The difference between us and them

“I’m not the techie, you are”

We’ve all heard things like that.  Usually they are in the form of an excuse for a user that can’t figure out how to do something, find a setting, format something they way they want. We’re the IT guys so we’re automatically supposed to know the answer. The answer magically exists in a deep corner of our brain, just waiting to be summoned to the front for action.

Yes it’s true; we often do know the answers.  We don’t always, but doing what we do means we will come across all sorts of issues along our travels. Usually we come to the answer by way of Google, F1 (Help), or a little something I like to call Common Sense.  Now, Common Sense can’t be implied. We can’t assume someone will be able to dig deep into their being and work out the answer with deductive reasoning, however often we expect others to do it as we do.

So that leaves us with a few options: Google for the answers, search Help for the answers, or ask someone else for the answers.

Yes, sometimes it is pure laziness on the end users’ part that forces them to ask someone else instead of fixing their problems on their own. Usually we techies assume it is either laziness or lack of intelligence. End users are people too, so we can’t expect them all to be rocket scientists, but we also can’t expect them to all be lacking any sort of intelligence.  Many of my customers are in fact extremely intelligent.

So whats the difference between them and us? It dawned on me this morning as I was supporting a user that is neither lazy nor ignorant – We expect to be able to find the solution while they expect the solution to find them.

“No shit sherlock!”

That’s what you probably just said. Well maybe the problem is that we continue to make users think they are always lazy or always ignorant. We might get better results if we show them that solutions don’t usually just present themselves; show them how to F1 and Google for answers.

We should take all the blame here.  We are afterall bigger, faster and stronger than end users