Why can't people read?!

[auserna]

It's bad enough when an OP on MN says, "I'm widowed, in my 40s, with two children aged 3 and 5. I'm struggling to keep on top of the housework and can't afford to pay for a cleaner," and the first three replies say, "Why can't your DH do his share of the housework," then, "How old are your children? Can't they help?" and, "Why don't you get a cleaner?" but people who are actually answering emails as part of their job, especially if their job is specifically administration, should surely be able to register more than the first sentence! I am so fed up of sending emails with a few related queries - which I clearly number or put in separate paragraphs - and only getting an answer to the first one if I'm lucky.

I wrote to someone recently and, in a new paragraph said, "Separately, could you also advise on..." Totally ignored. And it was not a long email by any means.

Another was along the lines of, "Please could you let me know the procedure for reserving Meeting Room B on a Tuesday?" and the answer came back, "As advised in our staff guidelines, Meeting Room A can be booked on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays."

Anyone else find this? And find it infuriating? Or should I henceforth limit myself to one-sentence emails and words of one syllable or fewer?

Oh wow I remember doing these.

Anyone who finished the work early would just get these to get on with. I got through loads.

YANBU. No one gives a shit anymore. It seems everything has to be done as quickly and easily as possible with zero effort and with absolutely no interest in doing a job well.

That's terrible, I'm so sorry you had to go through that when you were vulnerable x

And this is the big problem, that consequences of carelessness can have far reaching and serious consequences, and often when complaints are made, the response is defensive, passive aggressive, and attempts to pass responsibility back to the complainer.

I can forgive genuine human error up to a point, if resolution is well handled and swift, like my PM issue. But in medical, legal and financial arenas, an alleged "simple" mistake can have devastating ongoing consequences.

I remember those! I think the top colour was red, but I'm not very confident about that.

I remember an account of a boy who had been challenged to find a method to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100. It didn't give the method, so I decided to work it out for myself. This was the apogee of my mathematical achievements!

Thank you.

In fact I have described that slightly inaccurately. The person who made the error didn't actually diagnose me, but noted (wrongly) that I had previously received a diagnosis.

I am still amazed I managed to unpick that one, especially given the poor mental state I was in at the time. My worry was that in arguing that it was incorrect I would provide "evidence" that it was correct - your actual Catch 22!

All the time it drives me absolutely insane. I especially despise answering an email where I've sent the information and then they ask me a question that is outlined in the original email that they've answered on. eg
if you want to book an appointment with me I'm available all day Monday and Tuesday and all day Thursday and Friday but I'm out of the office on Wednesday.
them can I book in to see you on Wednesday.

I used to text my husband and in the early days if I asked him 3 questions in a text he would answer one and not the other. Drove me mad. My son is similar!

It annoying AF, on here and in real life. I often only get a half response to emails.

Just yesterday and today, same client.

I finished some tech work for them this week and provided full documentation of what was done and how the process the results, which they asked for. Email returned asking questions that were fully covered in the documentation.

They also had a couple of issues that needed to be looked at. Told them they would have the response on Monday, only to get an email this morning asking when they would have a response.

Dick heads!!

What about the third question? Or should that say "others"?

I think the answer to ‘when are you available?’ now has to be very blunt, and the negatives bolded and capitalised.

And probably in the subject line.

’When are you available for a meeting with the visiting consultant?’

‘NOT on Thursday afternoon. NOT on Wednesday morning. However, I am currently available at the following times …’

It is a bit pathetic though.

It’s maddening!

Email “I was thinking about the meeting about XYZ. Has a date been set for it yet?”

Email reply “yes”.

Email “when is the date?”

It's everywhere and is frustrating.

Yesterday I put a post up on a local FB page about a supermarket car park adding anpr to warn people. One response was asking if it was the bus station car park, I must have typed and deleted 5 response before I just said no

I swear since Covid, people in general have become stupider.

You aren’t wrong.

Or when they reply “hi Susan” when my name is Michelle

it’s right there you fools!

Oh yes, I have a few people who send replies immediately.....but never actually answer my queries. It's like they are replying to what they would like me to ask, rather than what I'm actually asking.

Such a waste of time.

I'd prefer efficiency to speed!

Exactly. Hard to express, "As I said, it's the supermarket car park, you muppet!" without sounding rude.

Yes. I’ve written to my child’s teacher twice. I made the mistake of making more than one point or asking more than one question. Because they will answer one thing and ignore the rest.

From work and life admin I have learned that people get lost reading paragraphs and you have to make it really easy for people to read your messages. That includes putting things in bold and underlining,

• using bulletpoints
• and numbering

for every single question or point you want to make.

And even then they will ignore.

Its exhausting. My whole job was 90% chasing people by email.

I had a meeting with a financial advisor I wanted to work with. I wanted to pay for his services! After a meeting I sent an email with follow up questions because it’s complicated and I wanted to understand what I am paying for. I numbered every question. He missed about half of them, or missed the point of what I was asking. Completely lost confidence in him and his firm.

Im so sorry you have to deal with this. My mum had the same after my dad died. I ended up sending the company a very blunt 3 page letter, the last page of which was just different ways of saying he's dead.

You know she said she did this in the OP right? You are proving her point!

That is brilliant, and I hope it felt very cathartic. I assume you went through every euphemism from "he has passed" to "he is pushing up the daisies" and "he has shuffled off the mortal coil", etc.?

Those who deal with bereavements have an extra responsibility not to put people through the extra stress of having to chase up queries or reiterate information they have already provided.

I find this all the time OP - people also can’t be bothered to look up information for themselves. I organise a lot of events for work and I get a lot of

• can I bring my children (I have already put in the event detail babes in arms only)
• what time does it start? (Also on the invitation)
• is there parking? (Very googleable)
• how do I get there by bus from specific address?
• And on and on and on

I must admit I'm rather terrible for this at times OP, and I count myself as quite literate and I work in admin replying to emails all day.

At work I'm not too bad as I make sure to double read things, and I hate looking like a muppet cos I've not RTFE, but my own stuff I'm not great.

I blame an overload of information from work and too much time on SM, oh and Peri, that can be blamed for everything 🙄