Discussion on:

Seeing the Help Desk from the other side

I found your question and experience interesting, but I don't think any of the questions in the quiz really work well. For me, I fall somewhere between "it's not my job" and "you should help when appropriate". There's nothing wrong with being nice occasionally and pointing out a simple fix to a problem. I don't see that as being out of place or inappropriate and something small like that can really help someone to have a much better day.

Now, on the other hand, it might have been inappropriate to try and do some serious debugging or suggest how they could restructure their IT infrastructure or something like that...

Something like that where it was more of a training issue I would probably have made the suggestion. On the other hand, if it had been a problem which involved actually sitting at the keyboard of someone else's system and having any kind of access to that system then for both their sake and your's you are better off staying out of it - accessing someone else's system without the right permissions has all sorts of implications for both parties. I'm usually happy to make a quick suggestion as to what they could try but I would be very reluctant to do much more than that.

I would agree with that.

I believe if you are helping your family and friends then it is ok. We can help people working in organization (such as chemist shop, medical centre, flight centre and many more) as well but the consequences can be worst if they implement your suggestions in wrong way. Most probably they will held you responsible for the cause. It's different case that you won't get hurt at any cost as you just suggested the steps and its upto the user to adopt those suggestions.

Moreover, I believe it is not ethical to help people outside your organization (excluding family and friends).

Like you say OurITlady, pointing out that caps lock is on is no biggy, debugging their applications would be way in-appropriate.
Then again caps lock may be required to be on, you don't know. Won't you look like a newbie when they say (rolling their eyes) "Yes! I know, it's meant to be like that. Boy! Some people..." then you are the fool, no?

If it was something very simple and I felt like my trivial suggestion would be enough to help them out, I'd give them that. Using your example, I simply would've suggested the caps lock key and been done with it. Granted, at that point, they may tell me to go lay my sick arse back in bed because they didn't know I'm an IT guy, but that'd be their loss.

But no way am I sitting down and debugging or troubleshooting their issue, I'm not being paid! lol.

It's funny though, because I find myself in this same position more often than I'd think I would. I find myself having to hold my tongue so I don't get distracted from my own daily errands on my days off. Plus, no one likes a know-it-all, right?

...a way round that problem, I carry business cards with me and hand them to those I see in need. If they still need the help they can call me up and I'll book a time to go round and help out.

That way I hang on to my days off and I get paid!

To protect the confidentiality and personal information of their patients the staff should polity refuse any offer for assistance. In many cases they would also be required to notify security of your attempt to possibly have access to their system. Any breech of security policies and/or procedures could in fact cost them their jobs.

If you were walking up to your auto in a parking lot and noticed the person parked next to you had a pair of battery jumper cables in their hands would you ignore them? No, but I would be the one who connected them to my power source.
Touch someone else's equipment? If it were their personal property. Only if asked to do so.
If it was not their personal property, absolutely not. It could be maintained by some fourteen year-old guru who is in their opinion God's gift ti technology and they invented the personal property just last week and knows everything that will ever be known about it.

Offer advice? Depending on the actions of the person who is having the problem. If they acted as if they would appreciate the help, yes, I would ask the general "Have you tried this?" questions I used to ask when tech support was my job responsibility.
Otherwise, I would smile and walk away. Working with computers is like life some people learn, some don't, and it is very hard , as a bystander, to tell one from the other.

I was in the ER one night, waiting for the ambulance that was bringing in my father. The nurses were complaining about the interference on the emergency radio they used to speak with the emergency teams - which was buzzing and breaking up quite badly - in sync with the Windows "Beziers" screensaver running on a workstation next to the radio. They flatly refused to believe me when I told them what the problem was. They wouldn't even move the mouse to shut down the screensaver.

