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Why won't people read instructions/procedures/rules, etc made easily available to them? I'm involved in a large organization and I deal with a large number of people. Over the course of a year I deal with about 8000 people divided into about 600 teams. Each team has a captain, and the captain is supposed to handle their team's administrative matters. Many team captains return year after year, but some are new. Each captain is given instructions that they should first read local procedures, and should contact me (the overall administrator) if something is unclear or not covered in local procedures. Procedures are posted on a website and all captains are advised of this. New captains are advised to read all procedures to become familiar with how the organization works. The procedures are not long. They are divided into sections with headers, and the overall document is 5 pages.
Yet, year after year, organization captains and members contact me with hundreds of simple questions that could be answered by reading the procedures. It's almost as though they view me (the administrator) as their personal secretary available 24/7. I get frequent emails asking me to give them some information because they are not close to a computer, or can I contact the other captain for them because they are traveling. They even reply to emails with a question that was answered in the email. Example: An email gives a registration deadline date in bold red letters and they respond to the email asking when the deadline is.
I am continually amazed that people can't read simple instructions, and feel that is is OK to contact the organization administrator continually because they won't read instructions. What gives? What makes so many people think that they can join an organization with rules and procedures, yet they can operate outside of the guidelines they are given. And why is it so hard for them to understand that the administrator can't deal with 8000 people on a one-on-one basis, so they must read procedures instead of handling everything that comes up as a Q&A with the administrator? I don't get it.
I think less intelligent people do not read instructions. Possibly why they are less intelligent?
Anyway back in the 80's I was a computer type at a company. There was a shortage of computer technical people at the time. I did NOT provide technical service for the general public - but people would call up my company and ask for the computer person (me), then BEG me to come out to their business to help them solve a computer issue.
I said no to most people, but every once and a while I felt sorry for someone and would go there after work...
When I got there, I asked for their instruction manual, read the appropriate section, then usually solved their problem within 15 minutes. The answers were in their instruction manuals (which they never read!)
Maybe they are just lazy? Or perhaps like the people who go to the drive-through instead of walking in?
Have you seen the instructions to, say, a piece of household equipment? You have to sift through pages and pages of warnings, disclosures, multi-language instructions, etc., then there's maybe one page of actual instructions which are themselves riddled with more warnings and caveats. Also I find the technical writing skills to be lacking a lot of the time.
Have you seen the instructions to, say, a piece of household equipment? You have to sift through pages and pages of warnings, disclosures, multi-language instructions, etc., then there's maybe one page of actual instructions which are themselves riddled with more warnings and caveats. Also I find the technical writing skills to be lacking a lot of the time.
As I mentioned in my post, "The procedures are not long. They are divided into sections with headers, and the overall document is 5 pages." These are not technical instructions. They are clear and easy to read. Things like "Go to this website, here is a link. Click on the forms page and you will find the refund form." Not difficult.
I am guilty of not always reading instructions given out by my company, when one of the following applies:
- the instructions are sent out periodically, with the content being 90% identical, 10% have are new or modified. It is not market which ones. I have no time reading the entire thing again and again, if they want me to read it they should mark the new passages so I could save 90% of the time.
- the instructions are difficult to find in some obscure area of the company intranet, possibly protected by additional passwords that I only need once every few years.
In your case, as you stated your instuctions are short and easy to find, you may be dealing with a brand of people who see reading instructions as admitting incompetence: "I am good at my job, I don't need anyone to tell me how to do this. Only idiots need instructions".
Must be the same thinking that prevents men from asking directions no matter how lost they are :-)
The bigger question that burns in my mind is, why don't people read contracts before they sign them? They will sign their life away on a car loan, a mortgage, an employment contract, or some other financial arrangement that dramatically affects their life, and they won't read a word of what they're signing first. I read everything before I sign it. It has saved me on a few occasions.
Why won't people read instructions/procedures/rules, etc made easily available to them? I'm involved in a large organization and I deal with a large number of people. Over the course of a year I deal with about 8000 people divided into about 600 teams. Each team has a captain, and the captain is supposed to handle their team's administrative matters. Many team captains return year after year, but some are new. Each captain is given instructions that they should first read local procedures, and should contact me (the overall administrator) if something is unclear or not covered in local procedures. Procedures are posted on a website and all captains are advised of this. New captains are advised to read all procedures to become familiar with how the organization works. The procedures are not long. They are divided into sections with headers, and the overall document is 5 pages.
Yet, year after year, organization captains and members contact me with hundreds of simple questions that could be answered by reading the procedures. It's almost as though they view me (the administrator) as their personal secretary available 24/7. I get frequent emails asking me to give them some information because they are not close to a computer, or can I contact the other captain for them because they are traveling. They even reply to emails with a question that was answered in the email. Example: An email gives a registration deadline date in bold red letters and they respond to the email asking when the deadline is.
I am continually amazed that people can't read simple instructions, and feel that is is OK to contact the organization administrator continually because they won't read instructions. What gives? What makes so many people think that they can join an organization with rules and procedures, yet they can operate outside of the guidelines they are given. And why is it so hard for them to understand that the administrator can't deal with 8000 people on a one-on-one basis, so they must read procedures instead of handling everything that comes up as a Q&A with the administrator? I don't get it.
Thank you for posting this today! I really needed to see someone else going through what I'm dealing with. I could totally make-out with you right now!
I write the policies & procedures for my company, and I also make sure they are concise, clear, and in very simple language (I call it "writing in crayon"). But every day I get employees, even upper mgmt. folks asking "what's our procedure for...?" I usually point them to the applicable P&P on our network, and their answer is "Oh, I couldn't find it, can you just walk me through the procedure?"
AARRGH! I write the P&P practically in crayon so that even an idiot could understand them, and they still need me to hold their hand.
I also get the ones who can't even read an e-mail response I send them. Example: Idiot manager emails me a question asking what our procedure is for XYZ situation. My response is "You need to be more specific, is it this____situation or that ____situation? Also, was it a client in ____dept or ___dept? and was the service being provided ___ or ___? that will also determine what we do. It matters because my answer and the policy I point you to will be different depending on these things. Let me know, and I'll get you to the right P&P."
Idiot manager e-mails back saying "It's ABC dept" but never answers my first or third question, about the specific situation being presented or the service provided. I've even taken to numbering my questions, and they still will pick and choose which to answer, but still expect me to give them detailed help as to what they should do.
Then you get the people who are too concrete and can't even generalize something from one setting/situation to another setting/situation. For example, we have a lot of lower level supervisory positions that have a bunch of different names. You might be in a certain role in one dept and you're called one thing, but that same role in another dept is called something else (that's what happens in non-profit government-regulated healthcare). So when I write a policy that's applicable to all depts., rather than writing out every single possible job title, I might say, "the front-line manager on duty is responsible for ....." or "the middle manager in the dept is responsible for ...." then I get people who say, Oh, I didn't think that applied to me, I'm not a "middle manager" but a "Program Coordinator" (but a program coordinator is one of the middle management positions). You couldn't figure out that since you're a supervisor, and you have someone under you who is also a supervisor, and you have bigger supervisors above you, that you are a freakin' middle manager????? Or a supervisor who directly supervises a site can't figure out that "front-line manager" applies to him because the policy doesn't say "Senior Residential Counselor?"
No they all want to call and e-mail me constantly so I can tell then exactly what to do. And God forbid they remember it for next time! Nope, they'll call me again.
Haha, I always say RTFP (P meaning policy), but similar idea.
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