BS: Do you work with stupid people?

Subject: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 04:43 PM

Today someone from our accounting department came in to use the fax machine. Somehow she managed to change the language function of the machine over to Spanish. So when you looked at the little screen it said you were making "uno" copies instead of "one".

Suddenly she's in a panic - "I've sent the customer a fax in Spanish". It was all we could to to convince her that - yes - her fax that was printed in English would still be in English when the customer received it. And - no - our fax machine was not capable of translating just yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 04:49 PM

Sometimes all I have had to do is look in the mirror in my cubicle to find the stupidest co-worker I have ever, ever had. I try to enjoy stupidity-- mine and others'-- because it helps to counteract the deadly seriousness of so much of common life these days. I like the idea that we can relax and not always be right, accurate, smart, responsible, whatever-- that it's just fine to take a turn on the low side of the common denominator and life will actually go right on anyway.

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:25 PM

lol I'm with Susan. I was going to say that because I work alone at the office I most certainly fairly frequently discover stupidity afoot.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:31 PM

My cats in my at-home office make me feel stupid. They can leap the highest bookcase and really fly when they need to!

Wesley, that IS pretty funny!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: jeffp
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:35 PM

I work with a bunch of rocket scientists. Watching some of these folks wrestling with a jammed copier can be very entertaining. Yes, we're all stupid, just at different times.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:36 PM

It was like a bad joke from a bad TV show. Hard to believe either way.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:41 PM

Just think how over-burdened that poor lady must chronically feel, and she probably also feels too stupid to ask for clarification about how basic tech tools work. If only these types of stupid people would join Mudcat-- where we tend to help fools, more often than not (at least above the line).

I wish I could convey in text how I squeal and gurgle with laughter when something stupid particularly delights me, even my own "famous" dumb lines. Not a finger-pointing, but just delight in rediscovering how silly we human beans are (as well as how grand). "People"-- gotta love 'em!

I'm sure I've told this one, but CRS. I was driving the kids home from high school one day when they said that most of their friends had been dismissed at 1PM to attend a funeral at the nearby church. "A FUNERAL!? What, did somebody DIE?" I said sarcastically. We all peed our pants. Then there was the "Look!!! Korean ICE cream!!!" I'm still living down.

I'm overdue. Any day now (God grant me witnesses to help me remember it afterwards!)

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:43 PM

PS, another way to take the thread title:

Q: "Do you work with stupid people?"

A: "I seldom break down in service, as I am quite compatible; although with nasty people I don't function as well."

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:56 PM

"Just think how over-burdened that poor lady must chronically feel, and she probably also feels too stupid to ask for clarification about how basic tech tools work"

Susan - you don't know this woman. Three or four times per week she stands there and listens to the fax machine as it gives her a busy signal. After it beeps at her for about a minute she turns to us and asks - every time - "So - is it not going through?"

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:57 PM

The legend sprang up in techie circles -- oh, maybe 1983 or so -- that a secretary wanted to reduce the size of a word processing file, and decided to do so by using 10 point fonts instead of 12 point fonts in the file.

In my present occupation I work with decent and civil people, and the only one who is not civil is brilliant anyway, so he is frequently forgiven. It's a brainy group and I always feel honored to be welcome among them.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 05:58 PM

'"So - is it not going through?"'

Maybe she's puttin' y'all on!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Wesley S
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:04 PM

Peace - if you could see the bovine look on her face you would know the answer to that question.

This doesn't make her a bad person. She's just someone that from time to time does stupid things. Just like me.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:13 PM

I was tryin' to look on the positive side.

One day I put a sign in each of the staff washrooms. It read, "Due to government cutbacks, you are requested to help save money by using both sides of the toilet paper."

The signs stayed up for about six hours. People were indignant.


##############################################################


Just after a presentation to staff about sexual harrassment, I went to the office to get a form to fill out.

"May I have a sexual harrassment form please?"

"Why? Is everything OK?"

"I don't wish to discuss it. May I have a form."

"Well, is there anything we can do to help?"

Yes! I'd like the form, please."

"But, but . . . ."

"Look. I have worked here for five years and NO one has harrassed me. I want the form so I can complain."

"But that's not what the form is for."

"Oh."


##############################################################

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Becca72
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:24 PM

I used to work at a travel agency and one day I was covering for the receptionist when the owner of the company came up front to use the fax machine. He stood there for several minutes punching in numbers and getting a busy signal. After about 5 minutes he was fuming and asked me if there was something wrong with the machine. I got up and looked and told him, "um, Steve, that's OUR fax number you're dialing". He handed me the fax that needed to be sent and walked off without another word.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:37 PM

I've put up a sign outside my office that reads "Caution!! Dry Paint!!"

People love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Deckman
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:43 PM

Do I work with stupid people? ... not anymore! My brother and I are retired! Bad Bad Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 06:45 PM

Posted elsewhere, but apposite for here.

