Surely understanding your legal obligations are also a basic skill? Understanding how to bank is a basic skill? Understanding your employment terms and conditions is a basic skill?
I mean, most people obey the law, pay taxes, are employed, have a bank account/mortgage etc.? Sometimes you are going to do something - whether that be to tell the bank to pay someone, or you're going to fill in something on your tax return. And you are not 100% sure if you are right, and you're not sure what the consequences are. So you call an expert that is *being paid by the company* to answer these queries. And if the burden of answering these queries is too much, then get management to pay to automate the solution or educate the users. From: James Rankin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, 21 June 2011 10:39 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Stupid user tricks It's fair enough to make that comparison, but a lot of basic IT skills - the ones that sometimes we get called by users about - are probably just as important as reading, writing and maths in the modern world. You wouldn't expect a user to call you with a question about adding up or punctuation, would you? Wannabe British teachers have to pass a test called a QT test these days that, among other things, tests the basic IT skills. It includes word processing, storing and retrieving documents, sending an email, browsing the Internet, etc. I think it is a pretty good idea. On 21 June 2011 15:31, Ken Schaefer <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Have you never called/talked/emailed any other professional anywhere, in your entire life, with a question that the other person thought was basic? Maybe about your taxes (your accountant), your HR/employment status (HR department), your banking details (your bank) etc.? Sometimes people do not wish to take risks that they can not ascertain. So they call the designated expert. Your job is to answer their queries. That is what puts money in your bank account every week/fortnight/month/whatever period you get paid. -----Original Message----- From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] Sent: Tuesday, 21 June 2011 3:13 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Stupid user tricks This morning I got a call as I was getting ready for work. I had "borrowed" a machine from one part of the plant for a couple days and then put it back. The place where I put it had a different sign-on for the AS/400. This morning they called to complain that they were on the wrong screen. I told them to log out and log back in as the correct user. That took care of it. *sigh* Why did they have to call??? Didn't they have enough sense to log on as the correct user before calling??? ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
