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Incompetent colleagues - it's ranting time!

FPAlpha

Vice Admiral
Premium Member
Sorry, i need to rant and vent.

First a little background.. we are (when fully staffed) 6 people in the office. Teamleader and 5 employees. We are sub-divided into 3 divisions and the colleague in question is fortunately not in my sub division.

So i have this (female) colleague that was in the company for about 1.5 years now and she's about the most incompetent person i have ever met in my work life.

She's mid 20s so one would assume a little experienced at work but even after 1.5 years at the job she still makes these massive rookie mistakes that cause huge problems and others have to put in additional effort to correct the mistakes.

She's been repeatedly told to make permanent notes, i.e. printouts (we have a simple screen printout program that lets you print the entire screen at the press of a key) but she never does it. Instead she uses little post it notes or some other pieces of paper that of course get lost sooner or later so she forgets new and vital information.

She has no attention to detail and sometimes mistakes due to missed details in our line of work are not noticeable until way down the line when the whole process breaks down and causes monetary damage (or it causes fees that have to be paid to correct the mistake).

We have detailed customer information files where everything important is written down so you can't forget something.. she doesn't use them and when asked if she has checked the file she even admits to not have checked it.

She starts a process and mid way through starts something else (that often enough is not even time critical) so of course she gets confused sometime down the line and another mistake happens.

She has no grasp how to categorize tasks into highly important/time critical/needs to be done now or processes that can wait until the next day or even 2 days so of course she starts this uncritical work and then gets all stressed when she notices that the critical things are due now (often then making mistakes due to the stress).

On a personal level she's annoying as hell. she always has to talk and then it's the most trivial stuff.. small talk for small talk's sake which nearly everybody hates. She also can't take the hint when nobody responds that nobody cares about her new kitchen or this new clothes store she found or how the mother of her boyfriend makes her life hell etc..

She's already been transferred to a less complicated sub division (supposedly) with no improvement.. it actually got worse because she won't admit to her mistakes anymore. She actually lies to your face when asked if xyz is done and when caught makes some feeble excuse.

The silver lining is that she'll be leaving in a month. About 2-3 months ago her boyfriend broke up with her (wonder why) after she moved to a different city to be with him after they were together for about 2-3 months (not for me to judge but upending your life so completely after such a short time may not be a smart move but that's just me). She's really clingy.. the type of woman who looks for a guy with a decent job who can support a family and then hopes to get pregnant soon so she can end her work life and become a housewife and mother (not a bad "career path" in itself but she just doesn't want to master her own life and looks for someone who'll take charge for her).

However each day i get more and more annoyed and sometimes even aggressive, i can't wait until she leaves and hopefully her replacement won't be such a dud.

Sorry.. had to vent and rant.

Anyone has similar stories?
 
Too many, for far too long. My current job is generally enjoyable, but there are one or two people who have definitively proven that, short of placing a flaming bag of dogshit on someone's desk, there's nothing they can do to get fired. Doesn't set a terribly good example for the rest of the team and causes some bad attitudes to bubble up, but it's still a better job than most I've had.

Moral of the story: God must love cup-drooling fuckwits, because He makes so many of them. It's all a part of the Circle of Life, I guess. :whistle:
 
Wow! That is a lot to process. I'm sure we all have had similar experiences, and I can assure you that it won't be your last. Especially if you are in charge of others. I remember a few years back being in charge of making sure behavioral intervention therapy notes were turned in for billing, which turned into a hassle on Fridays when nobody had them turned in. One guy told me he couldn't do them because it took away time from his children, which was b.s. because the notes take 15 minutes a day tops for a person whose job is mostly down time.

Some people aren't qualified or right for every position they find themselves in. Sounds like the young lady you work with may have found herself in over her head.
 
I'm sorry you have to deal with that (genuinely, I know what a pain it can be). To keep your frustration at bay, remember that she probably feels just as bad about the job, but in a different way. The fact that she's started to lie about getting things done seems to indicate that she realizes she is not up to par. She probably feels guilty, inadequate, and lost. It's good that she's moving on to somewhere else, as this is clearly not the job for her. From what you describe, it sounds like she may be much better at working with people (i.e. the service field) than with information.