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.

So far, the Universe is winning.

We had one colleague who, after spilling tea down his shirt, rinsed it under the tap and tried to dry it in the microwave, then wondered why the fire alarms went off.

He denied all knowledge when asked later, until he was confronted with a melted piece of plastic that had formerly been his identity badge, pinned to the shirt he'd been trying to dry in the microwave.

He no longer works with us.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 07:00 PM

Years ago I worked at a Forest Service station where there was a young man who simply had no common sense. He was hired for simple manual labor around the office. Somehow this idiot got to move into a gorgeous little cottage down the road--if I'd known it was available I'd have rented it in a heartbeat, and have taken great care of it.

One day he locked himself out, so he got his chainsaw out of his pickup and cut the door jamb apart so he could push the door open. It had lovely woodwork all on the front porch. I remember meeting the owner later, and when he realized I knew about the mess of the door he asked what had happened. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd rented to the stupidest git in the county, I just shrugged.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 08:42 PM

No I'm retired but I remember when passive smoking was big news and I worked in an office with quite a lot of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, one member(not Me) immediately became a passive engineer!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 08:45 PM

"Bill the sound"

That is the best handle I have seen on Mudcat. Has this neat thing to it, like "Louie the Finger" or "Freddie the Hand".

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: bobad
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:11 PM

Runyonesque.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:43 PM

Years back when I made tombstones we'd clean the stone with gasoline to get the stencil adhesive off (don't worry about this, just accept it). One old codget who sometimes worked with us did this while smoking a cigar; he never did what everyone thought he would -- all the same, the boss made him wash the stones in the alley and not in the shop.
----------
One warm July night in the Army we were all abed after a full field inspection. Hot, sticky...and I awoke to an "odor" that was familiar, and yet I couldn't place it. When I opened to door from my room into the bay where all the non-NCOs slept it was like walking into a hot gas chamber! "Sarge, what's that smell?" they asked and I immediately replied, "That tear gas! Put on your masks!"

Ever see a hundred men running around in their skivvies, all wearing gas masks?

Seems like someone from a unit a block or so upwind had brought a tear gas grenade back from a field exercise. He was tossing it up and down while laying in his bunk when the pin came out and the handle flew off. He pitched it outside....

It took a squad (10 men) of MPs to get him safely off to the lockup and away from the literal mob of angry soldiers affected by the gas.
----------------

Today was my 36th anniversary working as a professional librarian. At this time I work with the best staff, bar none, of any I have ever worked with. No, I've worked with stupid people, but not at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:49 PM

Congratulations, Rapaire.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: mg
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:11 AM

no thank heavens. I work with scientists and medical people and there is a selection process that goes on I believe. I have however worked in schools in the past..oh dear. No offense to anyone here...but oh dear...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:21 AM

I put in a couple of years with a remarkable collection of drug-oriented co-workers, including some married couples. One morning one couple came in complaining that they had bought some pot after work the day before, but it had no "kick". They were smothered with sympathy as if they had lost a family member. I finally said, "It's a damn shame; if you can't trust your pusher, who can you trust". Out of the whole group, one young guy gave me a sly look that indicated that he recognized my sarcasm; the rest just nodded in hangdog agreement.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,bert on kelley's machine
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:04 AM

mg. they make the stupid medical people GPs. Like the one who treated Lou's skin lesions of non Hodgkin's Lymphoma as poison ivy, and put her on a starvation diet to reduce the growth.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:16 AM

My GP is a bit like that. Diagnosed asthma when it turned out to be a heart condition.

The best one was earlier this year when another GP in the practice diagnosed arthritis in one shoulder joint, without even looking at me. It was a frozen shoulder (rotator cuff muscles).

Working with stupid people is one thing, relying on them for your health care is quite another!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,Elfcall
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 04:25 AM

I was once called into another office by the Chair of Trustees to look at her PC which was making continuous beeping noises. I did and managed to remove her filofax that was resting on part of the keyboard. I managed to keep composed all the way back to my own office.

Elfcall

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: jonm
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 04:40 AM

Every morning, when my colleague came in to work, he would find me at my computer. One morning, he came in to find me desperately trying to do paperwork close to the window, in the dark. I told him there was no power and that neither the lights nor computers would work.

"I can sort that for you," he said, and marched off for a couple of minutes, returning with...... an anglepoise lamp! This, ear in mind, is a lecturer in electrical engineering!

On another occasion, I had to catch him, literally, as he discovered changing a fluorescent tube is not wise standing on a swivel chair on wheels.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:47 AM

My Assistant Director (2nd from top in our division - her boss reported to the big boss) was also standing on her wheelie chair when I ran in & grabbed the chair, then yelled at her (it was a very friendly place, where I could yell at my boss).

