People incapable of following instructions

[Tradd]

I’ve been talking about the epidemic of stupidity for a while, but it’s gotten even worse. I need x,y,a to set up new customers or clear an import shipment through Customs. I’ve stopped writing in completed sentences and use bullet points instead. That seems to help some.

People can’t follow simple, clear instructions. They’ll give you half of what you need and act put out when you ask for the missing items. Or they’ll complete a document that also needs to be signed and don’t sign it.

It’s amazing how much time I have to spend on fixing stuff that people can’t get right the first time. It’s not effing rocket science.

[jp1]

I’ve been talking about the epidemic of stupidity for a while, but it’s gotten even worse. I need x,y,a to set up new customers or clear an import shipment through Customs. I’ve stopped writing in completed sentences and use bullet points instead. That seems to help some.

People can’t follow simple, clear instructions. They’ll give you half of what you need and act put out when you ask for the missing items. Or they’ll complete a document that also needs to be signed and don’t sign it.

It’s amazing how much time I have to spend on fixing stuff that people can’t get right the first time. It’s not effing rocket science.

I wonder if these people have ever bought a home. The mind-bogglingly small details that had to be absolutely perfect was fascinating to me. ("Do you have a new bank statement? I can only accept one as proof of assets for the down payment that is less than 35 days old. This one is 36 days old." That kind of minor detail. I didn't have a new statement yet, but they made an 'exception' by allowing me to provide a printout of my account balance from the bank website showing that I had exactly the same amount in it that I had at the end of the previous month.)

It made me realize how incredibly loose the cyber insurance underwriting world is. If I was even remotely as strict in my underwriting requirements I'd never put a single account on the books because there would be 20 other insurance companies that would happily write the business with just the information at hand. So, for example, instead of getting an updated loss run on the day that the new account is going into effect I just get an email from the broker that says no new claims have been filed since the loss run was generated.

[ToomuchStuff]

There is a big lack of reading comprehension as well as common sense. I deal with it too much.

[Tradd]

There is a big lack of reading comprehension as well as common sense. I deal with it too much.

I’m of the opinion that a lot of people are functional illiterates.

[Tradd]

I wonder if these people have ever bought a home. The mind-bogglingly small details that had to be absolutely perfect was fascinating to me. ("Do you have a new bank statement? I can only accept one as proof of assets for the down payment that is less than 35 days old. This one is 36 days old." That kind of minor detail. I didn't have a new statement yet, but they made an 'exception' by allowing me to provide a printout of my account balance from the bank website showing that I had exactly the same amount in it that I had at the end of the previous month.)

It made me realize how incredibly loose the cyber insurance underwriting world is. If I was even remotely as strict in my underwriting requirements I'd never put a single account on the books because there would be 20 other insurance companies that would happily write the business with just the information at hand. So, for example, instead of getting an updated loss run on the day that the new account is going into effect I just get an email from the broker that says no new claims have been filed since the loss run was generated.

My best recent story was the customer who filled out the required power of attorney slightly wrong. I did a screen shot and highlighted what needed to be fixed. What I got in return was the POA the customer had signed for a totally different customs broker. It wasn’t a mistake sending it to me. It was intentional. She couldn’t understand why I couldn’t take the POA for a different broker.

Those small details are what I have to worry about, especially when it comes to FDA food shipments.

[Rogar]

One could speculate the the quick, no thought required, instant gratification of social medias has reduced people’s attention span.

[jp1]

My best recent story was the customer who filled out the required power of attorney slightly wrong. I did a screen shot and highlighted what needed to be fixed. What I got in return was the POA the customer had signed for a totally different customs broker. It wasn’t a mistake sending it to me. It was intentional. She couldn’t understand why I couldn’t take the POA for a different broker.

Those small details are what I have to worry about, especially when it comes to FDA food shipments.

That's insane. In my world a comparable thing is a BOR, or broker of record letter. All insurance companies have strict rules about them because they dictate what broker gets paid commission on the policy premium. A good friend of mine actually was hired as an expert witness for a civil suit involving an insurance company where there was a dispute between two brokers regarding who was the broker of record when a large policy with almost $1 million in commission was placed.

An example of the looseness of cyber insurance underwriting happened to me today. We had extended a policy one month for some random reason. When we do that we require confirmation of no known claims. The broker sent an email stating that there were none. We trust an email from the broker as adequate proof. We got the submission for the renewal last week and today the underwriter working on it called me because when she checked our system while working on the renewal quote she found that the insured had filed a claim 2 days after we had gotten the no known loss email from the broker. That means either the broker didn't check with the insured or the insured probably lied to the broker when asked. It also means that we would probably deny this claim if it reaches our layer of the insurance tower.* If the broker didn't check with the insured before emailing us the no known loss email the broker's professional liability policy will be on the hook if the claim gets to our layer.

*there's $20m of limits that would have to be paid out before our policy would come into play so it probably won't matter. Claims that large are quite rare for companies of this insured's size.

[jp1]

One could speculate the the quick, no thought required, instant gratification of social medias has reduced people’s attention span.

That, and also the fact that the world has sped up to the point that so many people have to rush through their work in order to get it all done. Back when I started in insurance 20+ years ago the insurance process was that the broker snail mailed a renewal application to the insured. The insured completed the application and snail mailed it back to the broker. The broker then made photo copies of it and snail mailed it to the various insurance companies for review. The underwriters would review the submission and then either snail mail or email quotes to the broker, who would then snail mail a proposal to the insured detailing the various quotes and making a recommendation in a cover letter printed on the broker's stationery. When the policy was issued the insurance company would snail mail two printed copies to the broker, who would file one and send the other to the insured. (my younger colleagues at my previous mega corp employer were fascinated the day I needed to get an actual 6 year old paper policy file from our file room one day for some reason. They had only ever worked with electronic files and viewed the paper file with the same curiosity one might view a Victrola with shellac records or a telephone with a rotary dial.) The whole process took several weeks. Now the whole process happens over email and is routinely completed in just a couple of days. As a result brokers, and underwriters, work on far more accounts every day than they did 20 years ago. Shortcuts get taken. Mistakes get made. But the increased profit overall means that no insurance company or broker is going to slow things down.

I look forward to the day, hopefully 7 years or so from now, when my workometer hits zero and I don't have to play this game anymore.

[Vitalis]

I’ve stopped writing in completed sentences and use bullet points instead.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has opted for bullet points to help email recipients understand my message. I even use screenshots with red arrows and underlines to highlights parts of their own text.

I think these are two clear byproducts of mass computer usage for clerical tasks: loss of attention and increase in stress. Both things interact with each other and contribute in reducing attention spans, making people seem more stupid than they would otherwise be.

[catherine]

I've had post-docs tell me that they want just a few three-bullet-pointed pages for findings that they've paid tens of thousands of dollars for. They don't want to read. I'll be honest, it puts a LOT of pressure on me. They don't want to come to any conclusions on their own. They are paying me to think for them. In the old days, the 100 page deck of charts and graphs with a hefty appendix could at least put some of the responsibility for how the information is used at their feet.

[iris lilies]

Well, I know I certainly appreciate bullet point delivery of information. A critical part of editing my writing is getting rid of extraneous words. That would be the minimum thing I do, and if I can put the missive into bullet points, that’s even better.