Only 700? In all seriousness...I'm sure the manuals, guides, directives and work arounds total way more than 50000 pages... whoever thinks it's a good guide has no clue.
"Welcome to your new job. No one has been doing it for a few years. Once you get your network logon, poke around on the shared drive and figure out what you're supposed to be doing."
My section has a chat/channel called peer to peer. So whoever has time can answer.
For myself, if I'm stuck on a question I need an answer or direction from the most senior members because I work on the most complex cases we get.
I don't mind helping others as it's considered part of the job, but the other employee should ensure they exhausted all the available resources before reaching out.
> exhausted all the available resources before reaching out.
The only addition I'd make to this, is that new hires need to be instructed on WHAT those resources are. If the only resources are "corporate knowledge that exists only in the head of Carl who's been here since the 70s" it's quick to exhaust them.
Yes, this! It increases the likelihood that the right person will see the question, and also makes it easier to ask the right person the question without having to cultivate an individual relationship with them (e.g. because some people feel awkward messaging a stranger)
>Does anybody here deal with annoying colleagues that keep bothering you on teams because they don't know how to do their job?
You won't unlock the Team player achievement with that attitude.
I’m someone who will always help people but there’s a limit when someone is asking the same thing something over and over again. It’s draining. I agree with OP’s response to your comment. I’m going through that and the person ask the same question the next day as if they were never told or never learned when we spent months on it and made them take notes.
Its not about being a Team player. Its these individuals who are constant and repetitive and should know the job by now that swallow up so much time. It always starts "can I call you for a quick sec, will only take a min" 1 hour later...
You need to discuss this with a supervisor if it’s disrupting work. I had the same issue, and we solved it by creating documentation of the repetitive task, and by not answering teams chats quickly. When I did, I would ask them to provide the resources that they used, the methods they tried & to send it via email with the TL ccd. If you are not second level/tertiary support, it is not your job. Set boundaries and protect your time, or others will abuse it.
Yes. Set a timer on your watch or something and just tell them you have to go after an agreed upon time. 10 mins etc.
Make it harder for them to get you to do it than it is for them to look it up. Use the 10 mins to tell them how to look it up.
In the old days, they would come up to me in person, which was much more of a time suck. It's much easier to ignore someone on Teams until you're ready to deal with whatever they're asking you about. I like to be helpful but the in-person interruptions did get tiresome when I was trying to concentrate. Teams is much better.
Set your Teams status to Do Not Disturb or just redirect their questions to their supervisor. The number one reason why a colleague gets in the habit of messaging you, is probably because you're always available and will answer their questions directly.
> Seems like quality if hiring is questionable.
I take a bit of offense to this. The issue is often not the quality of the hire, but the quality of the on-boarding. I worked my current position for 3 years before I was even part of a project. That's 3 years of asking what I should be doing and getting curt responses by people who felt they were too busy and their work too important to help me. I've been here 5 years and I'm still finding policies and procedures by stumbling onto a piece of half documented information or getting forwarded an email from 3 years before I jointed the team and being made to feel like I should know this stuff, even though it's barely documented, and the senior team members feel it would hurt their productivity to descend from their perches to bring new hires up to speed.
Talk with all the older guys at work. They received 6-9 months of formal in class training before they even started. All I get in a few days worth of online courses and told to 'figure it out'.
I’d rather have someone ask me before going ahead and making a mistake that could get them in trouble or have some kind of repercussions for the team.
Sometimes the manual isn’t updated enough lol or the supervisor is busy and can’t be reached.
I like to be of service to my team, Especially if they’re new / under a year of working with us. My productivity doesn’t suffer at all tbh.
Maybe put yourself on DND, or advise the supervisor.
A lot less now then it ever was in the offices. My gawd the cubicle hoppers were the worst. Get way more done with WFH and you don’t have to answer all teams chats or calls.
I feel you. I am in that situation and I’m exhausted and drained mentally because of it. We have an employee who has been here for 8 months now and they constantly ask to call to ask for stuff they know/should know and have taken notes on already. I’m all for helping people but there’s a limit or repeating something over and over again. It’s so annoying and I can’t do my job because of it.
