Tired of Helping
Last week, I returned to school for the final semester of my MBA. Not one hour into the new semester, I received a deluge of email from people I hadn’t talked to all summer (or rather, hadn’t talked to me all summer) – all of them seeking technical assistance of one type or another. I like to help, but this is ridiculous.
Throughout this program, I’ve spent a lot of my personal time helping people with their computers. I understand computers are hard for a lot of people, so I try to help them when I can. Unfortunately, people started taking this for granted. I provided help with viruses. I provided help with using software and the network. I gave away software people needed to get their work done. When people called after 11:00pm and I was already in bed, I still got up and helped them. One time, I gave almost the entire class a piece of software required to create PDFs because some professor decided that PDFs were the only format he’d accept for electronic submissions. I wasn’t even in the class. Afterwards, about six people (out of 90 who downloaded the software) thanked me.
I’m getting tired of being people’s backup plan, their excuse not to figure things out for themselves. I’m tired of people’s inability to plan, learn, or read instructions. Professors seem to encourage this behaviour as well: Don’t have the assignment done, despite the fact that it was assigned five weeks ago? No problem! They’ll just extend the deadline a week, thereby screwing anyone who bothered to plan ahead and get the paper done in time! Yeah, that kind of lesson will really serve these MBAs well once they get out in the real world.
This kind of thing is wearing me down not just in school, but everywhere. It’s beginning to feel like my ability to get organized, plan, and think ahead are liabilities. It seems at every turn I get punished for being better. Take the MBA Bursary fiasco, for example: Part of my $28K tuition went to paying for bursaries so a bunch of people who didn’t get their finances in order before entering the MBA could have it a little easier. Didn’t bother to figure out what you wanted to do in life? No problem! We’ll just ask people like Brendon who bothered to get their lives in order to do more, or pay more to make up for your lack of planning!
Let me be clear: I want to help. I’m ready to help anyone who’s down on their luck, has tried everything and is in genuine need. But I don’t want to be exploited.
Wow – what a bitch boy you are.
You’d be bitchy too if no one every said “thank you” for the extraordinary effort you put in on their behalf. Or if everyone just said, “Hey, I know – why don’t I sit on my ass, do nothing, and expect others to pick up the slack?”
In the “real world”, people get charged money for much of the help you provided. It turns out that $50 – $100/hour charges help motivate people to solve problems on their own.
Or, it will help you feel appreciated, if they would rather pay you to do it for them.
Therein lies the dilemma. If someone said, “Hey Brendon, I’ve got this virus…” and I turned around and said, “Before I proceed, you must realize that my time is worth $50 – $100/hour, billable in 15-minute increments. Do you wish to proceed?”, I’d come off as a jerk.
I believe there should still be some place in this world for I-help-you-and-you-help-me activities. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as many people agree with the “you-help-me” part – definitely not enough to balance the scales.
Your time is precious…protect it. If you get requests from people that have a history of abusing you, then put them at the bottom of your priority list.
First, buy five No, I will not fix your computer T-shirts from ThinkGeek. Second, wear one every day you’re at school. Third, realize and accept that most people are stupid–even people in MBA programs–and can’t find their ass with both hands and a map, let alone maintain a computer.
Or say you own a Mac, you have done it once before, and you are sorry but, you “Don’t Do Windows”.
I have been using this excuse for almost 2 years now… ‘cept now more people are buying Macs….
E/.
I agree with you 100 percent. Stop going out of your way for people who don’t appreciate it. Sure, continue to assist good friends, family, etc, but you are knocking yourself out for others that you shouldn’t be… you are being too nice. If you helped me, I would at least thank you for it 🙂