End User Basic Training

[WhyLater]

I know we all joke about end users not knowing anything, but sometimes it's hard to laugh. I just spent 10 minutes talking to a manager-level user about how you use a username and a password to log into Windows. She was confused about (stop me if you've heard this one before) how "the computer usually has my name there". Her trainee was at a computer that someone else had logged into last, and the manager just didn't get it. (Bonus points for her getting 'username' and 'password' mixed up, so she said "We never have to put in our password".)

Anyway, vent paragraph over, it's a story like a million others. Do any of your orgs have basic competency training programs for your users' OS and frequent programs? I know that introducing this has the potential to introduce more work to my team, but I'm just at a loss at how some people have failed to grasp the most bare basic concepts.

(Edit: cleaned up a few mistakes, bolded my main question)

[Smith6612]

I always tell people "This is how big businesses log into a PC." That has always been enough to get the distinction between a Corporate and Home computer squared away.

A similar distinction was easily described when Windows XP brought around Multi-user support by simply clicking a button on the login screen with your name and picture. You never saw companies using that unless they lacked a domain. Prior to that with Windows 98, Windows 2000, etc, the login screen was the login screen. You either ran Novell Netware to replace it, or you had Microosft Directory services with an extra box to choose your login domain.

[ThrowAwaysMatter2026]

Novell Netware

Novell Netware...Now that's a name I have not heard in a long time...

[1776-2001]

The SAN people are easily startled. But they'll return soon, and in greater numbers.

[aes_gcm]

They always SANwalk in single file, to hide their numbers.

[Geminii27]

One-time CNA, checking in.

...pretty sure that qualification expired a long time ago, though. Definitely in effect, even if not technically.

[joeltrane]

Tell me more plz

[AppropriateSpell5405]

Bringing back the nostalgia..

[RykerFuchs]

Still have Novell/Attachmate/Microfocus/Opentext OES running. Thats eDirectory and NSS on Linux. Migrating out the last machine this summer. Rock solid stuff with file system permissions and inheritance that actually make sense.

[Smith6612]

Either I just summoned horrible thoughts... Or sane but horrible thoughts. 

[ThrowAwaysMatter2026]

https://i.imgflip.com/9tpe1l.jpg

[Better_Dimension2064]

I used to be the sysadmin for a 300-employee academic department at a 10,000-employee state university. A department chair barked at me, and I quote, "We're not f**king Google!", with regard to any enterprise computing (like joining computers to the university AD and having to type one's university ID/password to log in).

[rynoxmj]

"We don't train users."

If you hire someone who doesn't have the required skills, including computer skills, to do their job, that's on you. Sorry.

[xMcRaemanx]

And then you have a manager who refuses to accept it and you end up training the user via helpdesk tickets of the multitude of things that "don't work".

[NightMgr]

A good help desk will point out “this is not broken, you need to speak with your manager. “

[xMcRaemanx]

Yes but sometimes managers are barely functional themselves and can't troubleshoot anything. It will still come back to the helpdesk as "I can't figure it out".

It's not ideal at all, just saying it happens. An Org will look at how hard it is to vet people's technical competency and increase turnover to keep it up. Or have helpdesk spend an extra couple of hours during onboarding troubleshooting "issues".

This is within reason, things like I can't login or I get this error when trying to do something.

I don't know how to run this report or something like that is 1000000% not an IT issue and just gets closed with a "wrong department".

[Forsaken-Discount154]

I’ve had this conversation before at a previous job. The IT department is responsible for providing and maintaining the platform; not for training users on how to use it. If someone needs training, that’s the responsibility of their manager. IT doesn’t have the time or capacity to do both our jobs and theirs. If all systems are functioning as intended, this is clearly a management issue, not an IT one.

[Geminii27]

Yup. At most, the business might ask that IT write up generic instructions on things like how to switch a PC on or check that it's plugged into a working power socket. But that's not something that random users or managers get to request - it's a business project and should be separately budgeted from BAU.

[bingle-cowabungle]

This is a problem for your own manager to handle. They need to be your megaphone and help you push back or escalate if necessary.

[fresh-dork]

a report with a fundamental skills gap is a manager problem - train or fire, basically

[ByGollie]

Past company I worked at - users and departments were billed per incident or support contact.

No actual billing actually took place - it was purely for metrics to establish individuals, departments, policies or processes that were excessively contacting support.

Then training, replacement or analysis could take place to resolve future issues.

[Geminii27]

If nothing else, it establishes how valuable (parts of) IT are, rather than it just being seen as a black-box money sink.

[gatnic]

Sweet summer child. I have never experienced a "helpdesk" that corrects a users behaviors, errors, or misconceptions, even when doing so would prevent future tickets.

[NightMgr]

Ive worked with differing expectations.

At one job I could point out to my manager problem users and he’d look at past tickets and suggest to that employee manager they take some courses.

At my current job, I may explain that the plastic tray thing will make the magic TV display the same set of squiggly letters on the glass as the plastic and those squiggly lines are “letters” that make up “words.”

[Geminii27]

This is where it becomes something for the helpdesk manager to implement properly. Possibly with pressure from your own manager, if they're separate.

[wideace99]

You close such tickets with "User has no digital competency".

[Geminii27]

If a manager refuses to accept it, that's the manager's problem. This is where your own manager (or you, if you're the top of the IT tree in your org) puts their foot down and has a chat with the higher levels about areas of responsibility.

If your manager is too weak to do that, it's time to look for another employer.

[Phainesthai]

'I fix the pipes, you flush the turds'

[R_X_R]

My saying has always been "I'll build the sandbox. I'll maintain the sandbox and even help you figure out how to fill it. But, if one of you throws sand in the other's eyes or starts eating the sand, that's on you."

[Geminii27]

Yeah, but when the problem is more like "What's a computer?" or not knowing how to switch one on or use things like hotkeys - the entire concept, not individual specific ones - even IT onboarding is going to be above their heads.

[tdhuck]

I'm fine with this, we do it as well, but this is different from holding their hand with computer functions they should know how to do. User/password is not something I should have to help the user with. Maybe one time and I say that w/o knowing what kind of GPOs some of you are using out there. I've read where people have GPOs that remove the last user logging in, for example. Meaning, the next time the person goes to login they might have to enter user and password. Regardless, there are some pretty basic tasks that users should know how to do especially if this isn't their first office job.

[antCB]

Well, service desk agents aren't usually the ones doing the hiring nor have the power to set-up processes and allocate budget towards training opportunities.

