Tech Support is Now a Holiday Tradition
It felt great to go home for Thanksgiving last week and visit with my family and friends. I don’t make it back that often so when I’m there I try to make sure I stay long enough to enjoy it.
As my friends and I caught up over a few beers on Friday night, we got on the topic of friends and family tech support. Three of the four of us now assume and plan time for fixing, cleaning up, and updating home computers for those close to us when we visit. Heck, I’ve even got my brother’s in-laws calling me now. We all average about 2-4 hours a trip and usually 1-2 phone calls per month. On this trip, one of my buddies was also pulled into creating a new network for the small town high school that his sister teaches at. That was a seven hour job.
Some of the “issues” are painful (i.e. re-image), some are funny, and most are due to lack of understanding. Some cause my father to curse like the dad on “A Christmas Story” when the furnace goes out. The biggest thing you can do to minimize support time is educate the user (in this case, my parents) as much as possible. That said, most people don’t want to learn about the “technical stuff”, they just want it to work. Personally speaking, my father refuses to acknowledge that the “Help” button exists on any software or website and that’s something I’m never going to be able to change. So be it.
As time goes on, my support hours seem to be decreasing but I don’t think it will ever totally stop. No matter what, it’s family and it’s now a standard holiday tradition. Just like turkey on Thanksgiving, grilling on the 4th of July, or watching “A Christmas Story” in December, tech support will be a part of my holiday visits.