Point of the story is that OHAS (Office Health & Safety) was one of her responsibilities.   

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: MaineDog
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 06:48 AM

It isn't nice to call people stupid just because thay don't know some things that you do. -- like caregivers who want to cover you with oil when you're on oxygen -- I've got lots of medical stupidity going on now, funded by insurance companies.

Actually, such people, if properly trained and manged, can be of great value, especially if they will follow orders and not try to be smart.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 07:08 AM

"It isn't nice to call people stupid just because that don't know some things that you do"

Ah yes, but it can be very satisfying. :-)



"Do you work with stupid people?"

Not now.

And I have decided after a lifetime of doing it in various fields, that I will no longer attempt to perform artistic endeavours with them either... Being abused and ridiculed because they are too stupid to know when they are outclassed is no longer fun, especially when they then try to later claim my ideas, the very ones they attempted to discredit, as their own!

Now we ALL, and I include myself, CAN be stupid from time to time, so I will perform with those who are prepared to admit their stupidity and ask forgiveness for when their acts of stupidity cause me grief, but as for the rest, there's not much point really. Never attempt to teach a pig to sing - it wastes your time, produces and unsatisfactory result, and just annoys the pig anyway! But it can be a lot of fun to join with others who DO know what they are doing... :-) (And like me are prepared to admit occassional stupidity!!!)

Don/t get up...

I know my way out! ... :-(


:-P

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Micca
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:50 AM

Do you mean like the Chemist colleague with the platinum wedding ring that had been a bit "corroded" and had alcohol spilled on it, and who then accidently passed his hand through a stream of Hydrogen gas?


The platinum black on the ring catalysed the reaction with the trace of alcohol adhering to the ring and turned it almost white hot in situ......!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 09:57 AM

Forgot to mention the store owner I worked for years ago, who ran an extension cord along the wall and secured it by stapling through it with a staple gun. In this guy's case, we weren't even surprised when he did that. Someway, somehow, he neither got electrocuted nor caused a fire.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 10:48 AM

I play Piano Accordion.

Run Away!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 11:07 AM

No person should be labelled as stupid; maybe they are confused or have been misguided. Stupid is a strong word and should not be used lightly when referring to people or their actions. We all do daft things at times but that does not make people stupid, unintelligent, dim, thick, dense, slow, dull, brainless, dim-witted, obtuse, or any other name you want to call it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 11:57 AM

sorry, rock chick, but there are some that can't be described any other way. The only rules are about when and to whom references are made. Mostly, I would not say it to someone's face.

You are correct that " We all do daft things at times..." which means anyone can make bad decisions. But some are flatly incapable of comprehending WHY their actions are bad, even when it is explained to them. This is NOT always their fault, and we must have tolerance for those with injuries, learning disabilities and genetic flaws.

What is hard to deal with...and what is represented by most of the semi-funny stories above....are those who are regularly do 'stupid' things, and seem to not learn from them...or who don't seem to care.

It is no sin to be ignorant about an issue, but it IS a problem when someone 'seems' to be intelligent enough to cope, and not motivated to improve.

It is a complex thing, this being human, and some are just better at coping than others.....thus we have threads about people doing stupid things.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:26 PM

I worked with a woman who was always trying to save the company money. Every day she snuck in an unplugged the FAX machine because it was wasting electricity. If someone wanted to send a FAX, they had to call so it could be turned it on. Very frustrating and no amount of explanation ever got through.

Kendall had a nurse who, when told Kendall couldn't speak after his surgery, accepted notes from him and then WROTE BACK THE ANSWERS. Go figure!

A manager of mine insisted on joining me on a sales call to a national account. He showed up 45 minutes late and proceeded to apologize profusely and explain that he had diarrhea. The bathrooms in the service stations were too nasty to sit so he had to stop several times before he found a clean one.
The customer sat there dumbfounded. I shrank in my chair not sure what to say. I knew that this guy had just overslept. He drank and was always late.

Another time when a customer was discussing a major snow storm, this same manager remarked in dire tones "Since man walked on the moon, the weather has changed. We were never meant to go there." I prayed the customer wouldn't think he was joking. I had heard his "science" before. Customer changed subject with a baffled look preferring not to get into that discussion.

Another manager stumbled through a presentation (he hadn't bothered to prepare) and then fell asleep during a sales call with another national account. Another drinker. The customer later remarked "How sad that such a young man is so ill." I asked what she meant and she said "Well he's had a stroke, hasn't he?"

I always had to cover for these idiots. If your company has no credibility, customers won't buy. I was always amused at their incompetence vs. the common sense dedication to quality that the people behind the scenes provided. We had first rate inside sales, product development and customer service people who saved accounts daily and solidified relationships.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: heric
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:39 PM

Turning off the fax machine is brilliant! I'm going to take it to a higher level if I can find the switch for the e-mail.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:11 PM

Right out of the Army the first time I worked in the Maintenance Department of a medium-sized hospital. It was a new building, and it had a dual oxygen system: one could be used with the other side was being serviced.

