In the early days of my IT career, I supported users on a help desk.  But even as I’ve grown into higher level roles in an organization, I often end up helping users who are ‘technology challenged.’  Today I spent more than a half hour on the phone with a remote user who was struggling to compose an email blast.  Finally I tried to get her setup for remote access so I could see her screen, but alas she had trouble getting the remote access software to install.  Finally, I suggested she just send me the content and I placed it into the email myself.

Later, she emailed me to ask what she had done wrong.  I explained to her that the software was a bit ‘quirky,’ and that she shouldn’t take it to heart.  The software really is  tricky to use, especially for those that don’t use it frequently.  Perhaps this is why I often up do user support as some part of my job; users seem to like my patience (although I almost lost it today).  It’s especially challenging when you work for an organization with a high turnover rate, and you have to keep teaching staff the same things over and over…

Interestingly, my organization has been interviewing for a help desk person for months and hasn’t yet been able to find the right fit.  Guess it’s not so easy after all.