Working in MIS for most of my computer life, I have always wanted to maintain a balance between the knowledge haves and the knowledge have-nots.  One cannot rightfully expect a coworker to be able to program in C++ (one cannot rightfully expect anyone from MIS to explain it either).  By the same token, there has to be a base skill level (or so I’d like to think).

This tug-of-war has been going on where I work for at least as long as I’ve been working there, perhaps longer.  We recently got the people in charge of hiring to agree to basic computer skills testing during the interview.  This is an almost unimaginable accomplishment as my employer has been known to hire budget people with no Excel experience and computer trainers with very little computer experience. I am not even slightly exaggerating this.

We have come across a few basic types of people with regards to problem-solving:

* people who research and try things before calling for help
* people who call for help immediately
* people who are lazy and want someone else to do it for them
* people who just aren’t up to the task (regardless of how hard they try)

Today’s relative nightmare involved file compression.  One poor soul could not grasp the concept of ZIPping up a file before emailing it.  We tried via email, via carefully written instructions, and had to be prepared to sit on the phone with the sender if necessary.  The people asking us to call the sender also had no idea how to ZIP up a file.

Can you ZIP a file?  Do you know the difference between a network drive and a local drive?  What’s the difference between minimizing a program and closing it?   What is Windows Explorer?  Why do people keep calling me when a circuit breaker blows?

What level of basic computer skills is ok where you work?  How do you test for it, if you test at all?  Is it acceptable to hire financial people with no math or computer skills?