We'd been in the building three years at that point and Oxygen System A had been used the whole time. The boss wanted to switch over to System B so that A could be serviced. Since A was low on oxygen, we could prepare B for use and fill 'er up with liquid oxygen, bleed of the residual oxygen from A, and proceed.

So a specialist was hired to prep B. He had a wonderful record with oxygen systems, and the hospital hired him as a technician.

He prepped B, and the day the LOX was to be delivered my boss decided to check on the work. Good thing he did, too -- the "specialist" had lubricated all of the valves in the B system with household lubricating oil.

I leave it to you rocket scientists to explain why the specialist was fired and continued using System A for another six months.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:14 PM

Well Bill D whilst I understand what you are say I still say using the word stupid is wrong, I again I say no one has a right to call another person stupid or any of the other names, we all have our reasons for doing things the way we do, and they are just as valid as anyone else's, what ever light you may see it in, it still does not give anyone the right to call another person 'stupid' whether their actions make sense to others or not.

Each and everyone of us has our own way of processing things, a dyslexics person was, and still is often called stupid, in fact their IQ can often be much higher then the average person, they just have a different way of learning and processing everyday things, that does not make them stupid, far from it, and this is quite often the same with other people, so labelling someone stupid because they do not do the 'norm' is totally ignorant.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:31 PM

I'm stupid for sitting here reading this thread. It's one beautiful day outside and I'll think I'll take the hounds for a walk in the park. I'm sure I'll encounter some stupid person there who will ask ... "are those whippets"? ... "no you stupid person,they're greyhounds" ... then I better get home home and finish the stupid list of chores my wife gave me to do ... she's on the weekend shift this weekend ... and I'm sure I'll hear all about the stupid people she had to cope with today.

Basically ... we're all stupid, but that's what makes us all special.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 02:38 PM

"it still does not give anyone the right to call another person 'stupid' whether their actions make sense to others or not....."

rockchick...*sigh*....you say you read my post, yet you seem to ignore everything I said as disclaimers and proceed to make your point over again.

I agree it is not nice to CALL someone stupid to their face. That is obvious. But it is NOT correct that some folks ways of doing things ".... are just as valid as anyone else's,"...witness Rapaire's story above...or unplugging the fax/copier. Some ways of doing things are ineffective, dangerous....and just plain stupid - whether we we say so to their face or not. If you fire someone who smokes around gasoline or gunpowder, you WILL be justified in explaining it to others as 'avoiding the results of stupidity'.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Peace
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:24 PM

I got a hot flash for y'all.

George Bush IS STUPID.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 03:33 PM

And given the opportunity I would say so to his face.
Thanks for the example, Peace

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: number 6
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:08 PM

I dunno Peace ... I'd have to say all of us who are responding to this thread are stupid "marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting" and that Bush is a fool "a person lacking in judgment or prudence"

Just my stupid 2 cents worth of unreasoned thinking.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:27 PM

Sttupidity comes in many flavors; some folks just lack information because they've been sequestered in the back hills, or something. Others aren't good at recovering data they once had, which amounts to not having it. Others can tell you any old datum you like, glib as a whippet, but the notion of using information in application to a real situation just dumfounds them. Still others are beleaguered by false information, from cultural authorities, or just poor sources, and make perfectly good decisions based on that false information, which ends up being stupid in use because they relied on data that was distorted.

One skill that too few develop is the ability to assess data for distortion. Another is to assess a situation for its relative importances. Both of therse things result in poor evaluation and "stupid" decisions.

Others who are natively brilliant get forced ot look stupid by being required to use symbol systems they never trained in such as specialized vocabulary or even basic language grammar, etc. This sort of stupidity is easy to see through because they are often brilliant in ordinary human affairs they can deal with directly.

There are some kinds of stupidity that are, to me, more egregious and more irritating than others, the worst of which is the willful sort which is determined not to even seek to improve itself.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:38 PM

If you are reasonably intelligent but lack information you're ignorant, and ignorance can be cured by education.

Someone with less intelligence than others isn't shamed; he or she still functions, and sometimes better than those more intelligent.

It's when you hold yourself out to be knowledgable but aren't, or when you are unwilling to learn, that I'd think you were stupid. And stupidity is the only crime for which Nature imposes a death penalty.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:40 PM

There was a time when I didn't like to ask things in case people thought I was stupid. Now, I ask all the time and its amazing what I have learned.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you work with stupid people?
From: HuwG
Date: 06 Oct 07 - 05:43 PM

Try this site for a gallery of egregiously stupid things people have done with computers. (I contributed two of the tales; I won't say which.)