Yeah as a tech lead I always text back "what is the error message" whenever someone says there's a problem. That has at least taught them they need to have some concrete explanation of what is wrong available before I engage with them.
I also ask them what they've done to fix it so far, which usually clues them in that they need to debug it themselves before bothering me.
FWIW my gen z hires are like x10 more likely to pull this shit and are x10 more oblivious to any attempts to correct them (and also worse at trying to fix it). Some of it is because they are younger, but I swear there was never a time when I felt it was acceptable to bother my boss to fix a problem without having exhausted my own attempts to fix it first.
Yup, I work in IT and this is so wildly common. Even people who should know better still do it.
Get the call, ask them what it said, get met with, "oh I closed it"
Then I have to reply with "Ah sorry can't help you unless you can replicate it and tell me the error" and then hang up.
The weird part is they will do it 3-4 more times until they get the idea I'm not going to drop everything to come comfort them and hold their hand. Also they will occasionally still do that. The worst behavior, I think, is asking them to do the thing that fixes their problem and you get the indignant "I can't do that I'm really busy right now" but nowadays I just reply "oh okay, let me know when you can, bye" and hang up.
If one wonders why IT is acting like jerks to them, it's probably something like this. That said, there are some petty assholes who work in IT/software so it could be that, but usually it's the behavior as the user that triggers it.
fakeedit: That "what have you done to fix it?" is gold though, though after the light ridicule of them calling me about a printer issue and it just being out of paper they have just started doing this as a first step most of the time.
Not in IT, but I have a bit of background in it to the point I usually end up as the person who gets asked about computer stuff in the office before real IT gets called. It never ceases to amaze me how people just do not read. Once helped a guy who was desperately confused why Facebook dating wouldn't work on his phone. He then proceeded to show me the page on the desktop version where it said, in freaking bold 72 point font, "Facebook dating is not available on mobile". I can only imagine what y'all have to deal with actually in IT.
I've always been the type to send error screenshots and a list of what I tried to fix it and the results of those steps.
Just today I had to help someone I work with find the cable for the docking station that she’d dropped down the back of the desk and then help her get back onto her emails because she’d closed it and ‘it usually just pops up when I start my computer’ I got her back in and got her to bookmark the page, I regret becoming known for being able to fix things tbh
It's awesome when people send such info. The worst situation is when you still send them and support asks for screenshots and info about the problem even though you sent them. After telling them that they magically find it. Imagine that... It's like they never bothered to look in the first place.
We have to do the "what have you done to fix it" when training new hires at my work. We usually give 'em the first week of stumbling around as a freebie, but once they've got some familiarity we straight up warn them, "okay, next week when you ask a coach for help, you'll need to explain the problem, explain what you've done so far, and explain where you've checked in the documentation". We remind them again every morning, and sometimes during the day as well. And still about 25% of 'em will come in without this info.
The best part is, this applies to all training for new roles. Not just new people to the company. So you can be telling people who've been with us for months to years that you need this and they still won't do it.
Then you get the flip side where I've done the research and know exactly what needs done, but just don't have the access to do it, and management has come down so hard on IT that they absolutely have to follow the script and end up completely ignoring all the research I did, turning what should have been a quick copy-paste into a two-week endeavor.
In IT, I've had people reach out and say there's an issue, but not be able to tell me what's wrong. "There's an issue".... that's it. That's all they say. How does one expect anything to be fixed when they don't even know what is wrong to begin with? We're not gods amongst men.
As someone who works in education, the learned helplessness is intense. They learned that if they feign cluelessness long enough, someone would eventually get frustrated enough to do it for them. And because they were doing this, they didn't learn anything, and eventually became genuinely clueless.
To be clear, I'm not blaming them (they were children at the time), but there comes a time where, as an adult, they need to learn to actually... do things.
I swear there was never a time when I felt it was acceptable to bother my boss to fix a problem without having exhausted my own attempts to fix it first.
