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We are not here to teach basic office skills.

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  • We are not here to teach basic office skills.

    Seriously, its even in the employee handbook. We fix problems we are not supposed to teach people how to do things. That is supposed to be the department supervisors jobs.

    We can show people how to do small tricky things. We just don't have the time to individually teach everyone how to work office.

    Ok this was a VERY busy day, we are two people down and had some new server equipment going in. We were replacing some of the 240 volt UPS, and those bitches are heavy.

    So we get a call, one of the admin assistants is having trouble with a word document. I go up and look, she is having trouble opening a document that is mail merged with a spread sheet. I take a quick look at it and someone messed up the relationship between the two files. Take longer to fix it then just strip out the merge and reapply it.

    So I tell her how to remove a mail merge and tell her then just to set it back up. And I run back down to help with the equipment.

    Another phone call.

    She does not know how to set up a mail merge. Now this always pisses us off, and its more an HR fail then anything. All the Admin Assistants need to pass an office proficiency test with at least a 95%. If they can't do a mail merge then they can only get a max of 90% on the test. Most of the time HR will let them slide with a 75% or they wont even make them take the test if someone wanted to directly hire them. Point is, they are supposed to have Office skills.

    So we tell her we are too busy to help her today. And I might of implied a little that these are skills she should have to do her job. After she got a little uppity on the phone.

    20 minutes later its her boss on the phone, my boss picks up.

    Its a short conversation "Its low priority, I needed every hand on deck down here. You got to have someone on staff that knows how to do a mail merge. Its like chapter 4 in all the office 2007 textbooks we handed out."

    I hear latter that her boss tired to call Uber Boss. And Uber Boss said "If that's what IT Boss said then that's what stands."

    Uber Boss came down later to see how we were doing with all the new equipment. The whole mail merge thing came up. He was quite confused how a whole department couldn't do something he can do. And he cant even work his coffee maker. Then made a joke about maybe he needs to clean some houses up. Asked about the old UPS, then tired to lift one up all by himself. He failed, then wandered off only to bring us back some Iced Coffees from Starbucks.

    I don't get it, Uber Boss rarely stands against IT, but they keep trying. Well the only time he ever does is when the CFO thinks we spend way to much money.

  • #2
    Quoth Daskinor View Post
    Asked about the old UPS, then tired to lift one up all by himself.
    Brave man. Foolish, but brave.
    I AM the evil bastard!
    A+ Certified IT Technician

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    • #3
      Quoth lordlundar View Post
      Brave man. Foolish, but brave.
      They're not that heavy if the actual batteries are not in there.

      At least he brought back snacks for the staff.
      Quote Dalesys:
      ... as in "Ifn thet dawg comes at me, Ima gonna shutz ma panz!"

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      • #4
        Mail merge? The twit can't do a mail merge, and she's an administrative assistant?

        Does she not know how to Google?!?!?!

        I never wasted anyone else's time (or embarrassed myself by letting anyone else know I never learned something that simple) if I could Google the instructions, first. Seriously, office.microsoft.com, anyone?
        Sorry, my cow died so I don't need your bull

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        • #5
          MailMerge is actually older than Microsoft Office. It's nearly as old as Microsoft itself, for that matter; it was originally packaged with (MicroPro) WordStar, if any of you remember that ancient CP/M-based word processor.
          Last edited by Shalom; 08-09-2010, 01:34 PM. Reason: added "MicroPro", didn't want people thinking I was implying WS was a M$ product

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          • #6
            I don't have a clue how to do a mail merge.

            Then again, I'm not an administrative assistant, and I would Google it first. :P
            "And so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride!"
            "Hallo elskan min/Trui ekki hvad timinn lidur"
            Amayis is my wifey

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            • #7
              My company keeps its manuals online.

              Anything you want to know about running a convenience store is a couple of mouse clicks away.

              My staff won't touch it. They'll either ask me, if I'm there, no matter what horrible mess I might be up to my elbows fixing, or they'll leave it for when I get back, so they can ask me then.

              The idea of just looking it up themselves is completely foreign to their thinking, and they get upset every time I suggest it.

              1. They think they're not "authorized" to look at this information. Despite being told otherwise in ever-simpler terms ("Magic numbers box friend! Information good!") people want to get it from me rather than from the computer.

              2. They think they're not "authorized" to fix any problem they might have looked up a solution for, anyway. Seriously, any quest for information would begin and end with begging for permission to fix the problem, then the spirited quest for the proper procedure, and then begging for permission to implement the solution.

              The place I manage, and I've been running stores for twenty years, is the first place I've even heard of where somebody spotted a problem, looked up a solution on their own, fixed the problem, and then fell all over themselves, begging forgiveness, because they didn't get "authorization" from me first. And no amount of "Good work! Thanks for fixing that! You other clowns could learn a lot from you!" convinced her that she had, in fact, done the right thing.

              My store got robbed last year. They hit the hold-up button and then called me at home. The secondary purpose of the call was to inform me of the robbery. The primary purpose of the call was to be sure that it was okay, that I was okay with, them hitting the hold-up button after being held up. The girl who called me was calling to "make sure" that it was okay that they had done that.

              I hate hearing any sentence with the words "authorize" or "make sure." No sign on the display? Go get one! Yes, you're "authorized!" You should already be "sure" because we've already had this conversation. Go and get it done.
              Last edited by TonyDonuts; 08-21-2010, 04:42 PM.
              I have a map of the world. It's actual size.

              -- Steven Wright

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