On Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:40:38 +0100 <leo_...@volny.cz> wrote: > bytevolc...@safe-mail.net wrote: > > Perhaps it isn't just word/excel, but rather, getting used to the > > operating system changes and its antics. It appears you have changed > > their OS and their software, and this has upset them. No training > > was provided explaining to them the nooks and crannies of the new > > software, so they are frustrated as they are forced to satisfy > > someone elses' nerdgasm. > > How is office politics necessarily equivalent to a 'nerdgasm'?
Think about this. You change the toolset they've been used to for years, with something radically different. Whether or not you like it, OpenOffice/Libreoffice/OpenBSD/Linux is radically different from a MS Office/Windows setup. Now instead of coming to work and just doing the job they were assigned to, they now have to learn new bits of software, and you "don't understand the problem." > Either way, aren't most 'desktop environments', and libreoffice, > 'sold' on the premise that it's so easy to convert from M$ poop? > Given the situation he described it was more like windoze nt 5.2. I > could be wrong on that, though. Doesn't matter. It appears he just forced his users to use radically different software to do the same task, without understanding what they face, or justifying his reason for the change to the users. > Yeah, but like in most other abusive relationships, those people find > it very hard to leave M$, whatever they do. > > And will still eye a potential replacement partner with a lot of > scepticism (not quite unjustified). It won't help the case if you come across as unsympathetic/unwilling to understand your users, and it won't help if you don't try to work with them to resolve the issues. This is the key to solving the "like" factor, as Rupert calls it. The users rightfully want a justification for the change, and they won't understand "oh this software is open source, so we're not locked in to proprietary closed Microsoft software." They won't care either, they just want to do the job and go home. I don't do this kind of thing anymore, but whenever I had to change the system around, some retraining was in order and I would provide the user with a comparison on how they did something in the old system vs how they do it in the new system.