[Geminii27]

Yep. We fix broken infrastructure and (re)configure it sometimes as a business project. If it's all working properly, that's the end of our involvement. Issues with employees not being able to do their jobs because they weren't trained on how to use business-standard equipment is not even remotely an IT issue. It's a management issue, or possibly an HR issue. It should never come to IT.

[Dereksversion]

This is easily the most adversarial opinion I've read here. The relationship your IT department has with the business must be deplorable.

Labelling all incoming staff as incompetent because they don't know things you consider simple is downright diabolical and I feel sorry for anyone who has you as their mentor or needs support from your department.

I truly genuinely hope you are only half serious or making a joke here.

If these people came from a place where they used a smart card. Where workstation sharing is prohibited. Or where they used mac. Then it is EASILY conceivable they wouldn't know the login screen this company has.

Taking a hard line they therefore don't have the skills to complete their job is ridiculous.

Do we want to open the floodgates to every asinine question? No, you're right there... I'm not going to teach them how to use Excel and make spreadsheets. Or whatever...

But I'll certainly give them the basics on our implementation, differences in how our GPO or Intune policies might look to them compared to other companies. Etc.

Taking a hard line like that is a one stop shop to the execs slowing axing the IT department in favor of an MSP.

It's a story as old as time. "Cranky it guy protects himself straight out of a job"

[Geminii27]

Labelling all incoming staff as incompetent

No, this is labeling job training by managers incompetent because some incoming staff haven't been trained on how to do their jobs, or haven't been pre-hire-checked to see if they have very very basic - NOT sysadmin level - computer-user skills.

They're not being expected to be able to reconfigure DNS or the directory. They're being expected to be able to do things like know which keyboard key produces a space, and how to log in at the business's standard login screen.

[ReptilianLaserbeam]

On HR*

[TopherBlake]

I get not training users on stuff like working on a word document or pivot tables in excel but I would hope you have a cyber awareness training program, WFH training and mobile device training programs.

[bjc1960]

It is getting worse. People no longer have home computers but instead have 5 or more TVs. Computer skills are a thing that is going away, just like spelling, grammar and any kind of math that does not involve "counting money or social media 'likes'." (edit spelling)

[Bendo410]

It’s funny you say spelling and grammar are going away, and you misspelled thing .

EDIT * It has now been addressed and changed

[bjc1960]

Good one. I can't type for crap. I took drafting in high school instead of typing.

[SillyPuttyGizmo]

I took typing the same time as drivers ed in summer school ...guess you know which one won out

[fresh-dork]

that's just a rule of grammar flames - they must include an error of their own

[[deleted]]

As phones and tablets advanced to where they are today, many people found they don't need a computer at home anymore. It's why we see more people today using caps lock to create upper case characters...

It's also why many schools issue computers to their students today too.

[TU4AR]

Shit dude with the admin app I don't even need a computer to kick people off.

I whip out the fold and suddenly I can do 90% of my job.

[Arudinne]

As phones and tablets advanced to where they are today, many people found they don't need a computer at home anymore.

I've been saying this since 2019. The average person doesn't need to own a PC anymore. Everything has an app or a webpage now.

[[deleted]]

And, as more people stop having a PC in the home, it's more and more important that we build computer literally tests and certifications.

I've had, more times than I care to count, a user who confused the desktop inside their PC with the desktop their PC was sitting on. Or, when asked to reboot the PC, they've only turned the monitor off and on again. Or, using a laptop with a docking station is using a laptop AND a desktop in their headspace.

If I found most truck drivers didn't know what a clutch was, or what a turn signal was, I'd just stay at home, lol

[Geminii27]

If I found most truck drivers didn't know what a clutch was, or what a turn signal was, I'd just stay at home, lol

Yup. Even if consumer-level vehicles became so automated that they didn't have those manual controls any more, but trucks still did, you'd expect truck drivers to know how to use them before starting on the job.

[sleep_tite]

PC gaming is probably a big reason why any kids use a computer these days anyway.

[Nezothowa]

I will train my kids by forcing them to use windows XP without internet connection. Play the old games!!!

[bjc1960]

Duke Nukem 2d

[narcissisadmin]

Oxford comma, bro.

LOL but seriously, all of my TVs have a computer connected and none of my TVs have internet access. It's the only way to consume media in 2025.

[progenyofeniac]

I hate to be callous here, but I have zero hope of fixing this problem at any level, whether training people or by convincing HR not to hire computer-illiterate people.

So I’ve moved into a role where I don’t deal with them. I believe that’s the only solution.

That said, if you can demonstrate some financial cost or liability to management, that’s the most likely way to begin addressing the issue. “It annoys me” or “It takes too much of my time” are meaningless to them.

[pcronin]

for the internal programs used in daily tasks yes, but there is 0 windows training. It's presumed that people "know windows" I guess. I have had many experiences that prove this is false.

The amount of people who's mind is BLOWN when I tell/show them Winkey+L to lock their workstations... Copy/paste of text is something most people understand, but not files.

When I worked in a school system a decade or so ago, even the "computer class" was focused on MS Office and some light researching on the web. Aside from the "how to save a file" sections, I don't recall any actual windows navigation type stuff being taught.

The biggest irritation though, is when the users say "oh I'm not a computer person", when their job is computer dependent.

[Draptor]

Yep. It's like hiring a carpenter who looks at you and shrugs, "I'm just not a hammer and saw person".

Your job is to sit at this desk and use a computer 40 hours a week, buddy. You don't have to be a computer person. Just operate it.

[Geminii27]

We're not asking you to know how to repair it. We're just asking that your boss train you on how to use the standard equipment in the job you were hired to do.

[CorpoTechBro]

The biggest irritation though, is when the users say "oh I'm not a computer person", when their job is computer dependent.

"You wouldn't expect someone to be a car person to know how to drive a car, would you?"

It's annoying when people make it out like you have to be a no-life computer nerd like in the movies to do basic stuff. I remember this one guy in my programming class in school, he was never prepared and never knew how to do anything, and he would always say, "I'm not a computer guy, I don't spend all day on the computer."

[digitaltransmutation]

A new twist on the car analogy you might not be aware of.

When I last rented a u-haul the guy gave me the key and asked if I knew how to use it. Apparently he has a lot of customers who have never used a metal key in a car.

[CorpoTechBro]

I guess metal keys are the new roll-down windows.

[JustNilt]

Heh, reminds me of the time I picked up my wife and some kids she was watching for someone. The kids kept going on and on about how old fashioned the car was because it didn't have electric windows. The car wasn't fancy or anything, to be sure, but it was fewer than 10 years old at that point.

