After reading and responding to Jeremiah’s Owyang’s post about how Business and IT need to align in terms of social media, I was reminded of some very current struggles I’m having in the workplace. Since I seem to be the only one with social media and community experience in the office, I’ve not only suggested but set business plans and objectives in motion that are vastly differently from the status quo. Now I’m enemy #1 to the IT group.

IT hates me because:

1. I don’t accept what they tell me as fact to be factual. I also don’t stop when they tell me something can’t be done.
2. I ask a TON of questions. To point #1, I’m never satisfied with “that’s the way we do things here” because I need to know the why behind the statement.
3. I want to change things and that scares them. They don’t want to be given more work, let alone new technologies they have to learn.
4. People like me and respect me. This includes my boss, their boss and (almost) everyone else in between. This respect means that my projects take priority on occasion.

IT shows their hate for me by (no it’s not all in my head):

1. Not responding to my voicemails or emails in a timely manner.
2. Sending almost noticeably condescending email responses to my boss and others not directly involved in the project.
3. Going to my boss behind my back and questioning why I get to attend certain meetings or make certain decisions (thankfully my boss is in my corner and keeps me abreast of these things).
4. Just plain ignoring me.
5. Trying to upstage me in meetings (which isn’t so bad because I’m usually given the opportunity to counter).

A few friends in the community biz have said that I must be doing something right if I have IT frustrated with me. I truly wish this wasn’t the case. Realistically, I know none of this is personal and that each of us have our own motivating factors for making and standing by decisions (on a personal level I actually like the IT guys and a few might like me too). The problem isn’t personal, it’s business, which means I’ll continue to push for what I know to be right and demonstrate success at every point possible.

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