I always worked on building sites up until about 10 years ago. Now I’ve moved to a level where I deal with office staff and have to direct them a bit on certain things. I always thought office staff were doing whizz kid stuff like programming strategic computer stuff and negotiating deals with Chinese suppliers.
Twice in the last year somebody has pulled out an xl spreadsheet and bragged that they did this themselves, one of the spreadsheets had been changed so that high priority jobs were in blue and low priority were in yellow and the other spreadsheet was just area codes and addresses of sites we visit in a certain region of jobs. They were explaining these things to me like they were landmark industry changing spreadsheets and letting me know the bosses don’t realise how talented they are.
Are you all just doing data entry off a script? There are people in this office building 20 years I heard one of them looking at a job report and asking me what a booler was because one of the plumbers job reports said changed spark electrodes on booler (he probably typed it on his phones with wet hands) she hadn’t got the cop on after 20 years in the building industry doing this very same job to figure out booler probably meant boiler.
https://i.redd.it/8dl3zohfy82h1.jpeg
Posted by Theelfsmother
25 Comments
There will be a mix of stupid/normal/smart people in an office. Same as on site.
You’ve likely overestimated them and well underestimated yourself.
Most people are just ploding along. Few have been somewhere years and do next to sweet fuck all while playing political games.
Lots places people just do the bare minimum as you’ll get zero reward for innovation. It’s rare to be in a place that rewards that’s tbh.
Builders will say shite like this and then argue that its simply not possible to set an arrival time and follow up on it
“whizz kid stuff like programming strategic computer stuff”
Its not 1980’s mate, maybe its you that should cop on
Is it just me that’s impressed by the Excel colour coding?
You called it an xl spreadsheet.
Is that opposed to an m or l sized spreadsheet?
Why did you swap the Y and Z keys?
Think you’ll find a booler on an XL spreadsheet
On these building sites you worked on, who was it that designed the buildings, brought them through the planning process, costed the job, procured the materials, programmed the job, ensured services were put in place, raised the finance to build it etc etc
etc
Funny to look at a keyboard that laid out differently.
Why are there so many con artists in the building trade?
Life has many mysteries, I suppose.
It sounds less like the people in your office are especially dumb and more like you were told by someone when you were much younger that *you* weren’t particularly smart and internalised it.
Then when you realised your level, instead of it clicking that you were pretty smart, you just assumed that people you had been told were smarter than you must be doing whizz kid stuff you couldn’t possibly understand, when in fact they were doing the same dumbass shit as everyone else.
It’s like a weird external imposter syndrome.
Yeah too much thinking. “Theres no such thing as stupid questions”, is the biggest lie ever told.
Work “in an office” can cover anything from basic data entry to keeping everyone organized and everything running smoothly to PhD level analysis, so your question isn’t specific enough for an actual answer.
But if they’re showing you a spreadsheet they did that shows prioritization, it sounds like your organization has trouble with the “keeping everything organized and running smoothly” side of things and they’re showing you the tool they built to assist prioritization and improve that.
Also, an experienced person knows that it’s better to ask and confirm basic definitions than assume you know and end up with an ongoing cockup because someone meant something else.
And basic data entry is necessary for things like getting orders in, having a site to go to, having the appropriate inventory for the job, and getting paid.
Yes, every person working in an office is so mind numbingly void of critical thinking and logic that some higher power needed YOU, the main character, to step in and show how intellectually better you are than all of them because you saw a spreadsheet and someone made a mistake. Congratulations, you are now the smartest person to ever step foot in an office.
“I always thought office staff were doing whizz kid stuff like programming strategic computer stuff and negotiating deals with Chinese suppliers”
Some do, yes. You’re not especially likely to encounter them working in an admin job for a builders’ merchant
While booler probably meant boiler, why make an assumption when it comes to electrics? For all they know a booler could be an important electrical component they hadn’t heard of ? (I know its not like but still, id encourage asking stupid questions rather than making stupid mistakes)
“ xl spreadsheet “
You’re assuming you’re much better?
This appears to be a throw the bomb and run away type of posts.
I think this is more of a you problem. Starting with you not knowing how most office admin gets done and who by.
Thank god you’re here OP, will you man the fort whilst I go and dribble onto my keyboard? Good man yourself.
I too need a booler
It’s been ten years since you were on sites? I hate to break it to you but you also work in an office. A little less of the superiority complex and a little more patience and kindness will do you good.
Ah but Excel is a tricksy little bastard. They might have implemented some code that changes the colour of the cell based on the value, so if you type “High” the cell turns red. That’s honestly, ‘buy me a beer because look how clever I am’ level of Excel-ing.
A successful pivot table is almost as satisfying as an orgasm. I don’t even know what to compare a successful V Lookup to… 3 orgasms?
Don’t even get me started on successful use of PowerPoint.
IT worker here, 90% of admin data entry workers are average people with basic computing skills who can send an email and create a word/excel document. That’s all that’s really required of the job from the IT side (in a very basic sense, some jobs of course are a lot more advanced).
Any “whizz kids” that you could interact with will be working in IT or as external contractors for a job.
Also, learning the ins and out of excel beyond creating a few tables and filters is a genuine skill in my eyes. There’s so much you can do with it that not a lot of people bother to learn. My first successful pivot table and VLookup felt like I discovered fire.