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By Don Reisinger on 2011-08-22
As a general rule, to thrive as a CIO you have to maintain a degree of patience that goes far beyond that of the average executive. In the course of your daily travels around the office, you'll see employees -- and workers on your own IT team -- engaging in cringe-inducing activities with technology and software. Your job requires you to make judgment calls. If you walk past a colleague who's on a Website that clearly has nothing to do with work, or see someone busily chatting on Facebook and Twitter, chances are you'll just keep on going unless the behavior is truly egregious. But, all of us have our breaking point. Herewith, then, is our list of the top 10 workplace behaviors perpetrated by your colleagues -- from the C-suite to the admin pool -- that are guaranteed to drive even the most tolerant CIO around the bend.
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The Cheap CEO You've carefully crafted a technology purchase proposal and pitched it to your CEO, only to be told that it's not the best. Wait a minute: You know what your employees need to get their work done as efficiently as possible, and the last thing you want to be told is a proposed investment costs too much money when, in fact, you know it would improve productivity.
The Annoying CEO This CEO thinks he/she knows everything there is to know about technology. They’ll start using their computers or mobile devices in ways in which you wouldn’t approve. When they inevitably get fouled up, you'll spend hours fixing the mess.
The Malware-Riddled PC If users would only follow the rules, chances are you'd rarely see one of these. Of course, we all know that's not the case, and fixing a malware-infected PC is a major drain on your time.
The Willfully Ignorant Some employees simply couldn’t care less about the security of your organization’s data. These users believe that it’s your job -- and yours alone -- to keep data secure. They're blissfully unaware of how their own behavior can impact the security of your entire enterprise.
The Policy-Breakers Your use policies are there for one simple reason: to uphold the safety and security of your company’s data. In today’s workplace, employees who disobey use policies are sometimes more trouble than they’re worth.
The Distracted Employee This user abuses technology privileges by using the tools you provide to routinely engage in non-work-related activities, to the point where productivity suffers. Some personal use of company equipment is an accepted practice in most workplaces these days. But the employee who crosses the line to, say, regularly play Angry Birds instead of making a sales call, needs to be dealt with.
I Had a Laptop Lock? Your best road warrior's laptop was just stolen, and you discover that, even though you've provided a physical lock for that laptop, the employee didn't bother using it. To butcher an old adage: You can lead an employee to anti-theft devices, but you can't make him use them.
Whoops, I forgot Because of their size, we're betting that smartphones are the devices your users lose most often. Not only will you need to remotely wipe the device, but you’ll need to hope it didn’t get in the wrong hands before you did so. Depending what was on that phone, and which industry sector you work in, you may end up having to report a data breach or find yourself in violation of certain regulations.
Unresponsive IT Staff Every team has at least one member who doesn't respond to service calls as quickly as they should, or perhaps don’t work with the same level of intensity as the rest of the crew. With IT budgets already constrained, there's little room for workers who don't carry their weight.
Sub-Par Tech Support Strong tech support is one of the most overlooked features in today’s tech industry, yet it’s arguably one of the most important aspects of the post-purchase experience. Let’s face it: each day, something goes wrong with a computer, smartphone, server, application, etc. When tech support falls short, you want to tear your hair out.
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