Does it say “techie” on your job description? No. So why is it that whenever someone in your office has a problem or question about their computer, they come to you?
Myriad paths are taken to this role—one for every person out there defragging someone's hard drive when they intended to spend the afternoon reconciling invoices. Maybe your company has limited resources; maybe your boss can't justify the expense. Whether you offered to help or your boss offered for you, how can you manage the techie thing while meeting your own deadlines? What sorts of boundaries should you draw?
Define Clear Parameters
Determine the parameters of your techie sidejob with your supervisor. Make sure that he or she realizes the impact these duties will have on your current job. Agree on the time spent (per week? per month?) and the training you'll give (and perhaps receive). Decide on an outsourcing budget for IT projects that are over your head, and determine whether you yourself will be managing each program.
Assess your skills honestly before accepting a project: If it will take too much time, exceed your deductive skills, or give you too little wiggle room for experimentation, request that a professional take over. Your boss will not be saving money by having you accidentally wipe out the network.
Unless someone has a true emergency, you should not be expected to spring from your chair at every inquiry. As grateful as people are for your assistance, they can also be demanding. Devise a help request system (e-mail works well) so that you can address questions when you have time or arrange a time to demonstrate a process.
Practice Efficient Guru-ing
The key to success is not necessarily knowing all the answers, but rather knowing where to find them. Have the resources at your fingertips: Familiarize yourself with the manuals, compile lists of toll-free help lines, and bookmark online reference sites.
Take the hard road while working on your own projects, exploring the attributes and deficiencies of each application. This keeps you from having to figure things out on the fly, with the person who asked for your help hovering nervously behind your chair.
Help Them Help Themselves
Resist the urge to sit in your co-worker's chair and “take over.” Make them sit in the driver's seat while you guide them through the process. This teaches them that they can learn to troubleshoot, and it combats the impression that you are perpetually available to set things straight.
If you refer to a user manual or online reference site, do so in front of them. Create simple tip sheets, including program websites, to answer frequently asked questions. Print the screen you're working on so they can refer to it later (in Windows use Alt + PrtScn to copy on-screen images to the clipboard; with a Mac use Shift + Command/Apple + 3).
Arrange an official hour or two per week of “tech guru” time, to address issues within work groups, provide one-on-one help, or promote self-teaching. Don't be afraid to ask for additional training as well, either for yourself or for the whole company. And delegate, delegate, delegate—maybe another capable person in the office could lead a training session in a spreadsheet program.
Recognition for Your Efforts
Your colleagues probably have no idea how much time you're spending on tech-related assignments, so keep track of it. Include notes about office-wide deficiencies in technological know-how, and make component- and program-upgrade suggestions. This will also help the company when and if it decides to hire a permanent techie. Maybe it will be you!
The Accidental Techie
Andrew Black was interning for the Forest Service because of his degree in biology. Soon, however, his co-workers discovered that he had a fluency in computers.
“Suddenly the intern had become the expert,” he remembers. “And suddenly everybody knew the intern.”
Andrew found the office to be run inefficiently, mostly because people lacked computer skills. He rolled up his sleeves and drew upon his past experience of working at the college computer lab.
“Sometimes someone would come to me with a question on a program and I didn't know that program going into it,” he says. But unfamiliarity with a particular application didn't scare him—he knew the right approach. “I would work in tandem with the user guide and the Help menu, and really work hard on it the first time so that when someone else came and asked me later, I would know what I was doing.”
He found his co-workers to be both grateful and willing students, and he says that when he left, the efficiency in the office had increased dramatically. He also picked up some new skills along the way.