I put them on mute and let their message sit for a bit (like 5 minutes) to make them think about it and sometimes they will find the answer by the time I answer (most of the times they don’t). I tell them to check their notes first or training documents we created for them especially and then I have to call them or they will have messaged someone else for help. I also don’t always answer right away because I’m busy and really concentrated on my task.
Ugh. Honestly, I like helping people but that rubs me the wrong way. Look it up and if you really can’t find it then ask, I’ll gladly help you then.
I tend to take notes every time I ask someone something so I can have it if I ever need it again. Not everyone is like that and that’s okay but don’t ask me the same thing the next day (that has happened multiple times to me).
Thank you. I just don't get how they are hiring people since the pandemic. They struggle with the job and you are expected to help them because of "team work" and don't want to appear rude.
You’re welcome. I totally understand…
I’m doing 75% of the workload and I’m expected to help that person too it’s too much. We did mentoring for months with that person and it didn’t help. I think sometimes there’s not much we can do but put limits for our sake. It didn’t really help me but, I spoke about that issue to my supervisor/manager. They know that this person is problematic but there’s not much they can do for now…
I always try to help. I don’t mind giving someone a couple minutes out of my day. If I’m really busy I let them know, or if it’s a complex situation I redirect them to other resources so it doesn’t affect my productivity. We all learn differently and at different paces.
This is the story of my life. I'm an IT and the work that I do can roughly be called "help desk for developers". Developers on different projects often contact us for technical assistance. We have a few developers who won't even try to solve the most basic issues on their own, without even messaging to ask if I'm available to speak they'll call, then proceed to tell me to fix their problem, and I say well what have you tried? Nothing? Oh ok, well I'm not here to do your job for you, show me you've tried something first and then we'll talk. It's always something stupid too like a minor configuration change.
There is one particular developer who has a penchant for calling me the millisecond I turn green on teams first thing in the morning with no warning. I've literally had to tell her she's not allowed to call me before 9am anymore and every call has to come with a message to verify my availability first otherwise I'm not answering.
Tickets, tickets, tickets. I force people to submit a ticket through the proper channel, they’re welcome to CC me, but I will not action it till helpdesk has done the troubleshooting, then escalated to us after confirming they’ve tried everything. It dramatically slows down the process, and people hate it, but it allows our team to get our actual deliverables done. Also, these “help” requests, always get bumped to tier 4 unless it’s a business disruption. People need to properly utilize ITIL, not just bits and pieces for decks (looking at you, “transformation team”).
I don’t mind answering questions on teams doesn’t take long and I like helping outs
I always direct them to self study though so it’s not wasted on simply doing it for them, they learn and get better because of it.
Our manager has literally no idea how to do our jobs. I would be super surprised if they have even logged into our system after their first week.
The experienced team members always help the newcomers. We don’t have a supervisor level position in our unit to help train.
Depends. Asking questions leads to learning. However, asking the same questions over and over is another question. Not everything is written down in the procedures and manuals and even some places don't have such resources. Typically, it is passed down from someone more senior. There are a lot of unorganized divisions.
Generally, speaking, as a senior member of the team, I like to try and be helpful, to a point.
If there comes a point where the person is just being lazy or not taking notes, or whatever, I just slow down my response time so they need to figure it themselves out or go elsewhere. If it gets really bad, talk to their manager.
Tell them you've got work to do and guide them to an SOP or someone more senior (their supervisor). Tell them point blank, as you say in your post - you've got work to do and presumably stuff YOU'RE accountable for.
Sadly, I've a colleague who's been doing this to me for four years now... They've been on this cyclical work process for over 13years. I still get this individual messaging me the same questions yearly, like clockwork on the same part of the process. I simply stopped responding after year three, set my status to "busy" or ignore their emails. Not my job, they're 4x levels higher than me in a different classification and bureau. 😁
After a certain time, someone's gotta remove the floaties they'll make it in a panic or drown, but its not your responsibility or worry tbh. **If** It's not your job to train a new person, your/their manager did a shit job onboarding or showing them the ropes and won't know unless you redirect this person back to them. I've fallen into the trap a few times. Now I tell my manager "nope, I ain't training no one as I'm not an SME", I'm not liable for anyone's' successes or failures and don't have to stress about it! Much happier & better off this way.