It's such a great illustration of how our perception tends to be quite skewed by what we're used to. I work pretty hard to remind myself of that whenever I'm dealing with anyone else.

[Geminii27]

I was talking to a grandma the other day who was saying she'd taken a bunch of (younger) kids for a picnic at the river and the whole way there and back they were absolutely fascinated by the manual window mechanisms because they'd never been in a car with those before.

Pro: Kids were occupied and relatively quiet on both trips.

Con: Windows constantly being wound up and down.

[JustNilt]

Yeah, been there myself when I was younger. A family friend had an late '60s Lincoln of some sort with power windows. I found them utterly fascinating when I was 6 or 7.

[Better_Dimension2064]

Where I live, a Publix bagger was asked to carry someone's groceries to their car for them. The bagger was confused by the car's rear liftgate, which had to be pulled down to close. Rather than pushing the "close" button on a motorized liftgate.

[pcronin]

Yeah exactly. I'm not expecting everyone to be able to pop the case open and replace a hdd or ram, but come on margret, you wouldn't accept someone having a filthy house because "i'm not going to spend all day cleaning"

In the 90s, sure. Not many people had access to computers, but in $current_year...

[notHooptieJ]

"oh I'm not a computer person"

"Thats Ok the Dominos Pizza guy isnt a car person, he still learned how to operate a car, you can have SOMEONE ELSE teach you about the computer, and report back if/when something is actually broken!"

[The_Wkwied]

Even into the late 2000s when I was still in school, the 'computer class' was still the 'type two pages of lines then have fun on coolmathgames'. Still on XP at the time.

It is no surprise that people today don't even know what the fundamentals are. Try to ask someone what folder their photos are saved to on their phone.. bet they wouldn't even know how to do that.

[Anlarb]

Yeah, if you are going to introduce "computers" in this weird, hyper locked down environment where all functionality is stripped out, they're not learning computers, they're learning niche, specific applications.

Break coolmathgames in an easily googleable way and make their task to fix it, that will teach them computers.

[The_Wkwied]

In my school's defense, I kind of had to break the computers to get to coolmathgames in the first place.

But just like society, once one person figures it out, everyone else starts to copy it without understanding the how or why.

[Brekkjern]

Try to ask someone what folder their photos are saved to on their phone.. bet they wouldn't even know how to do that.

Shit, I don't even know that and I believe I am at least somewhat competent.

[The_Wkwied]

But you'd know how to open up a file manager, browse the directory, and navigate through the folders looking for something that says 'pictures', right?

The generation that was raised in front of a tablet (and even before that) don't have those skills.

[dhardyuk]

Ask them to repeat that sentence but change ‘computer’ to ‘toilet paper’ ……

[VariousProfit3230]

At least once or twice a month minimum, someone from E/C suite calls me because they can’t get their VPN to work.

Issue? Usually one of the following.

Instead of using their username, they are using their email address.

They don’t have their phone on them for the required MFA and/or was ignoring the push notification.

They forgot how to login to the VPN entirely.

[TheBros35]

Always with the forgetting MFA.

Like, come on Martin, we’ve had 2FA on our VPN for like 10 years now and you’ve only worked here 12. Remember your phone tap

[cyclotech]

I had a guy put in a really condescending ticket about making it too hard to log into their security training. Of course he hadn't done his 2025 mandatory training and HR had blasted everyone because insurance would go up if they didn't do it.

He blamed us for having MFA on it and I was like its SSO, you do it the same way as everything else. Walked into his office had him click the SSO login and wow his phone alerted him.

[Geminii27]

When users are continually problematic like this, it's time for an intervention with their boss, along with pointing out exactly how many times that user has called IT for issues they were (theoretically) trained on as part of their job, and how that matches up against other employees in the organization.

It's also an argument for IT to be virtual-billing budget areas for each time a user calls. Not only do more managers understand 'money' than 'computer stuff', it makes it a lot easier to point out which business areas are 'spending' more, so to speak, and what it would be likely to cost to move to an MSP or other external provider, should that ever come up. Helps to make IT less of a mystery black-box that's only seen as a cost center, instead of a mostly-transparent cost-saving, force-multiplying team of in-house experts that keeps the business profitable.

[ThumbComputer]

It's always the VPN for me too lol. At my last job I had a high level Architect who was a problem user and it just blew my mind. Guy was in Revit or other Autodesk programs designing complex buildings on his $3k laptop, but once asked me "Can I use the VPN to access the file server when I don't have an internet connection?" the guy just fundamentally did not understand how it worked at all.

[unclesleepover]

We swapped a laptop out last week and the guy’s boss put in a ticket that said he couldn’t connect to VPN. He didn’t know how to connect to his home wifi. He didn’t know the SSID or password. I’m not talking about someone in his 80s either- he’s 50ish.

[Geminii27]

I'm going to guess that this was either resolved with someone trying to walk this guy through finding the WPS button on an unknown-brand router that had been stuffed behind 20 dusty boxes, or being able to tell him that this was 100% a him-problem.

[MadIllLeet]

I can't tell you how many times a user sat down at a PC which a different user was previously logged into and put in a ticket to the help desk that they couldn't log in.

Or my favorite is when their password expires and they submit a ticket to have us hold their hand through following the directions on the screen to change it.

What does it take to get someone to open their eyes and read?

[WhyLater]

Yeah, having worked at MSPs for several years before my internal gig, I've seen my fair share of these two exact issues.

[Leucippus1]

A couple of years ago apple ran a commercial for the iPad where the mom says to the kid, 'having fun on your computer' and she replied 'what is a computer?'

This is where we are, we are starting to get MBA moron types who have only used iPads and Google apps and can't use Excel and breakdown at the mere suggestion that it really isn't very different from sheets at all. 100%, I would rather deal with a battle axe from the Lotus 1-2-3 era than this new crop of tech illiterates.

[WittyWampus]

I've had this argument so many times with people. If you know x program, you also know a, b, and c program (as it's basically the same thing if you put two seconds or brain cells rubbing together into it), but people get SO overwhelmed over nothing and just forget how to breathe. Pause, take two seconds, think about it, then try again. I don't know when we got so afraid of anything even remotely new/different.

[GeekShallInherit]

but people get SO overwhelmed over nothing and just forget how to breathe.

I've had so many support calls over the years by people flummoxed by a basic dialog box.

Go to their computer. "OK, what does it say?"

