I think my new coworker is functionally illiterate? Help!
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Anonymous
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OP here.
I don't think I responded yet. Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful responses. Yes, protected class. Several. Also, I think she is ESOL even though the country she is from has English as one of the main languages. I met tons of other people from that country and have friends originally from there and they are all 100 percent fluent in English. I talk to them about this person to get their interpretation and they're all like "Um, she should really be able to communicate better," "It's odd that she has such communication difficulties - we mostly speak English in our country," "School was in English, not our language," etc. Worked with her today. I think she understood about 20 percent of what I said. I tried some of the tips in this thread (and I'm printing out this thread so I can go back and refer), like asking her to describe what exactly she's confused about. She isn't able to articulate her thoughts at all. I am trying to be more compassionate and just realize she's never going to be able to learn this stuff. This is horrible, but I think she'd be good as a greeter at a store or perhaps something really repetitive, like stuffing envelopes. The work she is supposed to be doing is highly technical in nature, with lots of room for creativity, interpretation, and shades of gray. She is in absolutely the wrong place. But in our office, we all have to pretend she's "keeping up." What we do is something similar to software development and designing new processes for complex systems. Innovative work. How the hell is she expected to do this when she doesn't know what the Start menu is in Windows, even after being told this information countless times ("It's the button in the lower left hand corner.") She doesn't understand what left means most of the time. I even took SCREEN SHOTS of the frickin' start menu to help her understand, but she quickly forgets. I kind of snapped at her a little the other day (I'm not sure she even understood, because she understands so little) and said something like "Don't you remember talking about this yesterday?" I immediately felt guilty. I know next to nothing about her. What if she had a head injury or something? The work I'm giving her is something a smart fifth grader could do. She does her assignments quickly, but what she turns back is not usable and such a mess. Unintelligible, completely different than what we talked about, every word misspelled, and so on. She is nice for the most part, but can get kind of nasty sometimes and then talks to me in a very condescending way, using my first name a lot (which I associate with people trying to come across as powerful). Thanks for letting me vent. I'm just going to smile and focus on my work, because she's never going to learn this shit. Sad but true. |
Anonymous
| There are lots of technology supports she could use like google translate and even having the computer read it to her. Most of these are free and web based. |
Anonymous
| Does this person have a university degree from the home country? (I'm guessing India, btw.) I'm asking because there are plenty of universities there that offer degrees with little or no work. You might want to do some digging to figure out if she really has an authentic education as claimed on her application. It doesn't seem like a person like her would be able to complete college if she can't find the Start menu. |
Anonymous
Except her problems probably go way beyond a language barrier. |
Anonymous
| A very strong case to hire H1B visa workers. |
Anonymous
| Based on your update I would just stop giving her any work. Just do the work yourself; it will take less time. If that's not possible, set up a meeting with your boss and HR and explain that you are no longer able to train her. |
Anonymous
| Is she old? I have an 80 year old colleague who also doesn't understand "click the start menu". |
Anonymous
If this person a Fed, she must be a naturalized US citizen. In order to get citizenship, one needs to pass a brief civics test. From the OP's description, this person would not pass the test (only very elderly or sick get waivers). I am trying to say that her other quals for the job may be suspect as well, not just education. How does such an individual get hired by the Federal government? |
Anonymous
| Goodness! Who hired this person? How did she make it through the interview and screening process? I'm a little biased here, because I've been looking for work for over a year! Is this all it takes to get a job nowadays? |
Anonymous
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You are right OP that she may not have the English skills, but it also sounds like she does not have the computer skills.
I agree with those that said you should document your training and then give her work and deadlines, letting your supervisor know you have done that. You should also recommend to your boss that someone should assess her computer skills. We discovered this in our office when we rehired a former employee. He was supposed to work with me, but he was very good at hiding his weakness. When I kept checking in on him about a project, he said he was working on it and had hand written notes. At 4 weeks, I realized that he did not know how to do more than write and send emails. My boss would not let him go since he was only there for 6 months, but having him was more work than if I was alone. I wish fed bosses would not be so unwilling to confront performance problems. |
Anonymous
| I feel your pain. I’m also dealing with an illiterate staff, who can’t communicate in proper English or follow instructions. I was baffled that she was hired for the job, while so many college grads weren’t. I guess most HR sucks; there was no quality control in hiring. Escalate to your manager with the examples. |
Anonymous
Why are you responding to a post from 2016! |
Anonymous
What kind of work do you do if you don’t mind me asking? |
Anonymous
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I know it’s an old thread but it makes me scared thinking what kind of people manage my files, be it an immigration file or a UI case or my DMV paperwork...
Well, pretty much anything! |
Anonymous
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Maybe your instructions suck.
My company gives out stuff like this to start a project Set up slack channel Create an epic in Jira Download existing info confluence into a Google drive Crest Google docs with correct permission settings Then have weekly teams update All clear. Except many new hires including me never used some or all of the tools then bosses get mad at new hire |