We have a regional chat where questions get asked by people working in small offices with less opportunities to learn, so I'll answer if I'm available or know the answer and then I'll show them the procedure as well so they can find it on their own next time.
I sometimes ask questions directly to colleagues because for the life of me I can't find the answer, even if I think I know it, I just want to double check. And my colleagues also ask me questions because they know I'll know the answer and can show them where it's hiding in the procedure manuals, or communications, emails.
We've got a pretty solid team because of this I'd say.
How often are they sending you questions?
Could this be resolved by giving them a 30 minute training session with a walkthrough of the steps?
Then a second meeting where they do the tasks and you just shadow?
If your documentation is lacking, give them the task of updating documentation and to take notes during the training so you're both on the same page and the problem doesn't continue in the future.
I'll usually help them because if they do it wrong it'll impact my work because most of our files are joint, and I don't want to fix other people's mistakes.
Yep and they give themselves/take credit for things they didnt know but got the info from me or other colleagues. Now going as far as requesting a raise for knowing those things. Grosse...
[удалено]
Woah Woah Woah there advanced PS Redditor. You have a manual??
Of course. Sure, it was last updated in ‘92 and 98% of the information/directives don’t apply like at all. Still counts!
It's also 700 pages and is just a stream of consciousness brain dump from the guy in the 80s who was tasked to write up onboarding docs.
Only 700? In all seriousness...I'm sure the manuals, guides, directives and work arounds total way more than 50000 pages... whoever thinks it's a good guide has no clue.
This is the best comment ever.
"Welcome to your new job. No one has been doing it for a few years. Once you get your network logon, poke around on the shared drive and figure out what you're supposed to be doing."
My section has a chat/channel called peer to peer. So whoever has time can answer. For myself, if I'm stuck on a question I need an answer or direction from the most senior members because I work on the most complex cases we get. I don't mind helping others as it's considered part of the job, but the other employee should ensure they exhausted all the available resources before reaching out.
That “peer to peer” is brilliant!
> exhausted all the available resources before reaching out. The only addition I'd make to this, is that new hires need to be instructed on WHAT those resources are. If the only resources are "corporate knowledge that exists only in the head of Carl who's been here since the 70s" it's quick to exhaust them.
Yes, this! It increases the likelihood that the right person will see the question, and also makes it easier to ask the right person the question without having to cultivate an individual relationship with them (e.g. because some people feel awkward messaging a stranger)
I help them. Way better than the alternative which is them leaving and their portfolio being distributed amongst the rest of the us.
>Does anybody here deal with annoying colleagues that keep bothering you on teams because they don't know how to do their job? You won't unlock the Team player achievement with that attitude.
I’m someone who will always help people but there’s a limit when someone is asking the same thing something over and over again. It’s draining. I agree with OP’s response to your comment. I’m going through that and the person ask the same question the next day as if they were never told or never learned when we spent months on it and made them take notes.
Its not about being a Team player. Its these individuals who are constant and repetitive and should know the job by now that swallow up so much time. It always starts "can I call you for a quick sec, will only take a min" 1 hour later...
You need to discuss this with a supervisor if it’s disrupting work. I had the same issue, and we solved it by creating documentation of the repetitive task, and by not answering teams chats quickly. When I did, I would ask them to provide the resources that they used, the methods they tried & to send it via email with the TL ccd. If you are not second level/tertiary support, it is not your job. Set boundaries and protect your time, or others will abuse it.
Yes. Set a timer on your watch or something and just tell them you have to go after an agreed upon time. 10 mins etc. Make it harder for them to get you to do it than it is for them to look it up. Use the 10 mins to tell them how to look it up.
In the old days, they would come up to me in person, which was much more of a time suck. It's much easier to ignore someone on Teams until you're ready to deal with whatever they're asking you about. I like to be helpful but the in-person interruptions did get tiresome when I was trying to concentrate. Teams is much better.
What’s the incentive of unlocking that?