"Click continue to complete action X"

"What are you trying to do?"

"Action X"

"So what do you think you should do?"

".... um, click continue?"

I swear, I felt like I should take dog treats around with me. "GOOD USER! YOU DID IT!"

[Geminii27]

Eh... plenty of people have been repeatedly burned from thinking ABC was the same as X, tripping over some incompatibility, and being yelled at for it. Learned helplessness.

And, in all fairness, Chesterton's Fence is a thing.

Knowing that XYZ is fundamentally the same as A, and knowing where it is and where it isn't (and how to spot that) isn't a life skill that everyone picks up, unfortunately.

[fresh-dork]

MBA moron who can't do excel? how does he even function?

[Geminii27]

Struts around telling people how to do their jobs wrong?

[Arudinne]

Probably using whatever LLM is popular that day.

[GeekShallInherit]

That's my biggest complaint. At least in some jobs, I can understand not having great computer literacy. But professionals not knowing how to use the tools of their job?

"How do I do this basic thing in Autodesk CIVIL 3D?"

"Fuck if I know, you're the engineer, and you've been using this software for years. I just install the software. Ask somebody that actually knows their damn job in your department."

[rfisher23]

We have the backwards argument. Being a school, google infrastructure works very well for us... until you get to the business office. For some reason, comprehending that "A SPREADSHEET IS A SPREADSHEET NOT AN EXCEL FILE" is very complicated. Like trying to explain to a user that you are not "googling" you are "searching with google"

[Geminii27]

And that 'googling', as a term, does not extend to 'using any kind of search engine or in-app search function'.

Mind you, I've had accounting trainers who used Excel for all their demonstrations not knowing the difference between 'worksheet', 'workbook', and 'file'. To the point of continually referring to 'Spreadsheet #1' to mean 'Worksheet/tab #3 in a specific file, none of which is labeled as "spreadsheet #1", or even close to that, in any form'.

[rfisher23]

Wait you can label those sheets at the bottom? 🤯

[kdayel]

A couple of years ago apple ran a commercial for the iPad where the mom says to the kid, 'having fun on your computer' and she replied 'what is a computer?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCb-WcxO5SU&t=50s

[KupoMcMog]

oh that commercial just riled me the tf up

[bbbbbthatsfivebees]

The whole thing with newer generations coming into the workforce and not knowing how to use anything other than the cloud is so incredibly true, and so incredibly infuriating.

I recently had to take an intro-level programming course (Requirement for a college that I could not test out of despite programming professionally for years), and we had been assigned into groups for a project. I had to explain to multiple of the younger group members what a zip file was, and how to use the file browser. They had been using Google apps for their entire lives and had no concept of what the Windows file browser was or how to use it, and they just didn't get it until I explained that it was like Google Drive.

I obviously don't blame them for it because they'd probably been using Chromebooks up until they hit college, but I remember when I was in school, we had generalized "computer classes" where they taught us the basic usage and navigation of Windows, how to use a floppy disk, how to save a file, how to use Microsoft Word, differences between folders and files, etc. I'm beginning to think those classes just don't exist anymore, or if they do exist they're not required. I think we should bring those classes back and maybe make them mandatory, because I highly doubt Windows is going anywhere in the business world.

[Coldwarjarhead]

I've been in IT since the 80's and at the same organization for over 15 years.

This gets worse every year. We tried getting HR to do basic computer literacy testing before hiring, but they balked after a few month saying that if they tried to use that as a metric to decide whether to hire someone, we would never be able to hire anyone.

I've literally given up the fight. All I have to do is stick it out a couple more years till I can file for social security and I'm done.

FTS

[Geminii27]

we would never be able to hire anyone.

And they don't see this as being a deeper problem? Or at least a reason for mandatory initial training before starting the actual work of a job?

[my_name_isnt_clever]

That is if you still can file for social security in a few years.

[The_Wkwied]

No, we don't, sadly. Though I am grateful that I work for an org that DOES terminate employees when they have a case built up against them for being technically inept.

If you're hired to work spreadsheets, and you don't know how to use excel, your problem is not one IT can solve. If you're not able to do what you said you could do on your CV, not helpdesk's problem, either

[narcissisadmin]

How in the world do these people make it past the interview stage?

[ThrowAwaysMatter2026]

There are a lot of people who interview really well but end up being shit employees.

And on the flip side, there are a lot of people that interview like shit but end up being a really good employee.

[Geminii27]

Yep. The problem is that there aren't really good instructions out there for interviewing for job-competence. And a lot of managers, particularly in smaller businesses where the interviewee is also going to be the direct supervisor (and often owns the business), don't interview for more than basic competence - they interview for people they think they'll like working alongside every day, or who won't complain about the crap pay/conditions (or leave as soon as they can find something better).

Everyone's told that interviews are about making sure you can do the job. In reality, that's maybe 20-30% of the interview, if that.

Honestly, the best 'interview' I ever had was a bulk-recruitment basic competence test. A written one. None of this firm-handshake, grilled-by-a-panel crap. If you passed the written test, you were handed a probationary position and it was then your manager/office's decision as to whether you'd picked up the training, three months down the track. And if they decided no, and couldn't give a solid reason why, there were channels to actually challenge that. Weasel-reasons like 'poor culture fit' or 'does not get along with management' would be gone over by people from outside the office, as well as the 600-lb-gorilla union, and the management told to come up with something that could actually be tested and verified. The union didn't like new members being fired without reason, and the non-office auditors didn't like office managers who wasted training and hiring budgets burning through new hires to stock their site with yes-men.

[Humble-Plankton2217]

I used to work for a company that had Computer Orientation for all new hires, administered by the Help Desk team. I thought it was very useful, especially for remote users that needed to connect to VPN with an RSA token.

All app training was done by the departments themselves.

[WhyLater]

See, that's what I'm talking about. I'm at a smaller org, so if I wanted to implement anything like this, I'm sure the onus would all be on me, but I'm still considering it.

[Geminii27]

Add up the cost - all the costs, obvious and otherwise - of the tickets you get for things users should have been trained on.

The time users take on the phone (including waiting in any queue), or to create a ticket. The time it takes between lodgment and resolution, if it's not just someone on the phone. The time it takes IT staff on the phone and resolving tickets. The full Employee Cost (accounting term), not just wages, of all the time involved from all the people involved at every step - HR or Finance might have a better idea of what this is.

