All of us have friends and neighbors. Most of those friends and neighbors have jobs or skills that we either lack ourselves or that would come in handy when we get too busy and don't have the time to perform certain tasks ourselves. Do our friends and neighbors owe it to us to do favors for us for free? How many of us would take advantage of the following situations?
- asking a housecleaner to come over and clean your home for free.
- asking a bookkeeper to balance your checkbook for free and take care of your bills.
- expecting a chef to come over and cook a meal for your family for no pay.
- demanding that a musician drop everything to play at your daughter's wedding for free.
- asking the guy who works down at the local laundromat to come over your house and do a few loads for nothing.
- expecting that your neighbor, a housepainter, should come over and paint your living room gratis.
- asking a hairdresser to run over and style your hair for free.
Why is it that asking for favors from these people sounds silly or even outrageous, and yet we think nothing of expecting the IT tech next door to fix our computers for free? Nobody expects a doctor, an attorney, a car mechanic, a plumber, or an electrician to perform services for free. So why is it okay to expect a computer tech to do so? All of these people work hard for their living, putting in long hours at the office or at their respective places of business. We would never ask them to give up their precious leisure or family time to run over and perform work for us for free. Why then, do we feel this is okay to do to the computer expert? Most of these people have families and would much prefer to spend time with them rather than fixing your computer for free. Do you realize that if they were to charge you for their time like Best Buy or other computer repair shops, they could charge as much as $80 bucks per hour in labor? Instead, they are expected to work for free. I'm not saying we can't all ask a favor of our friends or neighbors once in a while. But let's truly make it ONCE in a WHILE. Unfortunately, with the nature of computers and today's virus problems, that "once in a while" often becomes a repeat offense. I know of a computer tech who has fixed the same person's computer three times in the past month, spending hours at a time away from his family, all for free. While this person isn't expecting a huge paycheck, a small token of gratitude would be nice. A bottle of wine, an invitation to a home cooked meal, or an offer to do a favor in return would suffice. We all like to feel appreciated for the hard work we do. Let's extend the same appreciation to others.
