Dealing with Difficult Users

Deb Shinder

In last week’s column, we discussed the “us against them” attitude
– a trap that many IT pros fall into, which can not only cause them a world of
unnecessary psychic grief but can adversely affect their careers as well.

In last week’s column, we discussed the ‘us against them’ attitude a trap that many IT pros fall into, which can not only cause them a world of unnecessary psychic grief but can adversely affect their careers as well.

A chief source of this feeling that those outside IT are “the
enemy” is the experience all of us have had at one time or another, dealing
with the occasional user who always seems to go out of his/her way to make our
lives more difficult (whether inadvertently or by design). This week we will
look at a few common “problem child” types, and what we can do keep
them from having a negative impact on the operation of the network (and driving
us crazy in the process).

You will need develop different tactics for dealing with each of these types.
Let’s look at some examples.

The first “difficult user” type we’ll discuss will be on page 2.