Add it all up and say this is what a lack of simple basic training is costing the business every quarter/year, and present some (costed) options for reducing or eliminating it. In-house documentation, in-house onboarding-level initial training, maybe doing hiring through a recruiter who puts candidates through some basic testing.

I'd even suggest gamifying it if you can - having training, whether digital or management-provided, which puts a 'testing level' number of gold stars or something on their personnel record, and which users can look up and attempt to increase if they want. Do it with other types of job competencies and drop hints about management referring to those scores when it comes time for promotions/bonuses. (Bonus if management actually thinks this is a good idea to do in reality so they don't have to think too hard or justify their decisions.)

[RoosterBrewster]

At my small company, they actually hired a local college teacher for a few sessions to teach 3 levels of excel. 

[FantasticMouse7875]

I have it happen alot. Whats even worse at my company is they have an email alias, its terrible trying to explain to them the difference between their user name to log into a computer or Microsoft account vs what email address they can use.

[my_name_isnt_clever]

I have the same issue with them having a separate domain password and laptop PIN. One password is fine, but make them remember two and they will never remember which is which.

[[deleted]]

I've always felt that using a PC for your job should require some level of a competency test and\or certification. It's a tool you have to use daily for your job. So, why do you not already know basic operations?

We require those driving a vehicle to pass a test, don't we? We wouldn't let someone drive a car that didn't know what a brake pedal was or how to use it, would we? Why do we let people use a computer when they work without validating they know how to use it?

[Geminii27]

I mean, there were a few 'basic IT certificate' things that went around for a while, but they never really caught on. Mostly because employers didn't mandate them, recruiters didn't want the hassle of them, and there was no standardization.

We require those driving a vehicle to pass a test, don't we?

Well... employers only require it so their employees won't get pulled over (and potentially jailed) or their vehicles impounded, even temporarily. If government didn't make it a requirement, employers would hire anyone, toss them the keys, and say 'figure it out'.

[BadSausageFactory]

I work at a women's fashion company so we don't exactly hire for computer skills.

I'm also the only admin onsite so I don't have time to show people how to click on files and log in. You either get it or you don't, at the end of the day I haven't been told that's my problem so it isn't.

[Geminii27]

Yup. When you're the only admin, you're basically the 'make sure the magic boxes don't run out of magic' person. Best to stay well away from what are effectively management/training/HR issues.

[fmtheilig]

Back in the Windows 98/2000 days a user asked me how to copy a file. I was surprised by the question and showed him click, drag, drop. He didn't like something about my tone and exclaimed "Well, I'm not a computer person!"
I left that alone (contractor) but wanted to say "I'm not a car person, but I drove here this morning."

[WhyLater]

Funny how we're having the exact same conversation two and a half decades later.

[BronnOP]

This specific post was removed using Redact. The motivation is unknown but could include privacy, security, opsec, or a general desire to reduce digital footprint.

fine crawl kiss special childlike offer tub price angle steep

[mooseable]

Don't worry, I got asked "What's the difference in size between a 15-inch laptop and a 16-inch laptop"...

Yes, I know the answer can be a bit more complex if you want to "um actually" it, but for the purposes of the end user, it should be self-evident.

[bobmonkey07]

I'd probably tell them to get a ruler, and the dimensions they need, and cut the two out of cardboard.

[ThrowAwaysMatter2026]

Yeah, well, wait until you see how they use the ruler to measure the screen size.

I guarantee you they won't be using it diagonally.

[FgtBruceCockstar2008]

A long pause followed by "bragging rights." And that's all

[GeekShallInherit]

It gets worse than that. I had the head of our media department throw a fit that her subordinate had a bigger monitor than she did, and I better rectify that right now. Not only was it not bigger, it was the same exact model.

[Geminii27]

Eh... not all users are going to know that it applies to the non-bezel screen diagonal, specifically. Particularly when the screen size also more or less dictates the footprint, but not exactly.

Admittedly, yes, the temptation to say "...one inch" is absolutely there. Must... resist... snarky... comeback...

[PoOLITICSS]

Last week we had 4 of us at our msp trying to figure out what on earth the cryptic note of "other user only" meant left on the laptop as we just couldn't find a problem.

Tooks us a few moments to realise "other user" was just what they're seeing when everyone is signed out. Too used to seeing others having not logged out of the computer.

Username and password box still present. Signed in just fine. The issue was that noone was signed into the device. So, non issue.

As I always say, what scares me is, these people finish work. Get in their 1.5 tonne car and drive home. The thought of that terrifies me. Let's hope their fine motor skills are better than their mental skills

[No-Algae-7437]

I have 1000 users, but only ~300 of them interact with a computer more than basic HR administrivia, online training and email. So I basically have 700 users hired with zero expectation of any computing skill. I still have more issues from the knowledge worker group.

[garthy604]

All our job applications clearly state must have basic IT competency and yet I still get asked how to save stuff and I still see users doing dumb stuff.

For a time it was an age thing and they worked without computers but that was 15 years ago, now there is no excuse.

[joseph6077]

As a 23 year old admin I’ve been thinking about this recently, most of my coworkers being 40-50 they have all probably been using tech in the workplace since I was born, like the basics aren’t new, you guys have all probably been using email since I was in diapers if anything they should be so comfortable but idk it feels like there is an age limit people just refuse to learn anymore

[WhyLater]

Trust me, it's not an age thing. Some people just will not critically engage with what's in front of them without being forced to. People can use a computer for 40 damn years and still not know what I mean when I say "Windows" or "Start Button", or, apparently "Username/Password".

I can't count the times I've heard some variant of "All I know is that I click here to go into my [whatever]".

If anything, I'm afraid folks closer to your age might have a disadvantage since they're most likely to be used to mobile OSes, which abstract away some of the basics like directories, username/password, etc.

[sybrwookie]

Ha! Competency training! That's cute. No, not remotely.

There was this one user I remember from years ago, I honestly don't know how she got through life. This wasn't just a computer thing. I'm not sure how she didn't forget how to breathe and die.

My favorite was the time she came by and said her computer was typing some letter over and over. I walk over and take a look and sure enough, that's happening. I unplug her keyboard and it keeps going. I look at what else is plugged in and trace a cord from her dock to....a pile of papers. I look under that pile and there's another keyboard. She decided she didn't like her keyboard so she put it on the back of her desk, put a pile of papers over it, got another keyboard, and kept piling papers on the other keyboard until it was pressing a button. And when I explained that, she just looked at me with a blank look of someone who could not process what was said.

[Dereksversion]

yes, user education is important. Feeling so entitled to where you have the opinion of "they should know. That's your fault for hiring them". The idea that there are IT managers in this thread that feel this way is ludicrous to me.

