Should employees be able to really use technology?

I’ve been working with technology vendors as an analyst and as an engineer for years. Lately, most of my contacts have been with marketing and sales oriented folks, but my observations below don’t let the geeks off the hook.

It may be just me as I love learning how to use the software on my PC and to understand the servers, switches, routers and software we use to run our business. And by learn, I don’t just mean the steps required to perform a task, but also to learn about how a product was designed to work and where applicable, the science behind that functionality. When I observe how people use their computers, though, I’m surprised to see that many people don’t seem able to used them with the efficiency and comprehension I see in other aspects of our communications.

I know, using a computer efficiently is not their job. Building a marketing plan, or closing a sale, or writing some code or configuring a firewall is their job. But isn’t everyone today supposed to be able to use computers? Especially the recently graduated?

I’m not talking about difficult stuff – like configuring multiple IP addresses on a desktop or setting custom port settings on a firewall or writing a bash script. I’m talking about things like keyboard shortcuts such as Command-C for copy or pressing the Windows key to bring up the start menu. How about putting shortcuts to frequently used network (or web) folders into their “My Documents” folder? I won’t even get into complicated things like using styles in Word.

I guess I’m a curmudgeon.