I really hate people who make things more complicated than they should be.
The worse offender was a former co-worker, who once planned a lunch for the four of us who worked together, and then when one of us said she would meet us there because she had to stop at the bank machine, and another one said she had something to finish up at her desk and would join us shortly, the planner said “Forget it! It’s gotten too complicated” and locked herself in her office while the rest of us went for lunch.
But that was a few years ago and I’m over it.
But now, there’s this event that I’m involved with on Thursday.
I sent the materials (one 40-page document, one 5-page) out to the ten other participants yesterday. I do not know these people; I assume they are somewhere in my building but I don’t know where.
So after I send out the e-mail my boss sends out another, saying “To make things easier, why don’t we print it once and deliver it to people who request it?”
So I sighed, and sent out another e-mail saying “Okay, if you want me to print you one, let me know by 11:00 tomorrow and tell me where to deliver it.”
Since then, a number of people have contacted me to tell me they want it. One of these has told me what area to deliver it to, and I guarantee this branch doesn’t have a reception desk, so I will have to wander and/or ask directions in order to find them. One has called back and said “Oh, since XX said he wants one, we don’t both need one, so just send one.” I got a rather strident e-mail from someone else (marked “important”) saying “I believe YY (in my section) said they want some for everyone.” (Which they didn’t, YY said she wanted one.)
Tell me: HOW does this make anybody’s life easier? Now I have to keep track of who wants them, put up with strident snarky e-mails, find these people, and deliver them, all to save … what? Ten people the thirty seconds of clicking “print” then walking to the printer? We have already wasted twelve hours because they could have printed and read them when I sent the e-mail, yesterday. We have wasted an hour of my time while I print a copy, go to the photocopier, run off ten copies, find everyone, and deliver them (not to mention having to read and sort through unnecessarily strident e-mails).
Grr. Fucking complicators.