76:
Frankly, unless there is more information about the interaction between you and the electrician than you have stated, I don't see where your offense at his action is reasonable.

The electrician made an honest mistake, assuming that the one who let him in was the one who knew about the problem. Only two of the three people in the room at the time could have corrected the electrician's bad assumption, and neither of the two was the electrician.

If you had told the electrician, &quot;Hi, I'm the one who called, so you should direct your questions to me&quot;, and he continued to speak to your male colleague instead of you, then I can see where you have a reasonable beef.

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