I have a friend that works for Japanese company that’s doing business development here in Saigon. It’s a small office with just her, one Vietnamese-Japanese coworker, and their manager.
The coworker is not terribly bright. She’s boggled by tasks like using a computer, sending a fax, or phoning FedEx to pick up a shipment. My friend spends half of each day just showing her how to do stuff. My friend says that if the coworker didn’t do anything at all, it would actually be an improvement.
Unfortunately, the coworker had some kind of “special” relationship with the company’s chairman when she lived in Japan. Therefore, replacing her isn’t lkely.
I advised my friend to push back on the incessant questions … never refuse to help of course, but promise to help after some period of time, say an hour, with the excuse that she was in the middle of an uninterruptable task. Who knows? Maybe the coworker, deprived of instant gratification, would actually work out some things herself.
Any other suggestions? I’m sure most of us have been in this situation at some point. Any creative solutions? What worked well?
Yeah, those of us who are supremely competent find ourselves in this position a lot …
Some things I’ve tried:
Setting aside time to teach a little class (the term refresher usually goes over well) on some things, like word processor features.
Having a general rule in the office that you check written instructions first, then ask a peer within the office, then a superior or a counterpart outside the office. This is a way of containing incompetence, plus it can help people learn to use their written resources.
Also, could this be a case of an introvert working with an extrovert? If an extrovert has a question, it’s pretty darn sure it will come out of her mouth. Ever watch an extrovert look for her keys? She probably starts by asking everyone if they’ve seen them. An introvert, on the other hand, can look for 20 minutes in silence. Finally, the extrovert asks “What are you doing?” and then says something like “Oh, I think I’m sitting on them.” I think a lot of young extroverts have to learn how to appropriately manage this tendency in the workplace. Here, maybe just understanding different styles and compromising might help.
I think it’s a good sign that the coworker is actually trying to do stuff. Having an “in” with the boss could make some people really passive and not try to do things they don’t know how to do.
A final suggestion might be a different division of workload, so the coworker spent more time on more repetitive tasks until she mastered them, and introduce new tasks gradually.
Nah, I think he’s talking about people with whom you’ve shown them what to do, repeatedly, but they still have no fucking clue. Introverts and extroverts both contain highly unskilled people which have no determination to learn for themselves and rely on others to do things for them.
I don’t know if that’s the best way to handle the situation. Given that
If he makes her life miserable, I have a feeling that Greg Charles’ friend may be the one who finds himself getting transferred.
“After some discussion with Corporate, we feel your talents may actually be more suited to the office in Dhaka. The recent flooding has created a bit of a mess there, so we’d like you to head out right away. You’ve had your cholera vaccine, yes?”
Once working as a graphic designer, our firm hired a new person who only had experiance in web design. The guy was incredibly bad with such essential programs as photoshop and Illustrator. I tried to help him, I really did, because that is what I would want if for whatever reason I landed a job that way way out of my depth. I gave basic lessons, I looked over his work, I even lent him some of my expensive tutorial books (never saw them again). Not only did he not get better, but he got comfortable and slacked off. All the while maintaining an attitude of superiority toward me.
The only person with the power to do anything had recieved a head injury shortly after his hire and was out for a couple months. Perhaps one of my most satisfying moments was when she came back, and I brought to her some samples of this guy’s “work” and a printout of the contents of his internet history. Somewhere around The Internet’s Bustiest Amitures, Boss turned to me and said “His ass is so fired”.
In your situation, if the chairman has absolute power, there may be little you can do. Still, money talks and if decision makers in the company become aware of just how much this arrangement is costing (in terms of lost productivity, etc.) they may well decide to take a prudent course of action. It may be very tricky to avoid catching some of the flack yourself, if you try to shake things up.
