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I am working in a IT company and my system's specifications don't meet my workload and cpu requirements. While I am working, the system becomes very slow making me both less efficient and very frustrated. For these reasons I think I should escalate this to my TL and concerned department.

  1. What is the proper way to tell them what my problem is?
  2. What should be the matter in mail so that my request should get approved?
Ian Holstead
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eatSleepCode
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4 Answers4

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A proper way to tell them whats my problem?

You should tell your Team Lead that your system is too slow, and is impacting your productivity and efficiency. Explain with as many specifics as you can. Make sure you have first done everything you personally can do to speed up your system yourself (defragment, change settings, remove unneeded applications, etc - whatever applies to your system).

If your company cares about productivity, and if the budget permits, this should help get you what you need. Remember that sometimes the budget or timing doesn't allow for an update. If that's the case, wait a few months and ask again.

Leave out the part about your personal frustration. That's something you need to work on individually. Work will never be as smooth as we would like - learn not to let that frustrate you.

Joe Strazzere
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    One should also be prepared to accept that, even if the tools do not meet the requirements of the job, to accept that the reality of the world proper tools ( outside of safety equipment ) might not be possible. A slow computer does not place your life in danager it just makes it a pain. – Donald Jul 21 '14 at 12:00
  • @Ramhound +1. Equipment is expensive, licencing is expensive. Depending on the nature of your company and what they do 'dealing with it' might be what comes of it. – Bmo Jul 21 '14 at 12:39
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    @Ramhound depending on the salary ranges in your country, most IT professionals make about 30x to 50x what a new computer costs. This could potentially be part of the argument. The fastest most tricked out laptop is only about $3k US. In the US anyway IT programmers will make a minimum of $60k and often make more than $100k. Yet management continue to handicap this highly paid professionals by not providing the needed tools. They are seen as whiners. – Bill Leeper Jul 21 '14 at 13:54
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    Echoing @BillLeeper. While equipment may seem expensive, it's quite cheap compared to the cost of your developer's time. If slow equipment costs 1 hour of lost productivity per week and your developer costs $100/hour, that's $5000/year you're wasting on that developer twiddling his thumbs. A $2000 computer upgrade that will last that developer 2 years suddenly is very cost-effective - your net savings is $8000 over those 2 years. – alroc Jul 21 '14 at 14:05
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    @BillLeeper - A budget is a budget. Accounting rules can be tricky. In some cases it would be illegal to use OPM money on hardware because of the color of the money. If the project has no money for new hardware then new hardware cannot be purchased. Personal is often paid for by the total revenue stream. You might see this as an excuse but these are also valid reasons new hardware cannot be purchased. Hardware being cheap compared to a developer isn't the point, the reality of the world can go against what seems to make sense, because the reality of the world isn't pretty. – Donald Jul 21 '14 at 14:17
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    @Alroc, what you are not understanding is that the money budgeted for equipment is not in the same pot as that for salries, so this argument makes no sense to the accounting people who have to approve spending the money. They don't actually care of you take longer to do some things. What they care about is that new computers are not in the budget or only a few are. If they approve one for you, then 100 other people may ask, so they have to be able to justify why you and not them. – HLGEM Jul 21 '14 at 21:04
  • @alroc don't forget that 1 hour of lost productivity per week doesn't cost anything if the developer is expected to make it up in unpaid overtime... – Carson63000 Jul 23 '14 at 07:36
  • Your personal frustration is important to your productivity and contributes to your probability of turnover. The company SHOULD be made aware of this, not hidden from it... – Douglas Gaskell Mar 26 '21 at 19:41
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First - start with bullet proofing the case that it is a problem. I don't mean to sound cynical, but the number of times that employees have brought me this situation while using a company specified machine that is rarely a problem is about 50%. Make sure that any extraneous software is not automatically provided and not needed to do work is removed. That includes IMs to the outside world and close windows hosting anything streaming. Also be sure that this is generally a problem with anyone having a machine of your type, and/or that your machine is of an incredibly ancient variety.

If you've done all that, fantastic, sorry to be a pain and ask...

A proper way to tell them whats my problem?

1 - Know the comparison. If you are doing a job done by others, know the specs of their equipment and have a case for why yours is worse. "My machine is the 2009 model, and everyone else in the office was issued a new machine in 2011", or "I have half as much RAM as everyone else in the office". This is a much harder case to make if you have the nicest, newest equipment in the building than if you got the horrible leftovers.

2 - Know what your tools require - particularly if you are the special guy with the special tools - then know why your tools require more. "I'm using the XYZ tool, it requires X RAM, Y hard drive and a CPU of Z, and recommends XX, YY and ZZ -- I have less than X, Y, and/or Z which isn't supported by the vendor"

3 - Know the true impact and describe it with meaningful specifics. For example

  • The slowdown due to poor equipment occurs every time I start the XYZ tool. Starting the tool takes N minutes, and I must start the tool every morning/after lunch/every 30 minutes, etc

  • I can't use X tool and Y tool at the same time. Starting and stopping the tools causes slowdowns when doing task A which requires at least 10 cases of switching back and forth. What should take 30 minutes then takes 2 hours, and I do this task every day...

  • The system runs so slowly that a rebuild that would take 5 minutes on my coworker's machine takes 30 minutes on mine. Our coding environment is one where we rebuild multiple times an hour. While the code rebuilds my screen freezes making it impossible to review or research anything else while I'm waiting.

Don't go lower than this, but give the math that allows your manager to add it up and say "wow! This guy would be able to do twice as much if we gave him decent equipment".

what should be the matter in mail so that my request should get approved?

There is no final answer on this part.

Your company will address your needs if they are both defined clearly enough that your manager or other budget decision maker will agree that it's a problem and if your company has the money to do this while being moderately fair. I point out "moderately fair" because if you are working on the same horrible machine as most of your office in a company that is strapped for cash, they may well not be in a position to approve upgrades. Particularly when they can't upgrade one horrible box if they are all horrible.

bethlakshmi
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My brother the automobile mechanic owns his own tools. IT people can do that too.

If the upgrade you need is not expensive, you could just buy it with your own funds. For example, RAM upgrades can be very cost-effective.

That is a good first step to making the business case for upgrading everyone.

You can write something like this:

Dear Team Leader: For US$38 I added blah-blah to my system.

Before I added it, the zingotron task I do eight times per day took twenty minutes to complete.

After I added it, zingotron took four minutes, a saving of 16 minutes each time, or a total of just over two hours a day.

My rate of pay is $40 per hour, so this tiny investment I have made to improve my productivity has paid for itself in less than one day.

May I suggest that the company purchase the blah-blah upgrade for my colleagues as well?

This makes the case pretty substantially. It has worked for me in two separate companies.

If they say, "hey, you're not allowed to upgrade company-owned equipment!" then you can channel Admiral Grace Hopper and say, "sorry! I didn't mean to cause trouble. I will remove the upgrade." But your point has been made.

O. Jones
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In some positions, the need for an exceptional computer is obvious so just saying, "I really need a faster computer" should be enough. If your boss isn't receptive to that, make the case in numbers: "For 8 minutes of typical work I watched the clock closely. I was waiting for the computer to catch up for a little over 2 minutes of that time. When you add it all up, this basically means 2 hours of every 8 hour work day that you're paying me for, I'm waiting for this machine. I really feel like I need a faster machine to work to my full potential."

RetiredAssistant
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