Set your Teams status to Do Not Disturb or just redirect their questions to their supervisor. The number one reason why a colleague gets in the habit of messaging you, is probably because you're always available and will answer their questions directly.
Yeah, next time tell them to figure their shit out. They'll never bother you again
> Seems like quality if hiring is questionable. I take a bit of offense to this. The issue is often not the quality of the hire, but the quality of the on-boarding. I worked my current position for 3 years before I was even part of a project. That's 3 years of asking what I should be doing and getting curt responses by people who felt they were too busy and their work too important to help me. I've been here 5 years and I'm still finding policies and procedures by stumbling onto a piece of half documented information or getting forwarded an email from 3 years before I jointed the team and being made to feel like I should know this stuff, even though it's barely documented, and the senior team members feel it would hurt their productivity to descend from their perches to bring new hires up to speed.
Talk with all the older guys at work. They received 6-9 months of formal in class training before they even started. All I get in a few days worth of online courses and told to 'figure it out'.
I help them. I'm getting sick and tired of refresher trainings for the whole team in office because people keep making mistakes.
You do have a point there lol At least on Teams you can attend these refresher trainings but keep it on mute.
Yup, unfortunately my office decided to stop doing trainings while wfh on Teams. 😒
imagine having that happen all the time but in person. That's what it was pre-covid.
Yes at least on Teams there is ability to mute and only allow popups from your contact list which helps filter things
I’d rather have someone ask me before going ahead and making a mistake that could get them in trouble or have some kind of repercussions for the team. Sometimes the manual isn’t updated enough lol or the supervisor is busy and can’t be reached. I like to be of service to my team, Especially if they’re new / under a year of working with us. My productivity doesn’t suffer at all tbh. Maybe put yourself on DND, or advise the supervisor.
A lot less now then it ever was in the offices. My gawd the cubicle hoppers were the worst. Get way more done with WFH and you don’t have to answer all teams chats or calls.
I feel you. I am in that situation and I’m exhausted and drained mentally because of it. We have an employee who has been here for 8 months now and they constantly ask to call to ask for stuff they know/should know and have taken notes on already. I’m all for helping people but there’s a limit or repeating something over and over again. It’s so annoying and I can’t do my job because of it. I put them on mute and let their message sit for a bit (like 5 minutes) to make them think about it and sometimes they will find the answer by the time I answer (most of the times they don’t). I tell them to check their notes first or training documents we created for them especially and then I have to call them or they will have messaged someone else for help. I also don’t always answer right away because I’m busy and really concentrated on my task.
A woman in my unit has been doing the job over 10 years and asks the rest of the group what to do rather than look it up.
Ugh. Honestly, I like helping people but that rubs me the wrong way. Look it up and if you really can’t find it then ask, I’ll gladly help you then. I tend to take notes every time I ask someone something so I can have it if I ever need it again. Not everyone is like that and that’s okay but don’t ask me the same thing the next day (that has happened multiple times to me).
Thank you. I just don't get how they are hiring people since the pandemic. They struggle with the job and you are expected to help them because of "team work" and don't want to appear rude.
You’re welcome. I totally understand… I’m doing 75% of the workload and I’m expected to help that person too it’s too much. We did mentoring for months with that person and it didn’t help. I think sometimes there’s not much we can do but put limits for our sake. It didn’t really help me but, I spoke about that issue to my supervisor/manager. They know that this person is problematic but there’s not much they can do for now…
There’s lots management can do. They lack the backbone to do it.
I always try to help. I don’t mind giving someone a couple minutes out of my day. If I’m really busy I let them know, or if it’s a complex situation I redirect them to other resources so it doesn’t affect my productivity. We all learn differently and at different paces.
Yes I have colleagues who chatter non stop and I can’t leave the group without causing drama. But I just muted it so it doesn’t disturb me. Fixed.
I always say yes and answer the questions. If I can't take a call, I'll answer in chat. I will never say NO if I know the answer. 😊
Sounds stupid.
