The Office Jester: Dream IT Attitude

The Office Jester… every office needs one explain why the dream IT attitude won’t work

Isn’t it a joy to see someone struggling with some IT equipment and then having to deal with a grumpy IT guy who is secure enough in his job to give him the infamous IT attitude? Yes, there is indeed a hint of schadenfreude involved in this but the humour side of thing is less immoral.

After all, haven’t you seen kids laugh at someone falling on his bum? That isn’t schadenfreude because it is unlikely that young kids can recognise things in terms of getting ahead of each other.

What we’re describing is something similar. Whenever someone sees someone else struggling with technology and, as a result, with the infamous IT attitude, there is this small smile on their faces. There is no put-down worse than when the lowly IT guy scoffs at your questions like you would scoff at a five-year-old kid’s questions. That is why it’s funny.

It is also funny because everyone one of us has gone through it. We all know the humiliation and embarrassment, the infamous IT attitude makes us feel. But the funny thing is, even if the infamous IT attitude turned into the dream IT attitude, it will still be funny.

Here’s a video that does exactly this. For the life of us, though, we can’t help but notice the tint of sarcasm and the suggestion of cynicism in every single statement from these fictitious IT guys. It’s almost as if they’re telling us, “never gonna happen, bruv”.

The Dream IT Attitude

Without a doubt, this is an exhaustive video. They’ve covered everything from the typically daft things people do to their sensitive and delicate equipment to the personal characteristics (NERD!) of the IT people. Apart from all of this, there’s the subtle but the uniquely qualified IT attitude of course. We’ll try to go through it one by one.

1. Aggression: You know, how most people have this theory that banging on the equipment, giving it a slap, slapping a kick on it, or simply taking out your frustrations on it actually makes it work? Well, logically it doesn’t, no matter what you say and all IT people will agree with us on this. This is why no IT guy will ever ask you to hit it with a “closed fist”, “kick it”, “hit the buttons harder”, or the best, “shake the hard drive while it’s on”.
2. Worst practices: Despite of being made aware of the best practices, most of us don’t give a rat’s arse about the right way of doing things. For some reason, non-IT people have to have to do things in their own dumb way. Naturally, this would lead to the dreaded IT attitude when you call them for a problem exclusively created by you. Why do we have to unplug electronic equipment? Why do we use the same password or put up our password on the PC for everyone to see? Why don’t we ever backup our data? And, why do we never understand that we’re the problem and not the equipment? Okay, that last is a little below the belt but that’s only because you’ve not seen the psychiatrist because of malfunctioning equipment yet.
3. Treatment: Admit it. Most of us don’t treat out IT guys the right way. How can we expect the right IT attitude, if we don’t give them the right treatment? This video deals with IT guy abuse in a very sensitive way i.e. humour (in case, you’re unsure, yes that was sarcastic). IT guy issues this video takes up include people thinking they know more than the IT guy, people putting the IT guy on hold, people bombarding the IT guy with multiple tickets, people giving the IT guy their own malfunctioning theories (all puns intended), and people giving the IT guy the stick and not appreciating his work.
4. Personality: The IT attitude is infamous because all IT guys are nerds and everyone knows that nerds have problems with social acceptance. Do you want proof that IT guys are nerds? This video makes fun of their nerdiness too by reversing the stereotypes. So, IT guys hate dialup, Windows, Val Kilmer as Batman, Jar Jar Binks, new Star Wars movies, movies made on comics, and physical exercises. As an add-on, we liked the fact that the video made fun of the IT demographics i.e. an amazingly depressing sex ratio (I feel their pain because I am male and partially an IT guy).