cblj_backup | (no subject)

I love Office Granddad. And I feel a little sorry for him sometimes because I think they probably just couldn't bring themselves to let him go after he worked here for 25 years, and so put him in a position he's not super duper qualified for just to give him a job. But once in a while I am really frustrated that I work next to him.

The thing is that because I've moved up in the world, I no longer am in charge of scheduling meetings, and rightly so; removing that from my job responsibilities was a huge step in establishing me as Not The Project Manager Anymore. But we gave the job to Office Granddad, whom I once had to teach about "downloading attachments". And by "once" I mean "several times over the course of 2012".

So now it's not so much that he schedules the meetings, as that he attempts to schedule the meetings and then I spend ten to twenty minutes helping him fix the errors he made scheduling the meeting. And I try to be patient and not to grab the mouse from him and just do the damn thing myself, but it's really frustrating for both of us.

I keep waiting for the "oh, I get it now" lightbulb to go on, and in the meantime I am constantly lighting candles...

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"in the meantime I am constantly lighting candles... "

At least you're not putting out fires.

Be kind, be patient. It's all good karma.

Oh my gosh. He sounds like my mother, who I have to coach through attaching files every time she tries to send one via email. It's bad enough on that sort of basis -- I can't imagine how it'd be to work with someone like that!!

Keep lighting the candles, Sam. If nothing else, maybe they'll help your sanity, even if they don't turn into lightbulbs. Maybe try a nice, relaxing scent in them?? ;-)

I have something to cheer you up. Behold: Sebastian Stan as Willy Wonka

I used to work with a guy like this, who managed to also make himself immensely unlikeable by telling me all about his ongoing bankruptcy case while simultaneously complaining about how much his pay package was. Which was more than mine. Which just made the whole thing extra galling.

(I hope your Office Granddad is at least likeable!)

My husband is Computer Great-Granddad, and I frequently have to teach him AGAIN how to cut and paste. And how to forward emails. Good luck.

I am the office grandma. While I was in my 20's I filled my brain with DOS and floppy disk info and the WordPerfect just doesn't translate. I keep trying to add the new stuff but I don't think there is enough room up there. My brain is done. My solution, change retirement age to 55 (my age), and we'll go to pasture leaving this new stuff to the youngsters!

I'm sure you've already tried some variation on this, but just in case you haven't, I'll ask: have you tried writing out how to do the scheduling/etc., step-by-infinitesimal-step, with screenshot examples? This worked really well for one of our office Grandmas (the other, not so much, but she's hopeless/incompetent in so many other ways I don't think it's just an age/tech issue there). This has the added bonus of being able to go into a how-to manual for reference for whichever employee gets tasked with it after Office Grandpa, or in case something happens and someone else unfamiliar with it has to do it at some point.

I was coming down here to suggest a similar thing. It fell to me to teach my mother How To Internet (which included How to Turn On PC, How to Mouse, What Is Double-Click, etc etc), and if she doesn't personally write down each step, it's not sticking in her head. She may never look at the notes again, but the act of writing it down helps it make sense for her. It takes sweet forever, but now she sort of knows how to torrent.

Sam, maybe find out if Office Grandpa is the writing it down sort, or the following a flowchart sort, and go from there?

Oof, sorry to hear that. It's too bad they couldn't find him something less, um, technical.

I know that feel, bro