Get your head out of your...

asinine thinking.

Global financial crisis?

You work, don't you?
You actually have a job, do you?
And you're doing it tough?

OMG.

You have no idea of how people who have a very limited income survive.

And yet you whinge and bitch about how bad you have it.

I'll say it again - OMG.

Get over yourself.

I had the absolute pleasure the other day of helping a family friend buy a new laptop.

This friend is 86 years old.

Read that again.

86 years old.

I'm "in computers". I don't have a problem helping a family friend buy a new laptop. I'll put in a couple of hours to help this family friend.

What absolutely blew me away was the "compensation" that this family friend paid me.

I was quite willing to do this for nothing, however, I received a card, with an amount of money inside, from this family friend.

Now, understand this.

This is a family friend. Not a relative. No ties to the family at all. And who is 86 years old.

This family friend, 86 years old, still found the money to give me for the work I did.

So I ask: if someone, at 86 years old, who doesn't work, and has no other income source, is actually prepared to compensate me for my time, what does that say about the rest of you who do have a job, or own a business, or have some sort of income, and you need something done?

Why won't you spend your money?

Ok, so you don't know how to do a certain thing. Ok - I agree. (Hell, I don't know how to change a fan belt thingy on my V6 Magna) but do I try and do it myself?

No I don't.

I pay someone to do it for me.

Granted, there are a lot of "cowboys" out there (in every industry), who will make themselves out to be your saviour, but, get some references.

Ask for references. Phone those references. Make your own decision about who you pay for whatever service you require.

But - if you want to keep it in-house, remember this: you're still paying, in time if not in dollars, for someone to do the work. And when the work required is not what you're actually paying that person for, and the result takes a day or two to resolve, have you really saved yourself any money?

What if staff can't print?
What if staff can't access the Internet?
Can you really wait until someone on staff who "knows" something, actually gets around to getting in and fixing whatever problem you have? (And what happens when they have to admit to themselves that they don't really know how to fix said problem, and have to call someone else to help them? Just to save you a few dollars, or more importantly, to hide their inadequacy?)

Its a false economy. And what about out of hours? Do you really want to call someone in of a Sunday evening (who purports to know how to do stuff) at 9pm? Are you willing to compensate them for their out-of-hours time? Are they willing to give up their Sunday evening to help the organisation out, just because they "know" a thing or two?

Probably not on both counts.

Back to our family friend.

Given that our family friend found the money to compensate me for my time, (without me asking) I will now say: "If you want something done, I will charge you."

Our family friend found the money (without being asked) - why not you?

I guess it comes back to my old time rant and rave. Education.

If you want to save money, then go and educate yourself about how to do something.

If you don't want to educate yourself about how to do something, then be prepared to pay someone to do it for you.

If you want a "multi-skilled" workforce, you need to spend money on training (education).

If you don't want to, or don't have the time to educate yourself or your staff, then be prepared to pay someone to do the work you need done.

Just like our family friend did. And who is up and running, with no problems, in the first instance.

Because this family friend called on someone who knew what they were doing, and, at the end of the day, were prepared to pay for it.

Are you willing to do the same?+