> 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.
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.
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.