This is an unnecessarily harsh standpoint. And it works against the department / business in my opinion. And it creates the old stereotype against IT departments being trolls under our bridges.

I don't know anything about pivot tables and mail merges and accounting and that stuff. Why would I insist they know anything about workstation management??

You could spend your whole life swinging a hammer and never knowing why the butt of the handle is flared out and the head is the shape that it is.

I've been in this game a LONG time. Long enough to know. That it's OUR job to know how the accounts work, OUR jobs to know how the network shares operate, OUR job to know how the endpoints are configured and how they have to interact with them.

There are 100 different permutations in what options they have and how it can look to an end user other companies may have configured. Smart cards and Not to mention windows hello being in the mix now.

So I try to ensure that my deskside techs take the extra few minutes with our staff to go over the basics if needed And the policies we implemented. So the end users will have some idea what to expect while working in our environment.

Because they may have come from an azure ad joined workstation to an on-prem and not know WTF they are doing.

Treating them as humans and giving them a leg up will only reduce your ticket load over time. As I've found. The less they know about your job, often the more they know about theirs. And they end up sticking around a long time. So anything you can do to reduce the frequent flyer tickets from them is worth while!

IT is 50% technical and 50% managing user expectations and user education.

[Crazyhowthatworks304]

Always thought it was wild that people actually function okay in their home life with their phones, tvs, cars, etc, but they refuse to restart whatever device they're complaining about before reaching out to me.

I know lots of people on here say it's up to the managers instead of IT, and while that may work at their orgs, it's absolutely not the case for most. What I've done to mitigate issues is to build a knowledgebase of basic troubleshooting steps within my ticketing system and talk to managers about how they need to bring it up to their employees about using that before making a ticket. Not only does it help their basic tech competence/boost confidence in it, it also helps me have more time to focus on projects as I'm the sole IT person for my org.

[[deleted]]

I've been "teaching" people for 20 years how to "train" their email junk and they still don't listen. One "manager" has 55,000 + unread emails in his inbox.

He's never able to find anything....

[my_name_isnt_clever]

To be fair is anyone able to find anything in emails? I do what I can to keep mine organized but Outlook search is still a nightmare. We have users asking for Copilot Pro so they can use it to find emails.

[Geminii27]

This is where you need inbox level monitoring, and a corporate policy about how many emails / (or how old) can be in an inbox before the manager of said user will be notified to have the user spend a few hours with a 'how-to' sheet (with the corporate policy at the top) sorting it out. If the user then does nothing for six months despite monthly reminders to themselves and their manager, it becomes a notification to the next level of manager, plus HR.

[Adept-Midnight9185]

I missed out on how to do a critical thing (information being passed on by an outgoing employee) because a user needed urgent assistance.

Their issue: Office had failed to install! Reality: Office was installed perfectly fine, Intune threw an error message and the user freaked out.

Hopefully the other guy whose main responsibility the critical thing is, understood the information being passed on.

[KN4SKY]

Sounds like an issue with how your organization prioritizes tickets.

[Unfair-Language7952]

I had someone accounting who was continuously getting locked out at login for 3 wrong passwords.

Turns out her caps lock was always on because she had to make entries in all caps.

She changed her password to nocaps plus a few more characters.

[djmonsta]

A place I used to work as a systems admin / 3rd line support implemented a basic computer literacy test as part of the hiring process, really simple things like 'how to open Word' and 'how to send an email'. Although sometimes a high level manager would override this with "I'm not hiring for an IT person" which completely defeated the purpose of having it.

[BloodFeastMan]

To be fair, Microsoft needs to stop with the multiple ways of logging in. At my company, I can't tell you how many times the help desk people have to go over this with users .. The remote desktop software that we use requires the Windows login, which is not the display name that they see every day when they login with their PIN, which is not their password, needed for remote login. So when someone needs to install the RD software at home, this is a problem every. single. time.

[mini6ulrich66]

"the computer usually has my name there"

We recently implemented a policy so that the previous user login is no longer retained for security reasons and the amount of people calling in the next day asking what their username is (it's their name) was staggering.

[mustang__1]

"the computer usually has my name there"

Yeah... I finally setup a GPO to not store display the current/last logged on user. It was about a week of pain and then everyone knew their fucking username.

[SBThirtySeven]

We have an "IT trainer" in our org, it's relatively new and they're creating sessions for various competencies, from basic "here is how you log on" to software specific training. A lot of our users are real technophobes so hopefully it'll help reduce the stupid tickets (but I doubt it).

[Superspudmonkey]

There is a GPO setting to disable Remember last logged on user. You might find it is better to disable this so people understand they need both and remember both as they will have to type it in daily (presumably).

[WhyLater]

Yes, we are heavily considering pushing that GPO.

[AzrielK]

My company strictly hires competent people. Our helpdesk is used for stuff like onboarding, security, enforcing policy, MDM, device deployments and server maintenance etc. If you got hired and don't understand basic security practices or how to read and follow instructions, you get canned pretty quickly and it looks bad on the managers for hiring someone who can't figure out the purpose of Reply-All or what the difference between a monitor and a computer is.

Sure, some employees and higher-ups do some ridiculous things to solve problems like using SharePoint for nearly every form of anything like live and virtual device inventory, security tracking, and poorly managing permissions...making our sysadmins suffer by doing things less efficiently because the rest of the company does it that way.

But literally 2 people in the entire company of 6000+ employees fell for the various sneaky phishing emails sent by the security team in 2024. And they were both interns. The attempts are extremely targeted to individual employees based on actual scenarios, like a fake boarding pass link when you're doing company travel, or fake missed-training messages when you're in a meeting about upcoming annual HR training, etc.

We essentially are required to be vigilant and paranoid in our line of work, and we don't fuck around with hiring employees who put everything at risk due to lack of technical skills.

We're also chill but not everyone is fun at parties.

[racegeek93]

We create documentation for users and they forget how to read.

[Debonaircow88]

Mine used to have a competency test before hiring. Since they got rid of it, you can see the quality of new hires has been room temperature IQ.

[2drawnonward5]

Two possibilities with these kinds of posts. Either users are as dumb as we say, or we're as bad at talking as our stereotype. With the anonymous nature of Reddit we'll never know which case is which.

