Colleague who is always confused

[Anonymous]

Idk but I consider it part of my job to work with all learning styles/types of people

[Anonymous]

OP, this is a bad sentence:

"here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

Say, "Attached are the revisions to the XYD document regarding ABC that we discussed yesterday afternoon." Then add the necessary action: "Please make edits" if that is her job. Or "Please let me know if you have any questions" Or "Please let me know if you accept the changes and I will send the final product."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Example-“here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

“I’m so confused. What document did we talk about yesterday? What revisions?”

Then you have to go line by line.

Things like that.

Anonymous wrote:Can you give us an example of your instructions?

Should be one or two brief sentences and then 4-6 bullet points.

Anything else is inefficient and a waste of words.

as smn who reviews multiple docs per day and dozens per week, I would be confused without better context. I may have reviewed 10 documents yesterday. And I may be confused as to why the document are being sent to me again Need more context, eg. “This is the client XYX presentation. We are aiming to finalize it on [date]. I made the updates to our ABC capability statement per our discussion on [date]. You asked to review the edits. Please let me know your comments, if any, by [date].”

I just posted saying you need more specifics but this poster has a better sample email than mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a tactic I’ve seen deployed by incompetent people many times. Sadly, it seems to work.

Also, promotions have almost nothing to do with accomplishments and almost everything to do with positioning and politicking. You should know this by now.

+1! I work with someone who pulls this. Lots of “I’m not clear as to how you want me to proceed, please advise”.

I just copy and repaste my original instructions. It’s someone who is totally incompetent but got a cushy high level job because of someone they knew, who left shortly after hiring this incompetent phony.

[Anonymous]

I have a colleague kind of like this but it's not so much confusion as it is process. Nothing is ever decisive, done, understood, or complete. It's always "more buy in" or "feedback" or "dicussion" or "read this! look at that! talk to them!" and NOTHING ever GETS DONE and everything gets muddied in the process. There should be management screening processes to weed these behaviors out.

[Anonymous]

It's important to ask questions early and often!

https://x.com/ComfortablySmug/status/1937935738408161304

[Anonymous]

I have one person on my team who due to a combination of anxiety and being very methodical, can't move forward on anything until she is sure she 100% fully understands every detail and expectation and she needs to hear those repeated to her a number of times. Once I figured it out, I now meet with her and go through tasks in depth and answer her questions and expect her to move forward without asking for further reassurance. It is time consuming but I would rather commit that time up front than need to continually go back to her and deal with all her emails and questions. She doesn't seem to be able to figure anything out on her own and gets anxious about doing something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have one person on my team who due to a combination of anxiety and being very methodical, can't move forward on anything until she is sure she 100% fully understands every detail and expectation and she needs to hear those repeated to her a number of times. Once I figured it out, I now meet with her and go through tasks in depth and answer her questions and expect her to move forward without asking for further reassurance. It is time consuming but I would rather commit that time up front than need to continually go back to her and deal with all her emails and questions. She doesn't seem to be able to figure anything out on her own and gets anxious about doing something wrong.

At least she sounds like she’ll do a good job once she’s able to stay on the task.

[Anonymous]

Often still not the case. People who don't take responsibility or can admit they made an error dont tend to be great individual workers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is a bad sentence:

"here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

Say, "Attached are the revisions to the XYD document regarding ABC that we discussed yesterday afternoon." Then add the necessary action: "Please make edits" if that is her job. Or "Please let me know if you have any questions" Or "Please let me know if you accept the changes and I will send the final product."

You don't need to say "yesterday afternoon". That doesn't matter and people with low confidence will take this as, right or wrong, "we just discussed this you idiot".

And drop the "Please". "Please" signifies a request. You aren't requesting, you are instructing. Switch to bullet points with short, clear, direct instructions, nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a tactic I’ve seen deployed by incompetent people many times. Sadly, it seems to work.

Also, promotions have almost nothing to do with accomplishments and almost everything to do with positioning and politicking. You should know this by now.

I think this is the type of response OP was looking for. But funny, out of 2 pages of posts, this is the only one.

OP, you should take a lot from this thread. It seems like you were hoping we’d all be your side; however, you’ve gotten a lot of constructive feedback on how your co worker is just doing their job and maybe trying to help you save face, and how you could likely be more specific in your communications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is a bad sentence:

"here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

Say, "Attached are the revisions to the XYD document regarding ABC that we discussed yesterday afternoon." Then add the necessary action: "Please make edits" if that is her job. Or "Please let me know if you have any questions" Or "Please let me know if you accept the changes and I will send the final product."

You don't need to say "yesterday afternoon". That doesn't matter and people with low confidence will take this as, right or wrong, "we just discussed this you idiot".

And drop the "Please". "Please" signifies a request. You aren't requesting, you are instructing. Switch to bullet points with short, clear, direct instructions, nothing else.

This is what I’ve always thought/do But lately I’ve been testing out Microsoft copilot AI with work correspondence. It tells me that this tone is “abrupt” for an email.

Honestly, no one but you (and me lol) is judging if someone is not concise or gives an instruction with “please” or if phrases as a question like “can you…” especially if they are your subordinate or need the information to do their job. How immature would someone be to NOT follow the instruction just because “oh you asked and I don’t really want to.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is a bad sentence:

"here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

Say, "Attached are the revisions to the XYD document regarding ABC that we discussed yesterday afternoon." Then add the necessary action: "Please make edits" if that is her job. Or "Please let me know if you have any questions" Or "Please let me know if you accept the changes and I will send the final product."

Yes this. I hate it when people have no idea how their little ask is one of 11,000 requests I get and 42,000 things currently swimming in my brain. I need a link and a description of where we last left the conversation as well as next steps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is a bad sentence:

"here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

Say, "Attached are the revisions to the XYD document regarding ABC that we discussed yesterday afternoon." Then add the necessary action: "Please make edits" if that is her job. Or "Please let me know if you have any questions" Or "Please let me know if you accept the changes and I will send the final product."

Yes this. I hate it when people have no idea how their little ask is one of 11,000 requests I get and 42,000 things currently swimming in my brain. I need a link and a description of where we last left the conversation as well as next steps.

Sure, but if you need more details don’t you state that instead of starting with “wait, I’m confused…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Example-“here are the revisions to the document we talked about yesterday.”

“I’m so confused. What document did we talk about yesterday? What revisions?”

Then you have to go line by line.

Things like that.

Anonymous wrote:Can you give us an example of your instructions?

Should be one or two brief sentences and then 4-6 bullet points.

Anything else is inefficient and a waste of words.

My boss with cognitive issues would do this.