[Nolug] Are You Noticing Nerd Fatigue?

Are You Noticing Nerd Fatigue?
by Mark Cappel
Posted February 23, 2004
    
    Mark Cappel
Executive Editor
In February, The New York Times published the article "Geeks Put the Unsavvy
on Alert: Learn or Log Off," where the author quoted a series of nerds whose
prowess with PCs and personal affability makes them magnetic to the clueless
who want free technical support.
The event that seemed to prompt this story was the release of MyDoom, which
users spread by opening a contagious e-mail attachment. Nerds were exasperated
with users who ignored warnings to avoid opening attachments from strangers.
As a reader of this magazine, you are probably the go-to geek outside of the
office for friends, neighbors, and family members with computer problems. And,
if you are like me, you have been tempted more than once to expand the
acronym "RTFM" fully when pointing out that by consulting the documentation they
could have resolved the issue on their own.
The article has a ring of truth. It is, however, just a series of quotes from
irritated computer geeks and contains no scientific data to support the
existence of any organized rebellion by nerds, or even so much as a spontaneous
mass sulk. Despite the story's limitations, let's assume its thesis is correct.
If so, you can expect this nerd backlash to have a big impact on your IT staff
and budget.
In most organizations, an IT group takes formal responsibility for supporting
all things digital. If the organization is large enough, an informal support
function emerges at the workgroup level. These informal support people emerge
to help coworkers operate Office, find networked files, configure printers,
and operate homegrown applications.
These quasi-geeks and nerd-wannabes perform a valuable function. Not only do
they pass along corporate information, they act as informal IT first
responders and provide an ersatz Level 1 support for the organization that doesn't
appear on IT's budget.
Although this support isn't a line on any budget, it does decrease that
person's productivity. Individual departments pay for computer support one way or
another. This is one reason why I grit my teeth when I see research firms try
to make the case that their pet operating system offers a cheaper total cost of
ownership. Most studies are precise but not accurate. They fail to
acknowledge the costs of informal support, and even if they do recognize it they make no
estimate of its costs or, conversely, its benefits to the organization. Just
because a service lacks a price tag doesn't mean it's free.
Assuming your unpaid staffers really are sick and tired of helping the
willfully ignorant at your organization, the great unwashed have two options. The
first is inundating your formal IT support staff with the questions that used to
be handled informally. From an IT manager's narrow, shortsighted perspective,
this is not a good thing because the increased support load isn't likely to
be met with a larger budget for the help desk. On the other hand, it's likely
that actual centralization (as opposed to apparent centralization) of help desk
functions would benefit your organization in the long run by exposing actual
support costs. This, in turn, can help you and other IT decision leaders
evaluate Microsoft's claims that spending money to upgrade to the latest server
software results in cost savings by lowering support costs dramatically.
Users have a second option-self-support. They find many choices if they go
down this path. For example, the " … for Dummies" books offer excellent advice
for people who appreciate the tactile experience of flipping pages. Another
option is classroom training, which is available at local community colleges at
very low cost, and from commercial training firms. Perhaps the cheapest
training, in terms of out-of-pocket costs, is to encourage users to seek the support
pages at vendor Web sites. Consider the idea of requiring users to Google
their problem before contacting the help desk.
Are you tiring of providing technical support to your acquaintances? Are you
noticing an increased number of support calls that might be traced to nerd
fatigue? Or, is the only interaction you have with non-nerds the times when you
are providing them free support?
Go to my blog at www.ftponline.com/weblogger/ and let me know if you're
seeing nerd fatigue in your organization.

Chris Johnston Realtor Consultant
Keller Williams Realty455-0100
http://agent.kw.com/chrisjohnston/
Licensed Louisiana Realtor, Each Office Independently Owned and Operated

A consultant is "anyone with a briefcase who is 50 miles away from home." Or,
"someone who borrows your watch, tells you the time and then charges you for
the privilege." The truth? A consultant is a person with gray hair and
hemorrhoids. The gray hair makes you look distinguished. The hemorrhoids make you
look concerned.

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Received on 08/28/04