antanova

Show some respect

One of the attitudes I run into on my rounds of agencies and what not is the idea that the end client is somehow a pus-drinking parasite, or a worthless waste of skin. It's not the top brass that has this attitude, but is more likely to be the technical people. Forgive me if you're a 'technical person' - perhaps a programmer of some persuasion, or a system administrator or anything really - I don't mean you all. I've just come across this attitude from time to time, and I think it's objectionable.

I find it disagreeable on many levels. Firstly, to have that much contempt for another person who's only crime is to (brace yourselves if you're the sensitive type) ask you to do something shows a kind of mean-spiritedness that points to deep insecurity. Nextly, the whole point of having something you do as a profession is that you can do something that others cannot, whether it be attaching new brakes to a car, or writing SQL to pull some records out of a database. The reason you're in the job is to get paid for knowledge you have that the client doesn't. That the client is ignorant in your field of expertise is obvious. If he or she weren't, you'd be unnecessary. So have a bit of respect. They pay your wages, and you don't know everything there is to know.

Jason posted this on Sunday, December 02, 2007 at 7:30 pm. Leave comment.