[drloser]

It depends on who is asking for help. But for many, it doesn't help them to answer too quickly:

- sometimes it's like giving the spout to a child who doesn't know how to use a spoon yet.

- sometimes it's like answering someone who could have found the answer by searching 20 seconds on Google.

Answering too quickly can make your interlocutors dependent on you.

Similarly, before asking someone for help, it is usually a good idea to spend 30 minutes looking for the solution yourself. The time lost is more than made up for later.

[aaronschroeder]

If your relationship with the requestor is a mentor/mentee or you are their supervisor, then sure, go ahead and let them stew a bit to see if they can figure it out.

If you are in IT support, it isn't your job to treat every colleague like a child who needs to learn. It's your job to serve others and remove any IT-related barriers to their productivity.

When I was doing IT support, half the requests were things people could figure out themselves if I just waited. But I was there to make their job easier and make them feel supported. Making them wait doesn't make them feel supported or instill confidence. Knowing they could call or text and have an immediate response is a huge boost to their productivity and feeling of confidence vs. wondering if or when I might reply.

[alerighi]

> If you are in IT support, it isn't your job to treat every colleague like a child who needs to learn. It's your job to serve others and remove any IT-related barriers to their productivity.

No, it isn't. If you do so, clients will start calling you even for minor issue that they can solve themself, just because it's more easy to have you do that, or it's faster, or they simply doesn't want to learn to do new things.

> Knowing they could call or text and have an immediate response is a huge boost to their productivity

To their productivity I don't completely agree, because they don't learn to solve the problem in case it happens again, to your productivity surely not, maybe you are busy doing something, and they keep calling you for trivial things that they can figure out themself.

[aaronschroeder]

I think we're conflating two different things. "Do nothing" in the example given was to basically ignore the person and hope they figure it out.

Responding quickly and being available doesn't mean you don't also teach. When I did desktop support years ago I always explained what I was doing and why. Your mouse isn't working? I'll be right there. Let's see, sometimes disconnecting and reconnecting can fix. Let's try that. Yep, that worked. Oh, thanks - I'll try that myself next time!

I also found that responding quickly and having a humble/service mentality builds trust and respect. Those are the very things that give others pause and a desire to figure it out themselves because they trust you and respect your time. If you treat others poorly by ignoring them, for example, they are less likely to care if they are bugging or interrupting you.

[xupybd]

That depends. Does your org really want to pay for IT to support everyone? Or do they want selfservice systems that only need IT when something genuinely breaks?