I, Sisyphus...

Corbett | January 4, 2005 9:07 PM

I try to manage staff. I try to delegate responsility. I try to give clear instructions. I try to give simple goals and deadlines. I try and try and try and try, and then I try some more. Still, the most stupid things happen over and over which I just can't understand. The main reason why you have staff is to help you save time and effort, but I am constantly proved over and over again, that the opposite is true.

Here's a perfect example:
11:00am - Mr. A messages me from HK and needs to see a scan of a namecard in order to quote a logo design.

Normally, I would turn on the scanner behind my desk, scan the card and send it out via email. Simple. Total time 4-5 minutes.
But I'm not at the office, and this needs to be done pronto, so I tell staff 1 (who will not be able to figure out the scan software) to take 2 cards, one in English, one in Chinese, walk 2 minutes down the street and ask the local hi-tech photo shop to scan it and put it on a CD for me so I can email it off later. Cost NT$20.

The idea is that when I walk into the office, the CD is on my desk, I pop a quick email off to Mr. A, and this is all done.

Nope.

7:45pm - The CD is still at the photo shop, but I see that staff 1 is busy with a task, so I walk down and pick it up. Cost NT$40. Hmmm. I thought it was only NT$20. 100% increase in price? I ask the lady at the counter. She explains that just like making photo copies, a scan is by unit scanned. It was scanned twice, so it costs 2 times as much. But weren't there 2 cards, together I ask? One side in English, one side Chinese, next to each other, flat on the glass, one scan, only NT$20? She opens the package, nope your assistant only brought this one card.

....

The point isn't the $20. It's the simple clear instructions which were not followed. I ask Staff 1 if I didn't specifically state two cards at least twice.

Yes.
But you only took one?
Yes.
And I told you two?
Yes.
Do you know why I asked you to take two?
No.
So that you can scan it once and not pay twice the fee!
Huh?
It's just like making a copy of two different sides of a small document on one page. If you do it this way, it's only one copy, and you only pay once.
Oh, I never thought of it that way.
You didn't have to think. I told you to take two cards.
I'm sorry, I didn't understand.

....

So I attach the scans, send the email off, and decide to take a look at the size of the file for whatever geek reason. The file is only like 15k. Wow, that's small, I think. I open the file, and it's impossible to read anything. This is odd, must be a mistake, so I walk back down the street, since I'm a little hot under the collar now, and need some cool air. I ask the clerk why if they could scan up to 4MB, and had a CD to burn to, they would scan something which was not legible at 15K.
Your assistant said it was for the internet so we made it as small as possible.
But so small as to not be legible?
But it's for the internet she said.
Sooo? You can make it 100K, or 200K, or 500K. It doesn't matter. It will all be legible. But 15K is not legible.
Huh?
She opens the file. It's not legible.

....

I'm sorry. We'll do it again.

I walk back down the street again to sit and write this entry while they rescan, and waste more time. I sent Staff 1 over an hour ago to pick up the CD. She's not back yet. Maybe it will eventually finally unbelievably get done after 8 hours of Moe and Curly-ing around. Maybe not.

But that doesn't help me. I sit. I fume. I wonder.
Will this big boulder ever stop rolling back onto my head?

Category: Mr. Asia

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