Don't Bother Me | IT in AV

This could had been an email… that could had been a text….

I know that this month’s theme is software-based AV and that should be right up my alley. With that said I am going to take this time to write about a growing trend I have been seeing.  

I have been seeing a lot of chatter about setting things up so that we are not contacted. I find this odd as we work in a field where we interact with our users frequently one way or another. Don’t get me wrong I have tried to set things up to limit the number of support calls as well. I always say ‘I try to design my systems in a way that anyone coming in should be able to use it with little to no training.’ I don’t do this to try and prevent someone from reaching out to me but to make their experience seamless. For example, when we get a new TV I don’t believe many folks need to contact support to be shown how to use the basic functions of the remote. 

With that said I hear people say or even post online saying ‘this meeting could have been an email..that could have been a text’. When I see this it bothers me as it comes across as ‘don’t bother me.' The issue with that is we are social people, in a way, and when we become standoffish like this we isolate ourselves. What kind of message are we sending to our team or even worse, our end users if the message comes across as ‘don’t bother me'?  We are always saying we would like to have all the important details as soon as we can but are sending mixed messages of ‘don’t bother me’. Would you want to share details with someone who gives off the vibe of ‘I don’t want to be bothered'?

I feel this message comes from a history of poorly ran meetings. When meetings are not done properly then they become a waste of time for everyone. This does not mean we do not need meetings but we need better run meetings. We don’t just send this message when dealing with members outside of our team but also internal to our team. We create documents and try to dumb everything down to a point where we can send our techs out in hopes they do not contact us. This causes issues as not only does it come across that you do not want to deal with them but you are not allowing them to grow as techs. If the message you are sending is ‘don’t bother me, it is in the document’ you are creating an environment where they will not feel comfortable coming to you when they really need to. This also leads to frustration on our part as we come across an issue that our tech didn’t understand the document and they did not feel comfortable contacting us as we give off the message of ‘don’t bother me’. Besides the 'don’t bother me' message, this also prevents your tech from building their toolbox as we do not allow them to learn.  It’s like the saying ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.

You might be reading this wondering what does this have to do with AV or even IT? This growing trend also comes with a growing trend of deploying technology for situations that do not always warrant technology. I have read situations where CCTV cameras were used to monitor time clocks so they could make sure employees are clocking in, correctly. I have also read about offices outfitted with a full control system just to have a button that turns on a display. I have even heard of people wondering if displays in their office could be hooked up to a live feed of the outside to give them the feeling of having a window.  I am someone who enjoys his tech but not every situation calls for a technology solution. 

I end this month’s article with this. We need to learn to be people. Yes, we work with technology but we should not replace human interactions with technology. Also, our mindset trickles down to our team and our end users. If we have the mindset of ‘this is a waste of time’ or ‘don’t bother me’ then the people we interact with will have the same negative attitude.