Engineers as Users

Anybody got any of these guys as users?

Here's what I've got:

Engineers/Draftsmen running Dell 610 Power Workstations w/512Mb RAM, SCSI drives and running NT 4.0 with the customary 2Gb primary partition and about a gazillion Mb of storage on other drives/partitions.

They've purchased these on their own with no input or advice from IS. Now, they've gone ahead and installed what seems like everyh CAD program and CAD file viewer in existence on their primary partition and are now wondering why their machines run like crap and they complaint about the size of their primary partition being sized wrong, running out of virtual memory.

My recommendation to them was to wipe and load, from the beginning and reinstall their applications acordingly.

They freaked out!

Anybody else got these types of users who know it all until a problem arises? Then when they ask your advice, and you give it, the flip?

How do you deal with them?

Yeah, I hear you. I am surrounded by them at my office. At first it can be intimidating, but show them you know what you're talking about. When they put in doubt my options to fix their problem, I give them the choice to either live with their grief or let me do my job to so I can fix it (in more polite terms, of course!) Usually when you make it clear you are there to help them & explain clearly what you want to do, it works wonders. Good luck! ;)

Actually, I work for a company that makes software for engineers. What frustrates me is this: Our software acquires data from over 3000 online sensors in a plant once per second, so to say the least it is VERY labor intensive. We tell these guys not to load games, ect. on the machines or data acquisition could be affected. Then I get a call that the machine is AFU. I fly out to discover stuff like DOOM, UT, Quake, ect is loaded up, and that they have completely ignored our minimum system requirements! Oh, but it is our stuff that sucks....

Of course, don't we all. My personal favorite is the one that knows my job so well that when she sends me trouble tickets, she pretty much tells me how to do MY job.

My question is: IF she is SO damn smart and good at MY job, then why is she a customer service rep and I am the tech? :eek:

I actually work in the Engineering dept here. Since our main product is PC based, most of the Engineers are at least semi-competent. But it is surprising to see just how many people understand the ins and outs of Visual Basic or UL certification or CCD design, but don't even understand how to use Internet Explorer efficiently.

I'm the department's PC guru. I understand just about everything that makes a PC function (or not), and wind up doing a lot of the fix-it stuff for our product ("Our customers want to access this stuff by modem! Fix it so that they can!" "How can we stuff a 1/2T of storage in this unit without using SCSI?" etc.)

I am in that exact type of office, I am Network Administrator/Chief Drafter, with lots of other drafters and engineers.

We purchased all of the computers at the same time, so they are identically configured. This allows us to have one or two ghost images on CD to reconfigure the workstations in less than 15 min if something starts acting funny.

We even purchased all the servers for each office at the same time, so they are the same, too!

We don't allow anybody to install software, unless it is essential to their job function. If somebody's computer is royally screwed, we wipe it and start over from the ghost image. (I did this yesterday afternoon)

Everyone stores their personal files in their home directory on a network drive, that is backed up at night. Each user has a 50MB limit on their home directory. This way, if the workstation goes south, they don't lose their timesheets, todo lists, AutoCAD configuration, etc.

I just had a talk with my boss about an architect we are working for, who was complaining about all the problems he was having with his network. No wonder, the guy was upgrading every piece of software in his firm as soon as a new version came out. We are using Novell 4.11 with workstations running Windows95b. We have no immediate plans to upgrade anything.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PuterGeekGirl:
[B]Of course, don't we all. My personal favorite is the one that knows my job so well that when she sends me trouble tickets, she pretty much tells me how to do MY job.

I've got those too! They almost take offense when I sit in front of their PC and start going through my troubleshooting procedure.

I try to explain that I have to go through the process etc, etc. You know the drill. We've all got out method. But, they'll stand over your shoulder and bitch, piss and moan about how they've got work to do. Then suddenly, when you find out they're out of disk space because of all the MP3's and free screensavers they've downloaded or that damned cat or dog thing that drops down from the top of their screen is what's causing the problem, they'll give you one of these:
"gee.....how did that get there?" or "I've got that on my PC at home and it doesn't give me any problems!"

Just makes you want to smack people doesn't it?

My users are exactly the same. They get pissed if there internet connection is slower than yesterday but never mind that they have 5 stock tickers going. My boss and I have put our foot down on all software not installed by the IT department. We also have locked down on security. You should have heard all the crying when I force them to change there passwords every month! "Well yes I realize you have had the same password for the last 16 months, THAT is why the new policy was made." :rolleyes:

That's why they're engineers, not techs.

Quote:

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Originally posted by TheoneDKS:
My boss and I have put our foot down on all software not installed by the IT department. We also have locked down on security. :rolleyes:

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We're doing the same but we're migrating from Win98 to W2k Pro. It's great! The self-proclaimed "power users" go berserk when realize they can't install anthing anymore!

Oh the humanity!!! :mad:
Tell your "power users" that they are no longer "power users" they are just 'users' like everyone else. You can use the fact that you are migrating to 2k.... 'Windows 2k is so different from our old system that we have decided not to give anyone that kind of power'

Two words:

<H2>WORKSTATION LOCKDOWN</H2>

Leave your workstation the he11 alone! Quit screwing around with it, and get to work!

Quote:

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Originally posted by TheoneDKS:
Oh the humanity!!! :mad:
Tell your "power users" that they are no longer "power users" they are just 'users' like everyone else. You can use the fact that you are migrating to 2k.... 'Windows 2k is so different from our old system that we have decided not to give anyone that kind of power'

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You are right, there are no such things as power lusers, thats impossible. You are lucky if your lusers can read, no less actually login to their machines.

I am one of THOSE designers/draftsman, but I have made every attempt to educate myself about computers, and learn the correct the ways of setting up hardware and software. I do feel your pain as I work with some others who have no clue what the heck their doing. A buddy and I have a good laugh over it when their machine crashes 2wks after being ghosted, when mine has never been ghosted. Oh well...life goes on.