Sitting in the daily commute train telling your partner how sick you feel... Have you ever experienced that somebody walks up says couldnt help overhearing but I'm a doctor and I recommend bla?
Or you're talking about some legal issue and somebody turns around and says couldnt help overhearing but I'm a lawyer and I would advice you to bla?
Well, Ive never experienced this,but I can imagine the most I would get is a business card!
What is it with us IT guys that makes us give out our knowledge/experience for free?

that some of us have an overwhelming urge to be helpful when we can. We know and understand computers to a degree that often amazes other people. We also understand just how frustrating, confusing and frightening malfunctioning hardware and software can be to the average user. So we feel an urge to offer to help.

And what's wrong with that? I think that it's an admirable trait in a person and one that's sadly lacking. A touch of kindness, sympathy or assistance can do a lot to make someone else's day just a little better.

But that's just my opinion, and it's one that doesn't seem to be much in vogue anymore. Instead of helping, everyone's petrified that if they try to help they'll get sued, robbed, mugged or worse.

Edit: so speaks someone who, at present, can't even get a tier 1 help desk job... So take my opinion for what it's worth.

No, I never offer help in a work enviornment I don't belong to.

Really are you asking to be sued??

I have seen enough issues with people loosing data and information do to analysts who don't know what their doing.

I'm not implying that you don't know what you're doing but are you nuts? I as an IT Manager would be livid if some tech.analyst from outside of my organization would fiddle with my systems.

And god for bid you happen to change one piece of information in a patients chart on the hospital system while fiddling..

Not worth the scary litigation..

Yes, you need to be careful, and there are limits to what might be acceptable, but I don't see pointing out something like "It looks like you have your caps lock key on. That might be your problem" being an issue. I don't think anyone is _obligated_ to do that, but I think it's OK to be nice in that way if you feel so inclined.

I dont mind offering light assistance, however, there is a limit. I dont want to touch the computer, and likely I will be very vague at possible issues rather than a step by step guide to solve it.

An example, recently I was at a store and the scanner stopped working. The employee was complaining that it happened again, and called out for assistance. He then started complaining that it happens every few hours all week, and that nobody has done anything about it.
He proceeded to keep pressing the reset button on the scanner, and then try to scan again. The light turned on and it beeped, nothing entered into the system though.
I commented to refresh the system/application instead as he kept resetting the device itself to no avail.
He didnt listen, and instead started trying to 'push' the cord in further, and keep resetting the scanner itself.
Since he didnt listen, I didnt push it, and just waited for them to declare the lane closed.
Anyway, he pressed a few keys on the keyboard/register. the system refreshed (looked like a refresh), and all started working again. LOL. He looked at me and said thanks for the advice. Of course, this was several minutes of him stressing out and whining like a b!tch first -- too funny!

since their system might very well require they connect with an all caps login and password you can't say for sure it was the problem.

I would stay away from offering any advice in a case where the data falls under privacy protection laws, specially healthcare where a screw up on keystrokes could become life threatening.
BUT, with my "bed" right by their station, pulling out a laptop and running linux on it they might ask for any suggestions, it's obvious that you have skills with IT they don't then.

If it were something as simple as someone inputting their password with the Caps lock on then yes. But anything more in depth than that is opening yourself up to liability which you are not being compensated for.

As nice as it is to help someone in need of help, and the caps lock key is a harmless button to push, you are taking a risk. Say the nurse gets into her PC with your help, then some random error occurs. "Well Chief IT guy... see that guy over there with the shoulder problem..."...
Or, you will be looked at as the unnofficial computer guy and have to help with other problems, while you are trying to recover

In any vocation we are obligated to help. That is what we all are here for.

Problem is, choosing that, means that you're all about the praise as opposed to wanting genuinely to help. It's easy to come along and fix a problem involving the caps lock key being on, and then look like the hero for fifteen or so minutes..

I try to help no matter what the problem, but obviously if it is over my head I'll admit it to them, even if it does make me look a bit pants =(

I woudl steer clear if they had support already even if it is contracted out.

As an IT Managaer I know how I would feel if some stranger was messing around with settings no matter how well meaning they were.

I think I know what your game was!