I mean this. I really mean this. In the past three hours, I’ve had as many cases of “if you’d just read it, you’d know what’s going on”. This is basic Work 101. You’re taught in school at a very early age to pay attention to the instructions. Why doesn’t anyone every do that?

When I was in the fourth grade, our teacher gave us a test. She said, “Read the directions and then do the test.” The test was a long list of the most ridiculous stuff you’ve ever seen (as a 4th grader). The instructions were simple, “Read all questions before completing this test. Follow all instructions. Turn in the paper when you’re done.” At the end of the test, there was one final instruction. “Do not do anything listed above. Turn in your paper and watch those who did not follow the directions.” I was the only person in the class who followed the directions. Thus, I was the only person in the class who wasn’t doing the Chicken Dance in the hall outside our classroom door. The lesson here? Read before you do. Otherwise, you wind up looking like a fool.

Now I have a list of directions at work that I follow all the time. I don’t have these because I want them, mind you. I have them because my boss has mandated that all processes have detailed instructions. Her thinking here is, should I not be here for whatever reason, she or someone else will know what to do. These directions are printed and placed in a large 3-ring binder. She gave the final approval on all of them.

We discussed the processes in great and agonizing detail before finalizing them.

So, you can imagine my irritation and surprise every time she tells me she doesn’t remember talking about something that is in this folder already answered questions. You can also imagine my great irritation when she does not follow the process making that much more work on EVERYONE else. Instead, she does what she wants and then says something like, “I wasn’t sure so…” The process is there specifically so she knows what to do in my absence. Yet, she doesn’t do this. If she’s going to ignore the printed directions, why did she bother to force directions to be written down in the first place? It seems like a complete waste of time.

She wants to be cc’d on everything, but she doesn’t read any of it. Therefore, she has no idea what I (or anyone really) is doing at any given point in time…

Point being, if she’d just READ the stuff, she’d know.

Then, there’s the new recruiter who couldn’t be bothered to READ the display on the printer. See, the display said push the “x” button and printing would resume. He had started pulling the printer apart because it wasn’t printing. Forgot reading what’s on the screen first. Nope, that is for pansies. He will just pull everything apart, and that is bound to fix it, right?

I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes as I put the printer back together and pushed the button.

What the heck?!

I am asked to give verbal and written instructions to my boss and the two Recruiters often. I might as well be yelling at a brick wall for all the good it does me. I find I have to send things back two or three times to get it right because they don’t follow directions.

That’s not to say that I’m perfect. Far from it! I’ve messed up with the best of them. Normally, my screw ups are from not proof reading. I’m sure you’ll be able to see that in my little rant here. I normally don’t screw up because I didn’t read the directions, which I suppose is just as bad. But, at least I know what I am supposed to be doing in the first place.