I can sort of relate to your situation, especially recently. We hired a new person about a year ago that seemed to be working out well. She got along great with everyone, I started to become a good friend to her, and she seemed really smart and like she understood the work. She was a temp doing the job for about three months, and then she applied for the permanent position and got it. I actually had reservations during the recruitment because I thought there was someone else in the pool that was more qualified and interviewed much better, so I expressed this concern. However, the rest of the recruitment committee was set on hiring her, so we did. She had seemed to do well as a temp, so I was okay with this decision. And things did seem to be going well for a while.

However, about four months into her being in the position permanently, I started to notice that she seemed to be forgetting to do certain tasks. I didn't think it was a big deal, just something I might need to discuss with her. It is HR type work, so it is very important to be detailed and accurate, people's livelihoods are on the line. We are a bit understaffed and it is a high-paced work environment, so I would check in periodically to make sure she wasn't overwhelmed. She always assured me everything was okay.

Then I go on vacation for a week in the summer. When I return, my boss calls me in to her office and tells me this person took another job and is leaving in a week and a half. I was completely shocked, and a little hurt, because we had become friends and I had no idea she was unhappy with the job.

It wasn't until the day before she left that we realized the catastrophic mess that she had left for us...she was MONTHS behind in her work. Not only that, we couldn't even tell the status of most of her work because she had not been entering anything into the tracking system that we are supposed to use on a daily basis. When we sat down with her to discuss "passing off" anything she had in progress to me, we were shocked by the number of things on her desk. I am the only back-up to that position, so I had to do my job, her job, plus the several months of work she hadn't done for a few months after she left, until we finally hired a new person (guess what, it's that other, more qualified person from the first recruitment that I had preferred).

It has been about nine months since she left and I am still finding major errors that she made. Apparently she was completely overwhelmed by the job. I can't even count the number of times I have had to apologize to the people we serve or the higher-ups for things that were never turned in, which of course makes me and the rest of our office look bad. I still find piles of random papers that include requests, filing, approvals, etc. that I guess she just printed and put in a drawer and did nothing with.

I don't get it. If I got THAT behind in a job, I would SAY SOMETHING!! It's not like we are hard asses, we asked her so many times if she needed help, but she always said no. She is clearly not a detail-oriented person and was not a good fit for this type of work. Sometimes I get mad thinking about the mess she left behind, but I also feel sad because I feel like she betrayed me in a way. It's just amazing how one bad employee can leave behind such long-lasting issue in their wake.
 
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I'm so glad I work for myself, by myself.

Not least of which so no one notices all the stuff I fuck up and spend ages putting right.
 
I'm sorry you have to deal with that (genuinely, I know what a pain it can be). To keep your frustration at bay, remember that she probably feels just as bad about the job, but in a different way. The fact that she's started to lie about getting things done seems to indicate that she realizes she is not up to par. She probably feels guilty, inadequate, and lost. It's good that she's moving on to somewhere else, as this is clearly not the job for her. From what you describe, it sounds like she may be much better at working with people (i.e. the service field) than with information.

I understand her situation too but it's mostly self made.. we went out of our way to help her and give her suggestions on what to do based on our own experiences. When i started out i used to make screenshots and notes of everything but the kitchen sink. I have a big binder (full of women :lol:) that sits on my desk and even after the 4+ years im in this department i still need to check it occasionally when i do something.

We told her this and advised her to do this too.. did she do it? No.. she continued to use her small post its and mistakes happened of course. Just this morning our boss noted that a vital task was not done yesterday and our customer noticed it too. We use Outlook tasks regularly and have set it up for each sub division so we are reminded by Outlook to do certain things at a certain time.. she only did half of the task even despite being in this sub division for months and should know this.

This is what's frustrating at the highest levels.. we write everything down, have detailed process files on how to do this (the only thing missing from these files are song and dance) because our work can get quite complicated but out of experience we have developed a near foolproof work flow and everybody understood it and follows it. Mistakes do happen of course, even if you're years with the department but she doesn't show any kind of improvement (we estimate it takes at least 6 months for a new eomployee to learn the processes and become secure in doing the work, up to a year before the employee is able to work on his own without support or someone looking over his/her shoulder).

She was asked nicely to leave the company because our bosses are at their wits end.. she was accomodated and helped like no one before (which also led to a little bad blood because others have been told off for less than her) and she finally has also understood that she is not able to cut it at this job. Now that her relationship is over (which was the reason she looked for a job here) she will move back and has a new job lined up.. poor guys there.
 