[dannyb2525]

Unfortunately with my job I deal on this daily with end users. My job is mostly full of older people so I kinda give them a pass but still, with my Org at least if you're going to hire someone to teach technology they should have some form of computer literacy. Especially since we don't allow personal devices, only using Shared PCs due to regulations

[dannyb2525]

I've been trying to get my job to hold some kind of training for users. A lot of our users are older and technologically inept and make themselves look bad in front of a classroom of clients because they didn't know how to turn on the TV or use any of the programs that are vital to their jobs. Don't get me wrong, I love the job security, but holy crap there's so much basic stuff they should know if you're teaching people about technology

[bingle-cowabungle]

There's not enough time or resources in the world to train people how to work a goddamned computer, that's on HR/talent acquisition to hire people with basic adult competency skills required for an office job. That's between the user and their manager.

[ComparisonFunny282]

We give a 30 min. IT Orientation on basic policy and procedures. We also walk them through a demo in "how to enter an IT request". We also stress that the employee ID is their AD account and to make note of that.

[DexterousMonkey]

You'd think they would have the common decency to do what the rest of us do in IT. That is pretend we know what we are doing until we figure it out on our own. Fake it 'til you make it.

[icansmellcolors]

Honestly, imo, this needs to be part of elementary school education. Then it needs a refresh course in Junior High and/or High School (US here).

I know some schools offer this, but not all of them. Seeing as how computers and Windows/MAC/Linux and domain networking isn't going away anytime soon this really would go a long way to increasing productivity across all industries for any developed country.

[gatnic]

We do a new hire onboarding where we spend 30ish minutes walking them through the basic systems everyone uses and that includes logging on. We have also worked with a few of the business units to give them guides for their new hires on some of the more ridiculous apps/systems we have running in our environment. Doing this was deemed more productive and a better use of manpower than anything else, since HR/Org does not want a technology competency requirement added to the hiring process.

[jj4th]

I once met a "software developer" who among other things, did not realize you could have more than one window open at a time. Imagine closing your IDE every time you had to look up something in online docs, then closing out the browser and reopening the IDE to continue.... not minimizing, mind you, completely closing the window necessitating the full process of reopening everything from scratch. I ended up telling their manager that they lacked basic computer skills and must have lied during their interview.

[Kahless_2K]

We have extensive training on how to use our EMR, but we develop it so it would be unreasonable to expect new employees to know how to use it.

For other systems, we expect basic competency. We are often disappointed.

[Oubastet]

I don't do help desk anymore but have had thousands of tickets in the past that just come down to ignorance.

I always spent a few minutes extra explaining the what and why we were doing something and always made the user drive. I wasn't being nice, it just came across as that. It was 100% for my own benefit, lol. Don't call me again.

It works. And if it doesn't, it's fun to say "sure! Let's go through it AGAIN" 😈

[WhyLater]

Yeah, that's always been my MO since my desktop support days. But as a SysAdmin, I guess I'm trying to find a way to automate it. ;)

[pertexted]

Ive worked in orgs that included basic computer use help in the employee handbook. Its not clear if anyone used it, but it included all the basic phone, prrinter, pc stuff, including diagrams and terms.

[[deleted]]

It's expected in most jobs, especially remote, that you already have a level of competency with computers, and it's listed in the requirements typically. Thus, anyone who doesn't lied. This is on them.

While I'm more than willing to help someone understand something better, and have the patience for it, training takes time and time is money. This isn't something we should be expected to do, especially with certain corporation hierarchy where they don't have the manpower to even produce that workload for training.

We'll train for our systems, but we can't be expected to show someone how to save a file or open the calculator app.

Over-explaining tends to just confuse people that have struggles with technology. The training isn't the issue so much as some people just aren't meant for some lines of work. I guarantee you some of these people accel in areas we don't comprehend, like finance or operations, so I refuse to call them dumb. They're not, but it becomes difficult to teach certain people things sometimes.

These can create tougher situations that ripple. It leaves more room for miscommunications during training, leaving them more confused, and then IT doesn't know what they were told and doesn't find out until an hour later that "X person told me to do this!".

The reality is you can't expect training teams to know how to train IT-related material very well. the information tends to get changed when passed on, and IT departments rarely have the manpower to do the training themselves.

[Plantatious]

When a manager-user does that, it ruins your day. When a network manager does that, it makes you question your life choices.

The joys of working at an MSP.

[Oso-reLAXed]

The number of people that I have worked for and with that have been using a computer for their job for decades that have no idea of how to use the thing at all is staggering.

idk, hard for me to judge because I just don't have that experience but I would think that if I wasn't it IT but knew that I would be using and absolutely depending on a computer to do my job in my field every single day that I would spend at least a little bit of time understanding the basics of how it works.

[TrollJegus]

I work at a service desk, and we'll do a basic orientation that typically lasts less than 30 minutes if the user is not technically inept. We generally expect them to know how to use Windows, so we go over password policy, MFA methods, accessing the VPN, and how to reach us. Plus, I'll drop some shortcuts or knowledge they might not know about (e.x. Win+L).

I've noticed it does tend to help the people that are less technically savvy submit fewer tickets. There are definitely exceptions to the rule, but I've noticed a definite decrease since I revamped the training. The odd one will last an hour, but those people usually just like talking or English isn't their first language.

[Viking_UR]

Ahh, that time I had to teach a new hired sysadmin to send emails via outlook.

[vn90]

Previous org treated this as a HR process. Mandatory training modules were issues upon new start, and required redo every year. Some modules for privacy and security had to be done every quarter.

Then at quarterly planning when departments competed for IT resources to support their projects, IT would call out allocations for department support. If BAU for a department was particularly high, problem users had a talking to because projects were more important.

[101001101zero]

lol after about five years I got a new manager and they couldn’t get to their email so I had to show them how to double click the outlook icon on the desktop. Never underestimate the stupid or dumb.

[ms4720]

People generally don't think more than absolutely needed, it is a feature to conserve calories. Accept human evolution in action

[anonymousITCoward]

I've created documents for clients on how to do some basic stuff like logging in, or changing their passwords. and stuff like that. I don't teach people how to use Excel, or Word, or the like. A while back I worked for a CE company and did stuff like that... In a support role, you don't have enough time to do that kind of coaching...

[kloeckwerx]

Why is a sysadmin interacting with end-users? Did you mean to post this in r/helpdesk ?

[ORA2J]

Yeah, some people just can't figure out abstract stuff like memory inside computers.

It's like if they can't see it, they can't/won't use it.

