Five things we all hate about IT at work

For those of us who still work in an office regularly, you cannot underestimate the absolute necessity of reliable IT infrastructure to make sure business operations aren't interrupted.

However, despite such importance, the IT department, and especially the IT deskside support team, are rarely, if ever, at the top of the priority list for senior executives.

In fact, the reality is quite the opposite. Many employees and more than a few managers regard this essential business support service as "annoying", "slow", and "only heard of when something is going wrong".

This is not because of any personal issues that employees might have with the IT team - it is simply that they only interact with this part of the business when they are having a problem. Quite often, frustration rises when things aren't fixed instantly - when the simple reality of the situation means they can't be.

Dont hate the IT team, hate the substandard tech they have at their disposal
When it comes to business IT and deskside support services, many issues reappear time and again, causing employees to get frustrated with their IT and/or the people responsible for maintaining it.

So lets take a closer look at some of the most hated aspects of IT and deskside support in the modern office environment.

Hate Number 1: "The deskside support is helpless"
You might be the king of your day-to-day job, but nothing makes you turn into a pauper quicker than when your IT system crashes or your device stops working (which always happens at the worst time).

When this happens, you look to the IT deskside support team as your knights in shining armour riding in to save the day. Yet when they arrive, you discover that they will have to take over your device and "have a play around" to figure out the problem.

This can take a long time, and time is a precious commodity. Sitting around watching IT support perform tests on your device frustrates workers and gives the impression that the IT team doesn't know what they're doing. The reality is many of these problems require these "exploratory" tests to be carried out to identify the problem before it can be fixed.

You wouldn't be frustrated with a Doctor performing tests to identify why you're feeling under the weather.

Hate Number 2: "IT projects never seem to end!"
IT infrastructure is under constant monitoring, revision and improvement. Patches and updates are necessary in order to keep the business secure.

Add to this the unplanned IT issues - failure, lost, damaged items - and you should begin to understand why IT deskside support can sometimes take time to resolve. Even worse is what most of us have experienced at some point - twiddling our thumbs and watching our device under the control of the remote IT support team when you need to be working on that report, proposal or other important document/ project. This wasted time leads to lost productivity in the workplace and reduced employee morale.

Hate Number 3: "The dreaded New starter onboarding - day one with no IT equipment"
Anyone who has gone to work in an office as a new starter in the last decade will understand the frustration of the "new employee IT onboarding process".

Even though you've had months of interviews and your agreed start date is not a mystery or unexpected, imagine the frustration when you walk through the door for your first day feeling confident but nervous, and your computer is not fully set up for use.

Instead, you end up sitting around watching your new colleagues get stuck into the work they want to be doing while you're waiting for your computer to be fully configured. Praise Be for that "team lunch" will help break up the monotony of the first day.

The configuration of IT assets should be completed before the first day. It should be sat waiting for them from day one.

Hate Number 4: "Hardware refresh cycles"
Getting a new, improved, more up-to-date device should be a day of joy for workers as you say goodbye to your slow, unreliable equipment that looks like it has just arrived from the late noughties.

One client I worked for actually embraced the embarrassment of how old its IT equipment was by naming its most ancient range of hand-me-down laptops as "Heritage Laptops"! I did think that what would come next would be a UNESCO "World Heritage" badge stating the equipment was now considered "IT equipment of significant historic value".

This process of switching from an old to a more modern device is not just simply handing over a laptop for a new one. The new device still has to be configured and cloned to your settings and then tested to make sure everything is running smoothly - which can lead to new problems.

For the business, these processes are a short-term pain for the long-term gain. However, for employees, it can be seen as a dull, unnecessary experience that some will actively avoid, preferring to stay on older, slower, less secure devices. What does this say about the confidence in the IT department?

A new, user-friendly system is needed to make this process smoother and simpler for employees to be a part of, and it needs to be much more convenient than it currently is.

Hate Number 5: "Where is my order?"
It used to be that work IT and deskside support was far better than what we had at home. Some of us might even be old enough to remember a relative or parent proudly coming home with a wonder of technology which they had "borrowed from work". Much to the amazement of the family.

Nowadays, this has completely changed. Each of us carries a super-computer in our pocket and uses seamless "omnichannel" services provided by retailers. Whether this is from tech giants like Amazon or Apple to luxury brands like Burberry or even high street names like Argos. With each of them, whenever you place an order, you are presented with a wealth of information about where your item can be collected when it will arrive, and whether you want to delay arrival - right down to the name of your delivery driver.

Take this experience back to the workplace, and you are met with the "black hole of IT". Every time you order IT equipment, it disappears into the ether. You might get a confirmation notice, but how often do you receive an update on how the order is progressing or how you will eventually collect your item? Do you know the name of the person in your IT support team working on this order?

The answer to all these problems = Automation
One thing each of the above issues has in common is that, at some point, they rely on a human touchpoint in the process to get anything done.

Whether this is calling a member of the IT support desk, waiting for IT support to make an office visit, or waiting for engineers to finish configuring your machine before you get it back, much of the problem-solving within business IT is done in front of the employees.

This no longer needs to be the case! Automation, paired with the use of consumer systems like Smart Lockers, can remove many of the pain points within IT projects. The impact is quickly realised as the IT team has time back to get on with important business-changing projects, and employees have the ability to self-serve/ self-solve their own IT issues.

Hassle-free, headache-free IT Support
IT infrastructure will always be a key component of any modern office or business environment, which inevitably means that IT support will always remain a part of employees' lives.

Much has been made about AI and automation removing the need for human interaction within the workplace, but rather than replacing IT support staff outright, automation using Smart Lockers just removes the mundane, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks.

The wider workforce now benefits because their IT problems get fixed much quicker, in fact, our research has shown that Smart Locker requests are up to 95% faster than traditional deskside support teams; the dreaded 3-day average wait time is now down to mere minutes.

Moreover, it also removes the headaches of sitting around for hours at a time while an issue is resolved. It also plays heavily into the reputation of employers if they can automate a lot of repetitive processes, presenting a business in which ongoing, recurring IT issues are a thing of the past.