Much as the title of this article suggests, computers can suffer varying degrees of damage at the hands of those who use them. Employees do not always damage their computers because they are angry; in fact, those who enjoy their jobs the most are often the biggest culprits of computer abuse. It is important to encourage all employees to take care of their machines and report damages as soon as possible. A few descriptive examples of employees avoiding taking the time to repair their computer are as follows (and yes, they are based on true damage accounts acquired from the professional IT field):
- The keyboard on the employee’s laptop keyboard is partially severed from the screen, with popsicle sticks and scotch tape, the employee created a tripod to keep the screen from falling over. The employee does not want to replace the laptop because “it would take too long to learn the new buttons and all of my stuff is on here anyway.”
- Actual tread marks are ingrained on the side of the computer case from where an executive, in a hurry, loaded her things into the car, forgot about the laptop and bag, and backed over everything.
- A high powered desktop computer appears to be moonlighting as a flowerpot, as dirt is both on top of the case and inside. There is ivy from the plant in the window attempting to infiltrate the CD/DVD drive, which is open and will not shut. The employee continues to ignore the strange sounds coming out of the fan unit.
- After dropping his laptop down a flight of steps, a father allows his daughter to tape up the outside of the computer with Hello Kitty, the Little Mermaid, and Cinderella Band-Aids and stickers. After being well received in the office, he keeps the computer in that popular state until the hard drive fails; losing a major project he was working on.
In all of the cases above, the machines were kept limping along because the employees did not want to fix them, couldn’t be bothered to use a spare, or did not have active warranties on the machines and did not want to report the damage to their employer. It should also be noted that while definitely trendy, Hello Kitty Band-Aids are not recommended as adequate repair supplies by your local IT consultant. Most network administrators and IT technicians recommend getting warranties to cover the abuse that company machines will receive while in use. It is HIGHLY recommended that employees should be encouraged to report damage and issues immediately, as physical damage can result in a loss or sudden devastation to a business through loss of data, manpower, or general resources. Warranties are the best insurance that your business will continue to run at peak efficiency for greater amounts of time.
If you are not sure what type of warranty would work for your machines, or if you need help removing a Cinderella sticker so that your computer screen can be fixed, please contact your IT consultant for helpful guidance on this matter. IT professionals can help you save money through preventative maintenance, network assessments, and are very experienced at removing plants, Band-Aids, and stickers from computers.
Article contributed by Nick McCourt, IT Consultant, Tier One Technology Partners
About Tier One Technology Partners: MKS&H’s technology consulting group, Tier One Technology Partners provides your growing organization with IT strategy and effective IT services solutions to keep you one step ahead. Tier One was founded in 2000 in the response to listening to the needs of our clients and the business challenges that they were facing in such a rapidly changing IT environment. Thus, Tier One was developed with the simple goal of being an IT consultant, partner, and support firm.
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