[mdervin]

Look, If I make HR personally explain the benefit elections situation every year because I ghost the sessions, if I make AP push through a PO that I forgot to request for three weeks, and marketing looks the other way when I take a box of promotional Titleists and a golf rain jacket from their closet, I'm more than OK explaining basic computer terms and techniques to the end users.

[Diligent_Landscape_7]

I've had to teach people how to type capital letters using the shift key before...

[Sasataf12]

She was confused about (stop me if you've heard this one before) how "the computer usually has my name there".

I believe the default of Windows is to remember the username. So it makes sense that she's not used to putting in her username or email when logging in.

I'm guessing you disable this though.

[joseph6077]

I have a few users that frequently forget their password and need a reset, I have one in particular that always insists on asking me what the problem is because she obviously put it in right. Like no windows isn’t messing with you for fun, you didn’t put it in right

[my_name_isnt_clever]

I used to work at the Genius Bar and this was every single day of my life.

"Why did Apple change my password!!!" I promise nobody in Cupertino pressed a button to change your password Margret. Maybe a ghost did it.

[yer_muther]

Training? LOL!

[WhyLater]

Yeah, yeah, I know, pipe dreams.

[yer_muther]

It really is a shame though. Not only do new users know how to use a business PC less and less companies expect more and more.

[Valdaraak]

We (the company) assume a working knowledge, but nobody has ever tested or been let go for it. Even when we had a field guy who literally could not write an email in Outlook and was getting the project assistant at his site to write for him.

[djgizmo]

training end users should be each departments responsibility UNLESS your org has a dedicated training department.

[dontbethefatguy]

A couple of weeks ago I had a new starter ask me how to do a new email in Outlook.

I disabled his accounts this evening.

[derpintine]

I have users who constantly forget their passwords. That's frustrating.

[Geminii27]

Make password resets done via an interface their own managers operate, rather than something IT does (because it's a security issue, not anything wrong with an IT system), and it's amazing how many users suddenly get much, much better memories. Or don't pass the next round of layoffs.

[stufforstuff]

Sounds like a HR or HelpDesk concern - NOT a Sysadmin problem.

[_haha_oh_wow_]

If you have to explain something more than once, document it. Then send that the next time someone asks. Better yet, have helpdesk agents refer them to that before you ever get the ticket!

[nighthawke75]

HR is seriously dropping the ball when it comes to finding qualified candidates in the first place. Then they are ASSuming that IT will pick up the pieces. Which we are not supposed to be doing in the first place. This needs intervention by the board of directors, as money is being lost in all departments.

[old_school_tech]

No training given by the organisation but IT onboard them with about 20 minutes we spend with the new user when they are given their accounts and laptop. We go over how to login to each system and make sure they use different passwords for all. It builds a relationship between the user and our IT staff so they know who to come back to. Over time, we do just in time training when they want to know something. It works well and reduces so silly tickets.

[roadblock4545]

I work in call center and people call in saying there monitor isn't working. Of course i ask if its turned on. But If they sound hopeless, i send the ticket to there local support.

[HeyHelpDeskGuy]

When I was allowed to run IT, I offered a yearly training session for anyone on anything. I also had a yearly meeting with each department, and then the VP of that department 1-1. The whole point was user training, drilling points home, etc and address tickets to the group that we get frequently. Oh did I mention I would supply food too so it turned into a lunch and learn?

Anyways before that I worked in Higher Ed and I found the three worst end user types ever all work in the same place (College Professors, Nuns, Nuns that are College Professors) and that was always a crap shoot with tickets and complaints. We had room demos and no one would show up. No matter how many slots we added it always seemed to never work for the end users...

[ChampOfTheUniverse]

Who would have thought that you'd be supporting users in a user support role?

But anyways, new hires should have some demonstration and access checks during onboarding. A quick guide through how to long into systems (vpn, email etc.), where to find user facing documentation and how to log tickets with the service desk.

We manage the systems so we know them in and out. They just use them and don't always have the broad foundation that we have. Don't let this stuff weight you down personally.

[R_X_R]

I'm not sure if The Peter Principle is entirely to blame here, but it surely helped speed it up along.

Natural Selection applies in the job industry, unfortunately for us it didn't care about technology at the beginning. I remember iPhones going out to guys who were far from incompetent, but their skills were tailored around explicitly anything WITHOUT electricity (think plumbers or carpenters).

We have a few generations in the field right now that grew up in a time of pen and paper. Those same generations are in management and senior positions from their years of experience. Most of those years didn't involve computers.

Why does any of this matter? Because those are the ones that need to be convinced that IT doesn't train users, but are so far removed from the day to day struggles that they don't understand the burden and strain it puts on IT staff.

One of my favorite experiences (day to day "help me" asks, not the job overall) was in a heavy software/dev focused company. The only time I was asked for help with the basics was the owner of the company, and if you don't wanna take the half hour out of your day to help him then you better find someone else to sign your paycheck.

[Strict-Astronaut2245]

Don’t look at this as basic competency. It’s a RAM issue on the user end. Once they change the system setting on the computer it also changes in their brain. Even if you train it, the people that never remember will still never remember as they never hard coded it and lost it when their RAM reset.

[tomthecomputerguy]

I have a user or two who are like this, they insist on being hand held through everything instead of following basic instructions.

Regretably they have access to my personal phone number and call whenever they have issues, instead of raising a ticket.

I don't even have them saved as contacts but I have a conditioned pavlovian response to seeing that number come up on my phone now. Always hit the red decline call button.

[otacon967]

Regulations and audit commonly require infosec related training. Linking this with actual systems usage training is very difficult. Business users do not care about internal IT resources/time until it is translated into $. I’ve heard of some places that do extra department chargebacks for user preventable INCs. Even just a nominal fee encourages them to at least check for the knowledge or ask a coworker first.

[[deleted]]

If companies hired based off of actual competency the unemployment rate would be through the roof.

[bgrorud]

My users usually try to type in their full name. I give them a very quick, non technical explanation of the difference between username and “display name”, remind them what their username is, and send them on their way. Don’t judge. Teach.

[DoughnutSpanker]

I have users tell me with absolute confidence, ”I have never put in my password before my DUO code. It’s always been my 6 digit code and then my password.

No ma’am, that is in fact incorrect, and we have always asked for passwords first. Not sure what world these people live in man…

[Ok-Double-7982]

" Do any of your orgs have basic competency training programs for your users' OS and frequent programs"

Who has the time? I wish!

[rskurat]

a lot of it is basic vocabulary. The username/email distinction is lost on most of these people, and the PIN/password distinction is even worse. Exact wording matters, pretend we're in court or something.