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I work at the small national branch of a large pharmaceutical company. In my countryk, we do sales, service, marketing, customer service and a bit of R&D. I do the IT stuff for everyone, a good job that pays well with people concious on how important good support is, and they go to great lengths to keep me happy and in the company. 
But there's something special about the R&D people. There's been some turnover in their department while I've been here, but everyone is the same. I know they are well paid, maybe that makes them generous (but many other people seem to become the other way around when they got some cash).
When I started, I got several polite and quiet questions if I could help with private computer problems as well. Realising it could turn into a flood if I mismanaged it, I said, sure, for a small fee and I'll do it in my spare time of course, which most seemed to be OK with. So I inform new employees (we have a program that every new employee spends 15 minutes with every other employee to know them and their duties, helps prevent me-and-them or we-and-them sentiments) when they come to me that I can do such things on the side.
First R&D person I helpded (went home to her and fixed her computer) completely refused to accept my fee and instead paid 50% extra, despite driving me to and from her home and serving me wine and luxury sandwhiches (think expensive fresh bread, good salami and brie cheese) while I was working. Then one day as I get back from lunch I find my office lined with 15-something different beers, all specials. Czech pilsner, Irish stout, German lager, English bitter, local microbrews and so on. All high-end. The computer had worked so well that she wanted to do something extra and she had spoken to the service guys (that I eat lunch with most days) what I liked and went out to the alcohol store on her lunch with their reckomendations. That was a good day.
Then she left and a new R&D employee came in. Her old laptop was increadible slow, so I did the ususal stuff - spyware check, disk cleanup, getting dust out, removing things from the autostart and run in the registry, uninstalling unneeded applications, uninstalling the resource hog Norton AV (that was unupdated anyway) and installing the much better (and free) AVG AV, finally doing my special touch on laptops - cleaning the keyboard and cleaning the entire chassis with alcohol-soaked and then dry anti-statcloth, which gives back a lot of the "new" feeling.
The new R&D lady also refused my rate and paid about 25% more, then came in today with a bottle of wine for me, with nearly endless praise on how much faster and better her old laptop was now.
Sometimes, being the IT guy is GOOD.
But there's something special about the R&D people. There's been some turnover in their department while I've been here, but everyone is the same. I know they are well paid, maybe that makes them generous (but many other people seem to become the other way around when they got some cash).
When I started, I got several polite and quiet questions if I could help with private computer problems as well. Realising it could turn into a flood if I mismanaged it, I said, sure, for a small fee and I'll do it in my spare time of course, which most seemed to be OK with. So I inform new employees (we have a program that every new employee spends 15 minutes with every other employee to know them and their duties, helps prevent me-and-them or we-and-them sentiments) when they come to me that I can do such things on the side.
First R&D person I helpded (went home to her and fixed her computer) completely refused to accept my fee and instead paid 50% extra, despite driving me to and from her home and serving me wine and luxury sandwhiches (think expensive fresh bread, good salami and brie cheese) while I was working. Then one day as I get back from lunch I find my office lined with 15-something different beers, all specials. Czech pilsner, Irish stout, German lager, English bitter, local microbrews and so on. All high-end. The computer had worked so well that she wanted to do something extra and she had spoken to the service guys (that I eat lunch with most days) what I liked and went out to the alcohol store on her lunch with their reckomendations. That was a good day.
Then she left and a new R&D employee came in. Her old laptop was increadible slow, so I did the ususal stuff - spyware check, disk cleanup, getting dust out, removing things from the autostart and run in the registry, uninstalling unneeded applications, uninstalling the resource hog Norton AV (that was unupdated anyway) and installing the much better (and free) AVG AV, finally doing my special touch on laptops - cleaning the keyboard and cleaning the entire chassis with alcohol-soaked and then dry anti-statcloth, which gives back a lot of the "new" feeling.
The new R&D lady also refused my rate and paid about 25% more, then came in today with a bottle of wine for me, with nearly endless praise on how much faster and better her old laptop was now.
Sometimes, being the IT guy is GOOD.