Today’s rant is one that is not so much long overdue, but is definitely something that’s been on my mind.
One of the most interesting facets of my job, is the fact that as the single IT person here at Norampac, I have a very large amount of freedom. Realistically, there isn’t anyone here who has even the closest amount of knowledge about computers, networking, and our systems, as I do. Now, I’m not trying to pull my own chain, but it’s just the truth. We’ve got people here who know how to use their PC to make it do what they need it to do. But as for fixing it, troubleshooting problems, working on technical issues, no one here has a clue.
So, this has it’s advantages, and disadvantages. The advantage is, I don’t have to listen to a lot of people trying to tell me what to do when I already know what to do. Sometimes you get these people who seem to think they know everything and they try to tell you stuff that makes no sense, but it sure does to them.
The disadvantage is that because there’s no one else here doing the IT thing with me, so it can get lonely and boring. It also gets frustrating at times because you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of.
The other thing is, most normal people don’t totally understand the geek mentality. The lame computer jokes, the need for useless toys, wearing t-shirts that say things no one else understands. When there’s no one else around to appreciate that, it sucks.
I’ve recently been working a lot on our new internal website. Now in order to give it the kind of look and feel they want, I’ve had to do some programming behind the scenes and build some database engine stuff, and some things that the average person would have no clue about. So, when they look at the website and see what’s been done, they go, “Hey that looks nice” without really having any appreciation for the serious amount of work and effort that goes in to giving them something they can use and work with. With other IT people around, they would be able to appreciate these things.
I dunno Maybe I’m just getting tired of always being told “Thank You” when people don’t even really know what they are thanking me for. I should be more appreciative since I could receive no appreciation at all.
So I guess the jist of it is, I wish I worked in a place with a large IT environment. A nest full of geeks like myself where we can share our stupid humour and lame jokes, and freaky toys. Perhaps someday I’ll get to that point.
So there. I’ve had my say.
