I've worked with a lot of "interesting" people over the years. Not "interesting" in the sense that they're insightful, captivating individuals, but rather that they don't even remotely resemble NORMAL.
Throughout my career, I can probably pinpoint 2 or 3 people who fall into the "WTF how did you get here" category, but the one that takes the cake is a guy who's currently on my team.
He annoys me supremely in the sense that he has so very little experience in our field and he lied about his skills and knowledge during the interview process. I did not interview him and our interview process here is quite lax. If you put something on your resume - Neurology, for instance - we just assume you're telling the truth. For those of you who have followed my recent career frustrations, this guy was hired by my previous manager - the guy who was a primary reason in my resignation a few months ago (I still work here due to the fact that the VP immediately restructured the department to "neutralize" this manager; I no longer report to him).
Anyway, back to my coworker. He's intelligent, but has JACK in the way of experience or understanding of our field. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about: we're a .NET development shop doing a lot of ASP.NET 2.0 work and client/server software development. The other day he came to me asking what a Web User Control was. A couple weeks ago I had to explain ViewState to him, as he had never heard of it. If you're unfamiliar with .NET development, just take my word for the fact that these are some of the most BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL elements. It's like a mathematician not knowing what the quadradic formula is or a capenter not knowing what tool to use to put a nail into a board. He asks questions like these almost daily.
But what's worse is that he has a huge case of Cantshutthefuckupitis when we're in meetings. He's constantly trying to impress everyone with his "brilliant" ideas. Occassionally he cooks up a decent one, but most of the time it just comes out as nonsensical bullsh*t that was obviously concocted to try to make himself look smart. He looks quite foolish most of the time because not only does he lack communication skills, but it's readily obvious to even non-technical people that he doesn't have a firm grasp on the things he should know.
Most of the time his interjections (which tend to droll on for what feels like an enternity) just result in minorly annoying the people around him, but earlier this week we had a very critical meeting with a potential customer. The meeting consisted of my team (including him), the customer, VP of Sales, VP of Tech, and the President of our company.
Everything was going smooth until Idea Boy decided the meeting had gone long enough without him gracing us with his insights. He starts yammering on about some made-up gibberish until finally everyone has sunk into their seats.
The customer finally interrupts him with "what the hell are you talking about? I haven't understood a single word you've said and I'm not even convinced YOU understand a word you've said."
The room fell absolutely SILENT. Usually I don't mind watching this guy crash and burn, but this time he embarrassed us all as a company. Our President jumped in and tried to recover, but the damage had been done. We are officially not being considered by this customer as a solutions provider, and there's no question that it was a direct result of Idea Boy's babbling.
We have several other meetings with customers lined up for tomorrow and next week, and I've been informed that Idea Boy is not to attend any of them.
CLIFFS:
- Coworker spends more time trying to sound smart than he does trying to be smart.
Share your experiences with annoying coworkers. Maybe they constantly poop from their mouth, park in the handicap spots, or eat your lunch from the refridgerator.
Throughout my career, I can probably pinpoint 2 or 3 people who fall into the "WTF how did you get here" category, but the one that takes the cake is a guy who's currently on my team.
He annoys me supremely in the sense that he has so very little experience in our field and he lied about his skills and knowledge during the interview process. I did not interview him and our interview process here is quite lax. If you put something on your resume - Neurology, for instance - we just assume you're telling the truth. For those of you who have followed my recent career frustrations, this guy was hired by my previous manager - the guy who was a primary reason in my resignation a few months ago (I still work here due to the fact that the VP immediately restructured the department to "neutralize" this manager; I no longer report to him).
Anyway, back to my coworker. He's intelligent, but has JACK in the way of experience or understanding of our field. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about: we're a .NET development shop doing a lot of ASP.NET 2.0 work and client/server software development. The other day he came to me asking what a Web User Control was. A couple weeks ago I had to explain ViewState to him, as he had never heard of it. If you're unfamiliar with .NET development, just take my word for the fact that these are some of the most BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL elements. It's like a mathematician not knowing what the quadradic formula is or a capenter not knowing what tool to use to put a nail into a board. He asks questions like these almost daily.
But what's worse is that he has a huge case of Cantshutthefuckupitis when we're in meetings. He's constantly trying to impress everyone with his "brilliant" ideas. Occassionally he cooks up a decent one, but most of the time it just comes out as nonsensical bullsh*t that was obviously concocted to try to make himself look smart. He looks quite foolish most of the time because not only does he lack communication skills, but it's readily obvious to even non-technical people that he doesn't have a firm grasp on the things he should know.
Most of the time his interjections (which tend to droll on for what feels like an enternity) just result in minorly annoying the people around him, but earlier this week we had a very critical meeting with a potential customer. The meeting consisted of my team (including him), the customer, VP of Sales, VP of Tech, and the President of our company.
Everything was going smooth until Idea Boy decided the meeting had gone long enough without him gracing us with his insights. He starts yammering on about some made-up gibberish until finally everyone has sunk into their seats.
The customer finally interrupts him with "what the hell are you talking about? I haven't understood a single word you've said and I'm not even convinced YOU understand a word you've said."
The room fell absolutely SILENT. Usually I don't mind watching this guy crash and burn, but this time he embarrassed us all as a company. Our President jumped in and tried to recover, but the damage had been done. We are officially not being considered by this customer as a solutions provider, and there's no question that it was a direct result of Idea Boy's babbling.
We have several other meetings with customers lined up for tomorrow and next week, and I've been informed that Idea Boy is not to attend any of them.
CLIFFS:
- Coworker spends more time trying to sound smart than he does trying to be smart.
Share your experiences with annoying coworkers. Maybe they constantly poop from their mouth, park in the handicap spots, or eat your lunch from the refridgerator.
