Executive Summary

• IT professionals often go unappreciated for preventing problems
• Non-technical management may not understand the value of proactive IT work
• Breaking and fixing problems can be more visible than preventing them

The Internet’s Verdict: 70% Hyped, 30% Skeptical

The Problem

Many IT professionals can relate to the feeling of being underappreciated for their work in preventing problems.

I began migrating from network/hardware/IT work and into marketing after nearly 2 years of heavy lifting getting ready for Y2K. In the end, ‘nothing happened,’ so all that time and money was wasted, according to nearly every company I worked with.

Causes and Consequences

This lack of appreciation can have serious consequences, including the undervaluing of IT departments and the promotion of individuals who break and fix problems rather than preventing them.

They break something, it escalates and gets visibility, emails sent to executives. Now, they ‘fix’ it, many thank yous from everyone for a job well done.

This can create a culture where IT professionals are not incentivized to prevent problems, but rather to fix them after they occur.

Focus Keyword: IT Support