Idiots on parade

[gwyn]

Normally I don't complain to much about my job here, exept in a general I hate everyone sense. I don't usually use the space to post about specific problems because it's boring. But I have to rant. All our stories came in late (the cover pieces) today -- really, really late, which meant I had to ask everyone to stay with me on my normal late night. In the middle of this issue, which is fairly significant because it is my day of wrangling copy, I get this woman torturing me because she doesn't know how to use email. Each week, I edit and send to a syndicate (I always envision black cars and guys with skinny ties) our highest-profile column, in two separate Word docs. The person who handles them is on vacation for a while. I get this email from the sub, asking me where the columns are, and I said, thanks for the reminder, here you are, I was going to send them tomorrow (deadline day) because it's been hectic, but why not have them now.

And she writes back, "Tomorrow's fine."
Me: Did you not get the attachments?
Her: They wouldn't open.
Me: Here they are again. I'm not sure what to tell you, as this has never been a problem for ___ and everything is exactly the same.
Her: Could you please forward these to my AOL account (her info)? I can't open them and our system is doing something to the files.
Me: No, I'm sorry, I can't do that right now. I'm swamped and it takes about five minutes to prep the files, which I don't have right now. (Meanwhile I'm being IM'd to death by four different people.)
Her: Something in our system is converting the files into something unusable. Have you sent these as .dat files to ___ before? I understand that you're busy and I'm sorry to ask, but could you send them maybe tomorrow to that AOL address?
Me: There's nothing on my end that could be causing this (I opened the attachments I sent, just to be sure), and I'm working from the same email that I always work from. Is there not some tech person you could call, your sys admin, and please ask them to explain why there is a problem with standard Word docs?
Her: There's no one here who could handle that right now. Could you cut and paste them into email?
Me: No, I really can't. Are you familiar with how to open attachments that might not look like Word docs? I get the impression you may not be. Please right click the attachment link, save to your hard drive, and then open Word, and open the file. That should be doable from any Windows or Mac system.
Them: A snotty email arrives from the senior editor with a lengthy demand that I not send dat files (which I'm not) and that I cut and paste the docs into an email.

I think I may have to kill someone. I'm so angry I could literally shoot these people. I do not understand how they can possibly be this retarded.

Comments

[batdina.livejournal.com]

how much longer are you stuck with these bozos?

oh, and did I ever send you my address? I can't remember and my brain is on finals right now.

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

This may not help in this particular instance (since she sounds pretty clueless), but if (make that WHEN) AOL fucks with an attached file, she could go to www.aol.com, sign in with her screenname and then download the files from there without any difficulty. Something about the AOL e-mail interface occasionally turns Word files into .dat or .mem files, neither of which it will then read. It's a 10-year-old glitch that I've never even tried to get explained -- I just work around it.

two unhelpful responses

[emmarytz.livejournal.com]

1) It's being that sort of day. Trust me.
b ) AOL sucks.

bonus round
iii) I've dealt with my day with a shot of tequila and a pint of Guinness. I recommend it. -em

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Fuck incompetent substitutes. Grr!

*sends you gay cowboy woobie glee*

these people are complete morons

[klytaimnestra.livejournal.com]

Cutting and pasting a word document into email does not work; you lose all the formatting; and how could "senior editors" POSSIBLY not know this?

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

Will it make you feel any better if I tell you that the head of a center and the ex-VP of a large corporation who's doing a research project with my boss... is unable to open pdf files?

Also, his assistant? Unable to open pdf files.

It really boggles the mind how people manage to find work, let alone high profile highly paid work, when they are THIS STUPID.

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

There is only one positive thing to say about a situation like this.

Thank God stupidity is not catching.

Yeesh. I don't blame you for getting angry.

[mackiemesser.livejournal.com]

Will it make you feel any better if I told you a Senior VP, with an MBA, at a highly successful, multi-million dollar company once asked me about the appropriate way to address a letter to a woman if you weren't sure about her marital status?

So, yes, it's easily possible for people to be just that stupid.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Actually I will need your new address, yes. I meant to send mail to you and Taverymate that I was really having trouble with the copying of these tapes, and that was what the holdup was. I'm almost done, though. I couldn't get a couple of my favorites copied due to serious problems with the tapes, or macrovsion, and then I had to decide if I really wanted to keep them or not because of that. They're highly unlikely to ever show up on disc.

Re: two unhelpful responses

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Damn, and I had neither. So I had to settle for Bailey's in my hot chocolate and making bread pudding.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Sheesh!

(This icon's for you)

[hobbituk.livejournal.com]

My boss asked me to look for her archived emails because she couldn't find them. I looked in the archive folder that had been set up for her and no, they weren't there. I asked her how she archived them and she just replied airily "Oh I just press the Del button and they go into a folder somewhere". I fought the urge to say "that is your deleted items folder, you silly beeyatch" and just thanked god she didn't know how to empty that either...

I also work with another woman who doesn't know how Calendar in Outlook works so puts everything in her paper calendar on the wrong day. I swear... they earn £170k per year between them. How hard can it be to get basic IT skills for that money??