computer illiterate people in the workplace

[AnnaKarpik]

In my last office job there was a tendency to use spreadsheets a mile wide and call them a database.

 

[bluestreak]

I have a great deal of responsibility (apparently)

Without you those tapes won't get listed!

 

[bluestreak]

In my last office job there was a tendency to use spreadsheets a mile wide and call them a database.

yeah, i've worked in jobs like that too.

that's a spreadsheet, said i, on my first day.

it's bigger than a normal spreadsheet, so it's a database, said she.

i was reminded of the bit in spinal tap... but this one goes up to ELEVEN.

 

[Orang Utan]

Without you those tapes won't get listed!

The whole nation depends on me!

 

[jæd]

Good question!

I suppose in an office environment it probably includes things like word processing, spreadsheets, powerpoint, etc. TBH, I wouldn't really know - I'm crap with most office software, it's just not something I have to use much. I can setup a spreadsheet in Excel with lots of cool equations, but I'm hopeless at producing nicely formated, "businessy" type documents...

Knowing how to use Word, Office + Powerpoint effectively I would call "Office" Skills. Being able to use e-mail + web effectivly would be under Communication Skills.

Basic IT skills covers stuff like changing the ink on printers.

 

[hiccup]

When I started in my current job, six long, long years ago, I showed someone how to save a file onto a floppy disc. As a result of this demonstration of my l33t h4x0r sk1llz, I was put in charge of all office IT purchasing. No word of a lie. A couple of months later, I had to order a server for a new office, having had to teach myself very quickly what a server was.

 

[bluestreak]

Basic IT skills covers stuff like changing the ink on printers.

although there are offices that only allow trained IT bods to do this as common or garden desk-monkeys have shown so inept at this most basic of mechanics that it is actually more cost-effective to waste IT's time on changing ink than to replace all the broken printers and wasted ink.

and if that doesn't make you want to drop zyklon-b into the watercooler nothing will.

 

[sojourner]

i had a MANAGER phone me up today and ask me how they personalised the automatic letters with their phone number. i apologised and said that we can only get the head office's address put on at the moment (long story). 'So i can't get my phone number put on a letter? how will they know how to contact me.' i took a deep breath and suggested that when they write the letter they add a line that invites the recipient to contact them by phone. 'but they won't know my number'. you could write it in the letter? '.........yes, ok, thanks *click'.

i wonder if that was me missing the point or a wonderful of stupidity.

i hate working, i hate being exposed to people. i hate being reminding of their stupidity every fucking day, and i hate that i occasionally fuck up and remind everyone of my own stupidity

Love it

I've had a few moments in this job, where the sheer stupidity is mind-blowing. One example:

Tenant: my phone isn't working!!! I demand it be fixed right now, and a credit note issued for however much it costs, and blah blah blah

Me: is it plugged into the wall-socket?

Tenant: should it be?

Me: yes




(how did they think it worked? fucking telepathy?)

 

[bluestreak]

seriously, i'm drowning in idiots. i've had four people today that i've had to stop myself losing my rag with becuase of their sheer stupidity. managers passing jobs around without bothering to look at them and causing service failures, managers asking me how to use the intranet, some guy now trying to wriggle out of answering a complaint because he didn't have the complainant's address, and one of the serveyors sending me a very rude email because i'd chased him up repeatedly for work without knowing he was on holiday. i fucking hate people. i mean, they're all idiots. complete and total idiots.

 

[Piers Gibbon]

Business presentations are indeed grim, but it's a handy way to glue together multimedia in academia, but I find it a bit clunky - and I've seen them done so badly they would at least work in total opposition to the colour combinations advised for dyslexia - if not actually trigger a fit.


There's an MP3 here of a 15 minute programme from Radio 4 -
"Microsoft Powerpoint and the Decline of CivilisationRadio programme examining how the use of Microsoft's Powerpoint as a teaching and dissemination tool may be 'dumbing-down' the knowledge transfer process in the academic world."
http://piglet.ex.ac.uk/pallas/teaching/media/

8MByte MP3

You can also use Powerpoint for basic graphics or to make web pages ..

thanks so much for posting that mp3...I heard the programme when it was aired and I've been looking for it for years

Powerpoint rots your brain and kills kittehs