Fair request for free help

Are all requests for free help appropriate?

This morning I received the following request:

Thanks
Regards
My polite answer was…

If you want help in writing this type of material my hourly rate for this type of advice is …..

Now this post raised a number of questions in my mind –

1. why was this person doing the work when they clearly do not understand the basics of learning
2. to be writing e-learning (or any other learning content) one needs a level of attention to detail, and judging by the number of spelling errors this was not this individuals strengths
3. do people really expect others on forums to solve their problems specifically for free?

I think it is a sad state of our profession that while the views of ‘competent’ people are sort after, that as a profession many of the people appointed to roles (or indeed commissioned for consultancy roles) are ‘not yet competent’ and inexperienced to the point off not being able to do the job yet.

Another day to save the world..

Mike

ps As I write this article I feel it would help readers if I were to post the actual request so that you can see the extent of the errors – so here it is:

Hi Mike,
i am working on desinging an e-learning coursware for the managers, to help them understand the company’s rating scale which we use for performance evaluation. we have five scales for performance and appraisal. the problem is most of the managerscann’t differentiate between the 1st scale and the second for example, Significantlyexeeds targets and exeeds targets. these to scales are the one where most of the managers are not able to differentiate. so i am desinging a e-learning module acontinuim of oru whole performance management system e-course. i am facing problem in producing case studies for the course which can define parameters orbanchmaring the perfomrance. i will be using according to roles and the organisation but needs a starting point or an example case stufy. if you can give me your expertopinon on this i will be grateful. you can email me on my personal email address as well *****@hotmail.com

Thanks
Regards

This article was first published Feb 2010