Could just also have been outright fear. Waaay too many people did this for computers in the 90’s and 00’s They hit something they don’t understand and they just freeze.
I had this nurse out of state. She had worked her entire life on paper. Xeroxed forms, filled them out, filed them. She was only in her 30’s. We were a big healthcare company, and she started working for us. We had a strong need to have things digitized.
She had just convinced her coworker to key in all her forms after she took care of them, but the situation was untenable. Her boss called me, we need her to have her own computer so she can learn to use it. AOK, I configured and mailed one right away.
Boss calls me back, a week later. so and so can’t get on. OH OK!, what’s the error? You’ll need to talk to her. That’s fine can you put her on? Ohh um she just left. K, can you have her call me when she gets back and we’ll sort it out right away.
A day goes by, Two, Boss calls me, So and So still can’t get on. She never called me, yeah let me put her on the line.
[muffled argument]
[long silence]
soandso: meekest voice hello
me: HI! let’s get you on your laptop, this should only take a second.
soandso: mumbles
me: i missed that, what was that?
[long silence]
me: I hear you can’t get on your laptop, let’s fix that. Did your password just not work? where did you get stuck?
[long silence]
soandso: mumbles
me: I can’t hear you, if you speak up a touch, we’ll get you going
[long silence]
soandso: almost a whisper I don’t know what to do
Me: quiet and reserved, shooting for soothing ok, that’s not a problem, we’ll go through step by step until it works, do you have the laptop in front of you?
soandso: a whisper yes
Me: is it open?
soandso: a whisper no
Me: ok, lets open it up, do you see a button on the front, you’ll need to press that and pull up on the lid
[long silence]
soandso: light sobbing it’s still in the box
me: [internally: JESUS] ok, no proble, let’s get that box open
90 minutes, in an hour and half, we got the box open, got the laptop out, opened it up, too a 5 minute break to sob and then re-collect herself. found the power button (this took 10 minutes alone) it was on the upper right of the keyboard, she made me walk her up from control, to shift to enter and so on. It came on, it was already setup for their wifi, all she had to do was enter the username and password which i had emailed to her boss and asked her to write it on a sticky.
She finally was on the desktop
soandso: morose now what
me: We’re done, you’ll need to work with your boss now to find out how to do your actual work on it, but you should be able to get in now.
She lasted another week before they fired her.
She was an RN, she knew medical coding, and she drove, she was just terrified of learning new shit
When you willfully reject responsibility, you don’t think clearly. Human capabilities like pattern recognition will be ignored.
Could just also have been outright fear. Waaay too many people did this for computers in the 90’s and 00’s They hit something they don’t understand and they just freeze.
I had this nurse out of state. She had worked her entire life on paper. Xeroxed forms, filled them out, filed them. She was only in her 30’s. We were a big healthcare company, and she started working for us. We had a strong need to have things digitized. She had just convinced her coworker to key in all her forms after she took care of them, but the situation was untenable. Her boss called me, we need her to have her own computer so she can learn to use it. AOK, I configured and mailed one right away.
Boss calls me back, a week later. so and so can’t get on. OH OK!, what’s the error? You’ll need to talk to her. That’s fine can you put her on? Ohh um she just left. K, can you have her call me when she gets back and we’ll sort it out right away.
A day goes by, Two, Boss calls me, So and So still can’t get on. She never called me, yeah let me put her on the line.
[muffled argument]
[long silence]
soandso: meekest voice hello
me: HI! let’s get you on your laptop, this should only take a second.
soandso: mumbles
me: i missed that, what was that?
[long silence]
me: I hear you can’t get on your laptop, let’s fix that. Did your password just not work? where did you get stuck?
[long silence]
soandso: mumbles
me: I can’t hear you, if you speak up a touch, we’ll get you going
[long silence]
soandso: almost a whisper I don’t know what to do
Me: quiet and reserved, shooting for soothing ok, that’s not a problem, we’ll go through step by step until it works, do you have the laptop in front of you?
soandso: a whisper yes
Me: is it open?
soandso: a whisper no
Me: ok, lets open it up, do you see a button on the front, you’ll need to press that and pull up on the lid
[long silence]
soandso: light sobbing it’s still in the box
me: [internally: JESUS] ok, no proble, let’s get that box open
90 minutes, in an hour and half, we got the box open, got the laptop out, opened it up, too a 5 minute break to sob and then re-collect herself. found the power button (this took 10 minutes alone) it was on the upper right of the keyboard, she made me walk her up from control, to shift to enter and so on. It came on, it was already setup for their wifi, all she had to do was enter the username and password which i had emailed to her boss and asked her to write it on a sticky.
She finally was on the desktop
soandso: morose now what
me: We’re done, you’ll need to work with your boss now to find out how to do your actual work on it, but you should be able to get in now.
She lasted another week before they fired her.
She was an RN, she knew medical coding, and she drove, she was just terrified of learning new shit