Ubuntu usabilty is going downhill

I have a serious usability issue with the MI at a corporate installation.

When a new instant message is received with the chat window closed, we have to navigate a menu to interact with it. Click-Navigate-click. Before, we simply double-clicked the flashing icon and the window appeared. This might not seem like much to many of you, but they have to deal with 100-150 email/IM interactions a day. This is a major PITA.

I've deployed Lucid on about 6 desktops with individuals all expressing the same problem. I've delayed the roll-out on the additional machines until I could determine the suitability for deployment for the rest of the organization.

The general perception is that NotifyOSD is taunting them with the message without an immediate solution. This isn't a fair characterization, but it persists. People are a little frustrated. I'm going to have to pull the MI at this location if I'm going to continue to deploy Lucid.

They've been running lucid since beta1. That's about two months. With the current rate of interactivity, if they haven't learned it by now, they aren't going to.

Is this a corner case? I'll leave it for you to decide.