Can I ask company tech guy for help on a personal issue?

At the end of every year, Annie reviews the hundreds of digital photos she's taken throughout the year, selects a handful that capture key moments in her life that year, and then uploads the photos into an online photo book program. Once she's pleased that her book's pages represent the fullness of her year, she ships the pages off and has a copy of a photo book made. She's been doing this for the past five or six years without a problem.

This year, however, she seems to have hit a snag. Several of the photos she's uploaded to the online photo book pages feature a box with a red exclamation point in them. It doesn't seem to be a resolution issue, she writes, since those problems are typically identified with a yellow exclamation point.

Try as she might, Annie writes that she hasn't been able to figure out what is causing the red exclamation points to appear. But she suspects that if she sends off the book to be printed, it's likely that it will come back with errors throughout.

"I know something is going haywire with the uploads or downloads of the pictures from my phone and camera," she writes. "But I can't for the life of me figure it out."

Annie has a good relationship with the information technology (IT) department at her workplace. The folks in IT regularly resolve issues for her when they arise on her office computer.

"Would it be wrong for me to ask one of the IT guys to take a look at my laptop to see if they can figure out what's wrong with my photo book?" she asks.

It's a fair question. Annie knows the IT guys likely have significantly more experience than she does working through tech challenges. One of them might know right off what the issue is.

But if Annie's photo book project is a personal one and has no relation to her job or the work she does there, she shouldn't expect the IT people to try to resolve non-work-related tech issues for her. It would be perfectly fine for her to ask the IT people to help her set up her phone or tablet so she can receive workplace email on it or so she can connect to the office's Wi-Fi. But asking the IT guys to work on personal projects while they are on the job crosses a line.

If her workplace has a clearly stated policy that permits employees to seek help from IT on personal issues, then her request might be fine. But asking IT to fix her personal issue would be akin to asking the company's accountant to help her with her personal tax filing.

The right thing would be for Annie to seek help from more appropriate sources such as an online help line, a savvy friend, a "genius" bar employee, or a facile grandchild. If one of the IT people at work happens to fall into any of these categories, then Annie should feel free to ask away for help, so long as that request and the help takes place during their non-work hours. 

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 

Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 

Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 

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