http://consensualtechs.wordpress.com/
Do you have a go to tech guy/gal? Maybe it’s a relative or a coworker, or maybe you are in the minority of people that keep a technology expert on retainer, if you are of the latter group I personally wish to thank you. I have been professionally working on computers for near two decades now, my first job was employed by the government when I was still in High School as part of a Cooperative Office Education Program. I never liked a single area of computers enough to allow myself to be restricted by any one field, though I started my tech life doing hardware in the past decade have had a shift towards software. I have been employed to do everything from PC Repair, networking, programming, marketing, consulting, etc….please note the emphasis on employed.
Not everybody knows computers, sure they are familiar with their individual devices and are aware of exactly what they want them to accomplish, but they do not know anything about how they work. If you are going to ask me to take time out of my schedule to help you, and yes fixing your computer issue helps you and not me, then you need to understand that I am offering you a service that you yourself are not capable of. If your question is a simple one to answer, “How can I improve my wireless signal?” then I will most likely give you an answer and be on my way. It’s when some people now feel that I am there as their personal computer professional and I now somehow owe them something, that I take issue.
I had one acquaintance in particular a few years back, for the sake of this post we shall call him Nate. Nate found out that I knew about computers and asked me a simple question, as I stated before, I answered and moved on. No more than a week later Nate calls saying he bricked his computer and needs to get the stuff off of his IPhone, my mistake is that I did not broach the subject of payment right then and there. I am not an Apple device user so this may no longer be the case, but at that time to get his music from his IPhone to a new storage device I had to download 3rd party software and could only transfer a certain amount of files at a time, this took at least an hour and when I finished he went on about his way. He would call or text with any question under the sun and I just got to the point that I would not respond, finally I told him that I usually get paid for this kind of stuff and he didn’t seem to grasp what I was implying. Later on Nate cracked his laptop screen and I flat out told him what I charged for this, he agreed yet when he showed up with his laptop he told me he didn’t have all of the money. Nate’s laptop sat and collected dust for months as he still didn’t have the money to pay me, nor had he paid me for any of the questions he would call me with at all hours of the night. After almost a year of his laptop sitting in a corner, and him posting on social media all of the nights he was at clubs and the new toys he had bought, yet didn’t have the money to pay me, he found some other sucker to do it for him, I never heard from him again after that.
I wish that last paragraph was the exception here but it is not, I see it all of the time. Even at my current main employer, which has nothing to do with technology, I am almost expected to jump and help with any sort of technology related issue, yet I am apparently the bad guy when I tell them what said job would charge. Respect your technology friends, if you offer to pay that person they will possibly even refuse to take the money, it’s more the respect that you offered. If you are a person that is in need of a computer expert for a wide array of issues, then offer to pay one and keep them on retainer. Keeping an expert on retainer means no matter what the issue is and no matter what the time of day is, if you need them they will be there.
Do you have a go to tech guy/gal? Maybe it’s a relative or a coworker, or maybe you are in the minority of people that keep a technology expert on retainer, if you are of the latter group I personally wish to thank you. I have been professionally working on computers for near two decades now, my first job was employed by the government when I was still in High School as part of a Cooperative Office Education Program. I never liked a single area of computers enough to allow myself to be restricted by any one field, though I started my tech life doing hardware in the past decade have had a shift towards software. I have been employed to do everything from PC Repair, networking, programming, marketing, consulting, etc….please note the emphasis on employed.
Not everybody knows computers, sure they are familiar with their individual devices and are aware of exactly what they want them to accomplish, but they do not know anything about how they work. If you are going to ask me to take time out of my schedule to help you, and yes fixing your computer issue helps you and not me, then you need to understand that I am offering you a service that you yourself are not capable of. If your question is a simple one to answer, “How can I improve my wireless signal?” then I will most likely give you an answer and be on my way. It’s when some people now feel that I am there as their personal computer professional and I now somehow owe them something, that I take issue.
I had one acquaintance in particular a few years back, for the sake of this post we shall call him Nate. Nate found out that I knew about computers and asked me a simple question, as I stated before, I answered and moved on. No more than a week later Nate calls saying he bricked his computer and needs to get the stuff off of his IPhone, my mistake is that I did not broach the subject of payment right then and there. I am not an Apple device user so this may no longer be the case, but at that time to get his music from his IPhone to a new storage device I had to download 3rd party software and could only transfer a certain amount of files at a time, this took at least an hour and when I finished he went on about his way. He would call or text with any question under the sun and I just got to the point that I would not respond, finally I told him that I usually get paid for this kind of stuff and he didn’t seem to grasp what I was implying. Later on Nate cracked his laptop screen and I flat out told him what I charged for this, he agreed yet when he showed up with his laptop he told me he didn’t have all of the money. Nate’s laptop sat and collected dust for months as he still didn’t have the money to pay me, nor had he paid me for any of the questions he would call me with at all hours of the night. After almost a year of his laptop sitting in a corner, and him posting on social media all of the nights he was at clubs and the new toys he had bought, yet didn’t have the money to pay me, he found some other sucker to do it for him, I never heard from him again after that.
I wish that last paragraph was the exception here but it is not, I see it all of the time. Even at my current main employer, which has nothing to do with technology, I am almost expected to jump and help with any sort of technology related issue, yet I am apparently the bad guy when I tell them what said job would charge. Respect your technology friends, if you offer to pay that person they will possibly even refuse to take the money, it’s more the respect that you offered. If you are a person that is in need of a computer expert for a wide array of issues, then offer to pay one and keep them on retainer. Keeping an expert on retainer means no matter what the issue is and no matter what the time of day is, if you need them they will be there.
No comments:
Post a Comment