I work with a person that went presented with a problem, works through it and arrives at the wrong solution. When I have them show me the steps they took, it seems like they interpret things incorrectly. This isn’t a language barrier, and it’s not like they aren’t reading what someone wrote.
For example, they are working on a product, and needed to wait until the intended recipients of the product were notified by an email that they were going to get it. the person that sent the email to the recipients then forwarded that notification email to this person and said “go ahead and send this to them.”
Most people would understand that they are being asked to send the product out. It’s a regular process for them.
So he resent the email. He also sent the product, but I’m having a hard time understanding why he thought he was supposed to re-send the email.
I’ve tried breaking tasks down into smaller steps, writing out the tasks, post-mortem discussion when something doesn’t go as planned. What other training or management tasks can I take? Or have I arrived at the “herding kittens” meme?
Ok I’m glad I’m not the only one who is confused. Idk if I’m just stupid, but I read the OP three times and cannot for the life of me understand what was supposed to happen with the emails and products. Can someone explain it to me?
Edit: Ok, I get it now after taking a few minutes, but the instructions are still vague. “This” is not a specific indication. Sounds like the employee sent both the product and the email just to be safe because the instruction was ambiguous. It sounds like the employee was uncertain what was meant, but for whatever reason didn’t ask for clarification.
So why didn’t they ask? Does this employee get pushback for asking for clarification? Were they being lazy? Are they an anxious person? There are many possibilities here.
Summary is that OP sucks at communicating and blames other people for their incompetence. Now they are in this forum seeking affirmation that they are not incompetent.