Expectation Situation

Responding to “You’re IT you should know this” comments?

There really are many users who think anyone in IT should know every single detail about how any and all software applications work down to the finest possible level — even when the user who works in that application 8-10 hours a day can still barely do basic tasks in it.

It’s insane.

One time there was some obscure, little-used accounting software that a company I worked for depended on. More than a few accountants there asked me how to use that software. I’m not an accountant. I have no interest in accounting. And I’d never even heard of the application before working there. Yet I was expected to know how to use this complex accounting software.

I told these people that they should be speaking to their manager, not me, about how to use their job-required software. That didn’t go over well, really. But I was right.