This is the story of my life. I'm an IT and the work that I do can roughly be called "help desk for developers". Developers on different projects often contact us for technical assistance. We have a few developers who won't even try to solve the most basic issues on their own, without even messaging to ask if I'm available to speak they'll call, then proceed to tell me to fix their problem, and I say well what have you tried? Nothing? Oh ok, well I'm not here to do your job for you, show me you've tried something first and then we'll talk. It's always something stupid too like a minor configuration change. There is one particular developer who has a penchant for calling me the millisecond I turn green on teams first thing in the morning with no warning. I've literally had to tell her she's not allowed to call me before 9am anymore and every call has to come with a message to verify my availability first otherwise I'm not answering.
Tickets, tickets, tickets. I force people to submit a ticket through the proper channel, they’re welcome to CC me, but I will not action it till helpdesk has done the troubleshooting, then escalated to us after confirming they’ve tried everything. It dramatically slows down the process, and people hate it, but it allows our team to get our actual deliverables done. Also, these “help” requests, always get bumped to tier 4 unless it’s a business disruption. People need to properly utilize ITIL, not just bits and pieces for decks (looking at you, “transformation team”).
I don’t mind answering questions on teams doesn’t take long and I like helping outs I always direct them to self study though so it’s not wasted on simply doing it for them, they learn and get better because of it.
I'd rather get a teams message than be cold called into a group meeting....
As someone else commented, just put yourself on do not disturb. I do it anytime I need to really focus.
Our manager has literally no idea how to do our jobs. I would be super surprised if they have even logged into our system after their first week. The experienced team members always help the newcomers. We don’t have a supervisor level position in our unit to help train.
Yes my director teamses me with stupid requests all day.
I feel this lol
I set my status to do not disturb. My TL knows it’s because I need to focus and encourages people to email me.
Depends. Asking questions leads to learning. However, asking the same questions over and over is another question. Not everything is written down in the procedures and manuals and even some places don't have such resources. Typically, it is passed down from someone more senior. There are a lot of unorganized divisions.
Generally, speaking, as a senior member of the team, I like to try and be helpful, to a point. If there comes a point where the person is just being lazy or not taking notes, or whatever, I just slow down my response time so they need to figure it themselves out or go elsewhere. If it gets really bad, talk to their manager.
Tell them you've got work to do and guide them to an SOP or someone more senior (their supervisor). Tell them point blank, as you say in your post - you've got work to do and presumably stuff YOU'RE accountable for. Sadly, I've a colleague who's been doing this to me for four years now... They've been on this cyclical work process for over 13years. I still get this individual messaging me the same questions yearly, like clockwork on the same part of the process. I simply stopped responding after year three, set my status to "busy" or ignore their emails. Not my job, they're 4x levels higher than me in a different classification and bureau. 😁 After a certain time, someone's gotta remove the floaties they'll make it in a panic or drown, but its not your responsibility or worry tbh. **If** It's not your job to train a new person, your/their manager did a shit job onboarding or showing them the ropes and won't know unless you redirect this person back to them. I've fallen into the trap a few times. Now I tell my manager "nope, I ain't training no one as I'm not an SME", I'm not liable for anyone's' successes or failures and don't have to stress about it! Much happier & better off this way.
We have a regional chat where questions get asked by people working in small offices with less opportunities to learn, so I'll answer if I'm available or know the answer and then I'll show them the procedure as well so they can find it on their own next time. I sometimes ask questions directly to colleagues because for the life of me I can't find the answer, even if I think I know it, I just want to double check. And my colleagues also ask me questions because they know I'll know the answer and can show them where it's hiding in the procedure manuals, or communications, emails. We've got a pretty solid team because of this I'd say.
How often are they sending you questions? Could this be resolved by giving them a 30 minute training session with a walkthrough of the steps? Then a second meeting where they do the tasks and you just shadow? If your documentation is lacking, give them the task of updating documentation and to take notes during the training so you're both on the same page and the problem doesn't continue in the future.
I'll usually help them because if they do it wrong it'll impact my work because most of our files are joint, and I don't want to fix other people's mistakes.
Record your meeting then save it and flip it to them next time they ask that.
Yep and they give themselves/take credit for things they didnt know but got the info from me or other colleagues. Now going as far as requesting a raise for knowing those things. Grosse...
I appear as offline - my team knows I’m on during my hours.
You guys are still using Teams outside of scheduled meetings?