Dyslexic Dopers: Need strategies to help co-worker follow instructions

So, my entire department at work is getting extremely frustrated by a co-worker who is causing our work (with respect to his projects) to increase a threefold. He is dyslexic, but for the most part, although he has a bad habit of writing his copy as if it was an exercise in fitting the most inappropriate clichés per paragraph, all-in-all, it’s really not that bad.

However, the problem is that his inability to follow instructions is causing us a lot of delays. It is ballooning the workload of everyone else in the entire department. I Googled “adult dyslexia” (actually Gaudere’s law struck and first I Googled “dault dylsexia”) and sure enough having “difficulty remembering and following instructions” and “forgetting what was said in meetings” is quite common of dyslexics in an office setting. So okay, we’re trying to give him what he needs to follow along.

Some things are simple and we’ve gone through it with him again and again and again. For example, he puts a “P.S.” at the end of his article. That’s not allowed. “Don’t do that.” He puts it there anyway, it gets removed, he puts it back, it gets removed, he puts it back. He’s told by everyone in our department not to do it, he’s been told by his supervisor not to do it, and by the VP and the President of the company, “dont’ do that”. He still does it. It’s on his checklist “make sure there is no PS.” But there always is and he says “I think it’s more effective this way.”

But that’s just a little pesky thing, the bigger problem is the does the same with much more elaborate and time-consuming things (the VP has even had to redo some of his work). No matter how many times we give to him to fix, he just isn’t fixing it. There are a handful of things that he keeps doing the wrong way, and people are really frustrated.

We’re running out of options. We’ve given him checklists to go through. We’ve given him templates so he just needs to cut and past his info over top the exisiting formatting. We’ve provided instructions in every media we can think of. And then we go through the few simple procedures over and over with him again.

So, what other effective strategies exist? What else might we try so that he can “get” it? There are at least two people in my department who are ready to slap him silly. I’m thinking there’s gotta be something we haven’t tried and I’d like to find a workable solution.

damn

I am dyslexic, and have worked my butt off to mainstream myself…

I should give the politically correct information to be supportive and all that crap, but to be bluntly honest, I would give him a deadine and tell him he follows the instructions and templates, and gets the corrections done on schedule or he gets the pink slip.

As long as you can document that you have bent over backwards trying to accomodate him, the labor board shouldnt be able top make a case against discrimination based on his dyslexia.

We’re not worried about issues with the labor board or anything, but my co-workers and I would like to get our workload back to normal while he’s here for however long that may be.

He had a list of three quotes, the first was really bad and inappropriate. We wrote directly on the hard copy “remove this, replace it with another one.” Instead, he just moved the lousy first quote to the third spot. I had to go an find a suitable replacement.

Is this a matter of not getting the instructions or just being a dickhead?

(What? You can have a disability and still be a dickhead.)

aruvqan is there other way of formatting instructions better than what we’ve already tried?

Your co-worker may be dyslexic, but “I think it’s more effective this way” is not the same as an inability to comprehend or remember directions.

When Mrs. Kunilou works with dyslexics, she often gives four types of instructions at once: written, verbal, pictures/diagrams, and a pattern of movement, with each reinforcing the other.

Wait, let me also ask so I understand. Is the not following instructions a matter of forgetting one of a sequence of instructions you’re given? Like, “cook steak, boil potatoes, toast bun” and “boil potatoes” getsl ost but “cook steak” and “toast bun” is okay?

And if you repeat the same thing over and over three times a week (E.g./ “Never put a P.S.!”), does that mean he’s “not getting it” or is just being stubborn? (He often says “I like it this way” or "I think this is more effective, when it’s really, really not.)

Maybe not directly affecting the OP, but my dyslexic colleague has been very good at telling us what she finds easy and what’s difficult - such as, instead of click on ‘Images’, say click on the ‘Images’ tab above the main window, near the left. Once in the habit, it’s no extra work.

However, on a completely unqualified basis, it sounds like the OP’s colleague is trying to deny the problem, or ignore it, or whatever. Of course, it’s possible he’s just a but rubbish…

Hmm. The job involves copy writing. He’s been given verbal and written explanations, as well as templates for how things should be, and in addition to the formatting you can see we also wrote out a list of the fonts by name that he must use. I can’t offhand think of other way to diagram it for further reinfocement.

How about: Any way to find out if he’s understood before we get the crazy copy?

Like ask him to tell us what he’s going to do? (Not wanting to patronize him or anything, I’d like to make things easier for everyone.)

Oh, and I still haven’t ruled out the possibility that he’s just being a jerk who wants his work his way regardless of policy.

Who’s the guy’s line manager or supervisor? If there’s a specific problem, they’re the one who should be tackling it. And also, the guy should be able to deal with any specific difficulties through this one person (who is being paid for that responsibility) rather than having to explain it all to everyone. Actual co-workers shouldn’t be put in a position to have to identify and deal with specific problems such as this.

Aye, he should be, shouldn’t he? But this is the same manager that approves the very copy that’s so bad it gets rewritten by my group (or he’s even been stuck rewriting it himself.) :rolleyes:

So far that supervisor has just asked us to do all the things we’ve already done. Provide templates etc. Now whether or not there’s other stuff going on I’ve no idea (though I doubt it) but in the meantime, my supervisor is getting ticked off and those of us who have to work with this guy’s stuff are going crazy. He’s causing a bottleneck.

FTR - my co-worker has never blamed any of his “not-following-instructions” on his dyslexia, but unless he’s a Royal Dickhead from the planet Poopstain, there really is no other explanation. The only other time we had copy this bad, that never got corrected no matter how many times we sent it back, the guy got fired. So I’m guessing this guy is getting more leeway, possibly for legitimate reasons.

But it would explain stuff like when my supervisor says “But we talked about this in the meeting!!! Doesn’t he remember?” because the answer might honestly be “No, he doesn’t.”