Some people simply pick the wrong jobs from the beginning of their work life. It sticks with you the whole life. I once was a doctor's assistant, but the job (drawing blood, doing laboratory tests, processing patients without a break) wasn't my cup of tea, so I started to study social sciences. When I can't find a job in this area, the authorities force me to apply as doctor's assistant - where I'm completely out of my depth after all this year without job experience. A job must be reasonable, so they say.
Changing a job after all this years isn't that simple in Germany. And the bosses still put great emphasis on qualification and certificates than on personality. At least the authorities who sponsor the employees.
 
Much of my job consists of waiting for other people to do their jobs. Since I am a lowly data/clerical person, and they are professors and administrators and deans, I don't really have other options. I've even been told, on occasion, to slow down and work less hard/quickly, because I might make other people look bad. One particular process we've been working on implementing has been delayed a whole year, despite my side of it being more than ready to go... so long that I'm actually starting to forget how to do it!

But hey, I get paid all the same, my direct supervisor thinks I'm invaluable and irreplacable, and it leaves me a lot of time to be places like here.
 
I've even been told, on occasion, to slow down and work less hard/quickly, because I might make other people look bad.
Yeah, I've experienced that nonsense before. I usually responded by suggesting that they "file that one under 'Not My Problem'".
 
Well if your productivity makes others look bad, I would suggest that it is the others that have the poblem. I.e. they need to increase their productivity.
 
Spent over a decade laboring in the trenches of the restaurant world. Incompetence is something that can be overcome with effort, but it sure ruins your day. A lot of people think that waiting tables is an easy job, a mindless job, something that anyone can do. They couldn't be more wrong, and some of the dummies we had wander in were quite a drag until they flamed out.
 
Spent over a decade laboring in the trenches of the restaurant world. Incompetence is something that can be overcome with effort, but it sure ruins your day. A lot of people think that waiting tables is an easy job, a mindless job, something that anyone can do. They couldn't be more wrong, and some of the dummies we had wander in were quite a drag until they flamed out.

I just saw some girls at a local ice cream parlor rotating because there was a big hustle and bustle. And they did it well. Not keeping a crowd of people waiting for their ice cream for too long is no mean feat.
 
I just saw some girls at a local ice cream parlor rotating because there was a big hustle and bustle. And they did it well. Not keeping a crowd of people waiting for their ice cream for too long is no mean feat.
Yep. A food service establishment that can keep up with a rush is worthy of admiration. There is no feeling like you get when the ticket machine starts spitting 1021023974094285734 tickets, there is a line out the door, and every table is getting sat at the same time. WOOOOOOOO!!!!
 
Spent over a decade laboring in the trenches of the restaurant world. Incompetence is something that can be overcome with effort, but it sure ruins your day. A lot of people think that waiting tables is an easy job, a mindless job, something that anyone can do. They couldn't be more wrong, and some of the dummies we had wander in were quite a drag until they flamed out.

I think everyone should have to work in the service industry at some point be it in a restaurant, shop etc... And browsing the web you see comments like those who work in the service sector should get a real job. But then who would serve you at the supermarket, bring your food to (let alone cook it) when you want to eat out, deliver your takeway etc...
 
I think everyone should have to work in the service industry at some point be it in a restaurant, shop etc... And browsing the web you see comments like those who work in the service sector should get a real job. But then who would serve you at the supermarket, bring your food to (let alone cook it) when you want to eat out, deliver your takeway etc...
Yeah that "real job" :censored: is ridiculous. It was especially difficult to take when people would compliment my service and say "You are too smart to work as a waiter - when are you going to get a REAL JOB?"
You mean like you Mr. I Drink Lemon Water Because I Can't Afford To Order A Real Drink?
 
I had that "real job" thing thrown at me by someone who thought that what I did was just mindless and easy. He missed the part about having to have the people skills to calm anxious students and listen to them vent about their instructors and assignments, juggle schedules that could change very suddenly, the willingness to be a bit of a tutor when necessary, and the ability to spend 12-18 hours a day turning handwritten material into nicely-typed, accurate, properly-formatted essays, term papers, lab reports, resumes, letters, and legal documents.

Apparently that isn't a "real job."
 
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