scantis

Hi, I'm sadly somewhat responsible for IT related problems in a small part of our organization. Sometimes the staff calls me out of nowhere to solve some "Computer Problem". Everytime this happens I feel a chill in my bones and imagine serious horrors, since most of them are engineers, Linux freaks and scientists. I thought they operate beyond my abilities. So far I had, inability to change cartridge of a printer, inability to check box for duplex, montior not connected, inability to press a mouse button switching scrolling from flywheel to gear, somebody jamming USB type B into RJ 45 socket, inability to connect to NAS by forgetting use of VPN and using RDP on RDP on RDP and getting confused where the data is.

I should be thankful that I can solve these problems easily, but they don't like it. These people then try to appear smart by talking about something complex. Because I'm in problem solving mode I used to give it my 2 cents. They then quickly use sophisticated words and sometimes throw in abbreviations, which is an obvious sign somebody has no clue and wants to talk you down. When I use descriptive terms and fully speak out the abbreviations, it gets worse. They are quickly annoyed, even though I stopped what I was doing to help them. They need to appear smart, after those embarrassing moments, I get this. I stopped giving my 2 limited cents and just try to acknowledge them somehow, but it is difficult for me to sound sincere. I think it makes it worse. Should one only ask questions and try to flee the scene as fast as possible?

It is the most difficult part of the "Computer Problem" and I honestly suck at it.

I just want to be helpful. How do you manage this? What is a good strategy here?