2008/11/10 Edward Ned Harvey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: >> ... And this is where I'm hitting a problem; wise-assed >> users and a problem with lots of personal files being stored on >> company laptops... <...> >> Anyone here have any advice to offer on good ways to get the ball >> rolling without causing a riot amongst my users? > > > This is actually very easy - First let me say that if you do as you're > thinking - tell them what they're not allowed to do and actively delete stuff > - you're going to piss them off and make enemies.
Absolutely agreed; though it's what I'd dearly love to do as my poor desktop staff are suffering and we're potentially exposed to all sorts of licensing/copyright problems and viruses etc, I wouldn't just dictate out of the blue like that. > Don't create a policy of what people aren't allowed to do on their computers. > They'll think you're fascist if you do. Instead, create a policy of what > the IT responsibilities are to help. And then highlight some of the points > of interest, things that people might anticipate, but will not get. Personal > photos, movies, music in particular. Notify them that these will be excluded > from your backups, and you won't dedicate your resources to working on them. > Notify them that if their computer is replaced for any reason (or they > transition from one computer to another) you will only make the new computer > functional for business purposes and the rest is the user's responsibility. > If there is a scarcity of resources, the user might not be allowed to have > both computers for an overlapping period of time. It is the user's > responsibility to backup all personal items to external media. Yes. That was what eluding me - a gentler way to say "no", without being dictatorial. Thanks. > While you're at it, I think you better create all the news at once. Users > are not allowed to use illegal or unlicensed software... Policy already exists that goes on about illegal software, porn etc. but it'd definitely be a good time to remind people of that. > And a last point - This is probably the most important one but the most > difficult to communicate in an email - Don't allow yourself to get upset, no > matter what a user does, ever. Having had the same user get his laptop stolen from a pub on one day and then the replacement riddled with viruses the next... your point is a good one. I did go through a short period of internal seething when it happened, but it did me a world of good as a point of perspective for subseqent incidents :o) > One of the many ingredients of good leadership is the ability to remain calm > and productive in the face of even the worst obstacles. If you find yourself > getting emotionally involved at any point... It's not the "people are deliberately being horrible" emotional response, more the many many instances of "people don't think and don't care enough about the company", and that's just life so I just have to get over it every time it happens. Thanks for the pointers. -- http://www.totkat.org/ _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list Tech@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