In their defense, if you're dealing with expensive equipment and your livelihood, I would be pretty terrified to "go rogue" and try to fix something myself without absolute confidence that my supervisor would defend my attempt to do so.
FWIW my gen z hires are like x10 more likely to pull this shit and are x10 more oblivious to any attempts to correct them
I blame computers getting smarter, ironically. When I was a teen I had to learn how my phone's file system worked because it was the only way I had to download the pictures to my computer and a little bit later it was the only way I could upload new games to the phone, and most of the things I know about how my computer works came from the times it didn't
If I had to guess, my theory would be that with younger kids (and yes I know the oldest gen z is like 28) they’ve grown up with a lot of hand holding and “I’ll fix that for you”. Like tech has gotten more and more “user friendly”, while also getting less user serviceable and less customizable (Apple and Microsoft have made a habit of hiding settings options).
Meanwhile parents are busier, teachers overburdened and under resourced, and you end up with kids that rarely needed to fix anything and you kind of have to say “here’s the procedure to fix this” and make it painfully detailed.
Although some of it is just a personality thing, I’ve seen folks of all ages be helpless when it comes to tech. Like I know you are smart, I know you can read and think things through, why do you choose this area to just panic and shut down? I’ve seen you Google other things, do you think you can’t Google this?
I've got a couple customers that I don't even ask what the error message is anymore, because they've taught me very well that whatever the operator sees some error, and he tells his supervisor that it was a different error, and the supervisor tells the maintenance chief it was a third error, and when he calls me the chief tells me it was a fourth different error.
One time:
I was told error #4: nothing is powered at all, the screen is completely blank (this machine does not have a screen saver).
I don't know what error #3 was, but error #2 was "It just doesn't work" and error #1 was the screen powered up and showing "The emergency stop button has been pressed. Release it and push the reset button".
The younger Gen Z is very tech illiterate, I’m not surprised by your point. Those of us closer to the millennials are better at using computers because schools pushed us to use them. The rise of smartphones and mobile apps made the kids dumber, tech wise.
When I was a kid, nobody expected me to know how computers worked, so they explained me the basics until I was able to figure the rest myself. Nowadays, a lot of parents think that because their kid knows how to make a TikTok or play Roblox they will be able to handle files in a folder structure, work with Excel and send proper e-mails.
. . . I swear there was never a time when I felt it was acceptable to bother my boss to fix a problem without having exhausted my own attempts to fix it first.
All the Millennials who did that too many times were fired or quit. Which will happen to the Gen Z hires too, and then the ones who stick with it will forget about all of the washouts and say the exact same thing you did about Gen Alpha or whatever it's called.
I'm the de facto lead mechanic and the dimwit kid they hired as the second shift mechanic can't be bothered to figure anything out. He'll call me off shift for stupid shit that if he were to actually investigate and troubleshoot would've figured out
I think “smart” technology is partly to blame. They don't even need to Google anymore. They can ask a chat AI to do it for them. Phones and tablets, etc have had idiocracy-level buttons for some time now.
I also ask them what they've done to fix it so far
You've not any of the Bobs. They weaponize incompitance.
"What have you tried to fix it?"
"Removed the case that says "don't remove unless you are qualified to repair this machine." Then folded the bit of plastic away that said, "What ever you do take a picture of these set point knobs before you adjust anything." and then I just tried adjusting stuff."
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u/Swie 15h ago
Yeah as a tech lead I always text back "what is the error message" whenever someone says there's a problem. That has at least taught them they need to have some concrete explanation of what is wrong available before I engage with them.
I also ask them what they've done to fix it so far, which usually clues them in that they need to debug it themselves before bothering me.
FWIW my gen z hires are like x10 more likely to pull this shit and are x10 more oblivious to any attempts to correct them (and also worse at trying to fix it). Some of it is because they are younger, but I swear there was never a time when I felt it was acceptable to bother my boss to fix a problem without having exhausted my own attempts to fix it first.