Ok, I've just about had it with my co-workers.

There's this one girl who is PA to the director, I don't know what kind of qualification she has, but she has got to be the most clueless PA I have ever met. One the second day she started working, I assigned her a computer, which she complained was slow. But actually it's not, it's a Pentium4 2 GHz. The only problem where I can see with the "slowness" was with Win98 because it sucks when it comes to a mixed OS networking environment. Ok fine, replaced a brand spanking new dual core P4 2.8 GHz Dell Dimension with WinXP Pro for her. And to save cost on licensing I installed Open Office for her, then she complains she doesn't know how to use it. WTF? Ok fine, so I put in MS Office 2003. And you know what really set me on an edge? Is that when she was having some problem with Excel that I realized, she has no freaking idea how to utilize MS Office. So I asked her "Do you know how to use this function?" She replied "Yes, but I forgot". Oh come on, don't give me that BS, don't know say don't know lah. The reason why I know she doesn't know is because she is very consistent with that answer, and when the boss wants her to make a slide, she did it in Excel using the stupid default spreadsheet layout instead of a chart or Powerpoint. And I asked her, "Do you now how to use PowerPoint?" yup, you guess it, she said "I know, but I forgot". Shiat, how can you forget how to use PowerPoint????

But wait there's more! She would chuck her work on me and then ask me to help her do some slides and charts because she's "too busy". Fine whatever, I told her "I can't do this for you, but if you need help I can teach you how to do it". She's like begging me to help her, so in the interest of teamwork I did, but I decided to only give it to her on the very last minute. After giving her crap back to her, she said some of the figures required changing, and I drew the line right there, that I ain't changing anything for her, she has to do it herself because I'm just helping her. So she has no choice but to own up that she doesn't really know how to use MS Office.

And if that's not the last straw, here's really what breaks the camel's back. She would claim that she did all the freakin work! OMFG what the hell? Boy am I glad I literally laughed out loud during a meeting when she couldn't access her thumbdrive because she plugged it into the ethernet port instead of the USB port. It was so freaking funny I just had to.

Holy crap, that's a freaking long post on just the PA! I haven't even started on the users and the managers.

Ok it all boils down to... how do you handle people who:
- Doesn't know but justifies it by saying "I forgot", I mean it's obvious they're lying.
- Claims credit for something they did not do.
- Loves to execute tai-chi moves (pushing the blame to others)
- Lies about thier mistakes
- Doesn't want to do it and justifies it by saying "I don't know these kind of technical things, you do for me lah"
- Despite providing utilities for them to help them make their lives easier, they don't want to use it. I.e. Don't want to learn.
- Loves comparing our process and procedures to crappy companies (y'know... like comparing m'sia and indonesia and say be thankful you're in m'sia)

So I'm like thinking, either IT people always gets blamed, or I am doing a REALLY sucky job, or am I just not fitting in? Is it a problem with me or is it a problem with the work culture? How do you deal with people like these?

btw... of all the staffs in the office, I'm like one of the 2nd or 3rd most educated person. (there's more than 40 staffs in the office)

This post has been edited by spanker: Jul 14 2006, 04:41 PM

problem is, I'm already behaving like an ass and I'm afraid this attitude will carry itself over to the job.

Oh yeah, one more thing. When I decided NOT to help them, they will complain to the director and then I'll get the blame. And then when I set the situation straight, you know what the director said? "Aiyah, nevermind lah, sacrifice a to help them lah consider it as doing it for the benefit of the company". WTF??? Even the MD plays politics.

I didn't mention in the previous post. 100% of the top posts in the company are held by the same extended family, and it is these people I have clashes with.

Hmm... that's odd... there's VERY few people on the boards that calls me "uncle".

This post has been edited by spanker: Jul 14 2006, 05:15 PM

I don't like to badmouth about these things because it is inconsequencial. They have a manager's meeting, but I don't attend because technically I'm not a manager even though I am in charge of IT issues in the company. So I just talk to them 1 on 1.

Most of the time I am able to prove my point (because I know I'm right), but the problem is I'm not very tactful at telling them they're wrong, and usually out of favoratism/nepotism, the MD will side with the other staffs.

No she's not. There are other pretty ones in the company which I have no issues with though. In fact I get along with some of them just fine.

I'm thinking of quitting in a couple of months so you can apply for my job if you want.

It's already happening. Many of those in the same "clique" already find me a tough nut to crack. The company survives out of sheer hard work and diligence, it's incredible just how hard some of the key people in the company work. This is one of the reason why they aren't receptive to feedbacks, which is understandable. But they also survive by um... some fairly unethical practices.

This post has been edited by spanker: Jul 14 2006, 05:25 PM

Ugh... please no... I'm the one who will feel violated.

Oh yeah, you just brought up a point. When they use computers they freaking click on everything, and then they say they didn't do it. For instance, this stupid midnight screensaver crap that install that Gain Publishing adware nonsense. THey'd go "I dunno, I didn't do it". I'd tell them don't install anything that has nothing to do with work. ANd they'd STILL do it, so I restrict their user level access, and then they'd badmouth me. WTF?

Also, whenever they intercom me about a problem, I'd ask them for a description of the error, and they just wouldn't tell me. And instead asks me to go over to their place to see. The first 200 times was fine because, hey I was new mah right? After a while it gets frustrating so I told them "What if this company has 5 floors and someone else calls me to go to their place and see, and then when you intercom me I'm not there to help because people don't want to just read the error message to me?" And then people say I'm not helpful. Life's a b*tch.

Yeah man, that's thing. I honestly have no problem with teaching what users need to learn. The problem is that they don't want to learn, and they expect me to do it for them. And frankly it's turning out to be a really bad habit.

STFU you i'm gonna to a write up on you one of these days i tells ya!!!! :mad:

Btw, as far as I can tell, the most educated person doesn't like working there either, but does so because he thinks working in Shell sucks (seriously, he quit Shell to work here).

There's also another favorite saying "Learn how to accept NO as an answer". Like an annoying insect or credit card sales person, these people just can't learn how to accept NO as an answer. For instance, the cousin to the MD's husband (who owns the group of companies) asks me to help her download some personal pics off her digital camera and burn it onto a CD, using company resources and time. I asked her "why don't you do it at home?", her reply? "I don't know how, you help me la".
Frankly.... why the heck did she buy a digital camera in the first place?

Been there done that. Explained it to my boss she said take a bullet for the team.

The PA doesn't have 0 knowledge in PCs, just not enough knowledge to be a PA. She might have other skills though who knows.

I'm thinking of leaving though, know anyone who's looking for project manager or something similar?