Hi, I'm an IT professional and I hate you....

Got your attention didn't I....

Well folks, that's what a whole lotta people think of IT these days and the problem lies with 2 things.  Bad attitudes and bad management.

I found this article the other day and I was moved to respond.  I got kind of long-winded but that tends to happen when I'm calling out BS.

See if you find something you recognize in your own organization....

Blah, Blah, Blah, a bunch or words nobody will ever listen to.  The problem with IT's image is the same as it's always been and I've been in it for 25 years.  IT is looked at as a necessary evil precisely because that's the role IT management has accepted.

I can count on one hand the number of IT managers that had any idea of what the company they were supporting actually did or even cared, for that matter.  People know when you're just going through the motions and act accordingly. 

You might as well be an appliance repair tech not a partner...

Many organizations just hire career managers with little to no IT experience and no concept of how to effectively manage an IT team.  They're either just occupying space before moving on to the next job between seminars or buried in busy work because it's the only way they can justify their own job. 

Worse, they make poor  hiring decisions based on skill checklists and nothing more.  Ability and attitude rarely come into the mix because their hiring process is akin to choosing a combo meal at Mickey D's.  Ultimately you end up with a team populated by people that are just there to collect a check and do the bare minimum to get by.  Most IT people I've met hate their jobs because they get overworked, underappreciated and have no support and no direction from their management. 

End result, poor service and bad attitudes towards their users.

I find it amusing that Sears Holdings is held up as a stellar example of good IT.  A bankrupt company that had to spin off a tech subsidiary to provide anything of value to the parent company.  I can remember many a line I stood in when the POS systems would go down in the stores with IT indifferent to their plight. 

How could you possibly expect any kind of direction from a disinterested IT leadership anyway? IT managers are supposed to set the standard but all too often that standard is pretty low regardless of how many ITIL plaques grace their walls.  If there's no foundation, no belief in the job then why should the subordinates be any different than the leader?

There are far too many people in the field that forget that IT is a service business.  A profession that exists at the pleasure of those it serves.  I could care less what a whizbang you are with AWS or Azure or how you can quote the OSI Layer verbatim if you can't apply it to the people you serve.  Tech is amorphous and ultimately irrelevant outside of its use as a tool.  But for too many the tech is more important than the job it's supposed to be doing and we only realize that when someone from the C-suite is inconvenienced by it.

End result: A vicious cycle of IT's own making.  Shrinking budgets and poor perception of their value.

As an IT professional you're defined by the level of service you provide and if your heart isn't in it, it's going to show.  The job is too demanding to not be invested in the people you serve.  Their success is your success because you make the magic happen.  Attitude ladies and gentlemen, is the key and most of the IT organizations I've seen have a poor one.  

No wonder the perception is negative!

You get what you give, that's how life works.  If IT's attitude is adversarial you will get treated in kind.  If you're giving your all and people know it, their attitude towards you will be positive.  I've seen this and put it into action everywhere I've worked and the only trouble I ever had was with those seat warming managers I mentioned earlier.

Put the right people in the right places, get rid of the chair warmers and watch the magic happen.