Dude, use your words. And your brain.

[missdiane]

Had a meeting with a staff person who came a little before 11am to my office a couple of weeks ago. I've let him know that I work from home in the afternoon due to a disability accommodation. There are now at least 3 (possibly 4 if one number is his cell) missed calls on my work phone from him...

...all in the afternoon. Hell, one was at 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday.

He's not leaving a voicemail and not following up with an email either. If he has questions about the mini grant where I'm offering him $$ for three years worth of getting off his lazy ass, he needs to use his tiny brain.

Since he's not leaving messages, I'm sorely tempted to ignore him but I suppose I should cover my ass and email him to ask what he wanted and remind him that I'm not in the office during the afternoon. Email not phone since I like things in writing for backup. Well, and also because I loathe talking on the phone.

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

Yes, CYA and document. But I think you know that already. AS for brain...anyone who offered ME money would have my full attention...

[missdiane]

I emailed him and his reply made me want to bang my head against a wall. I explained the ENTIRE process and this dumb shit went to the USDA-NIFA site and sent me a link to the RFA (request for application) that *I* send to USDA to apply for OUR ENTIRE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF FUNDING that hasn't jack shit to do with his dinky ass project.

[halfmoon_mollie1]

Um... is he a professor?

[missdiane]

Shockingly NO. He's staff! I expect this sort of dumbassery from the masses of faculty I deal with. Staff is supposed to be smarter.

[halfmoon_mollie1]

Yes, that's true in my experience. Staff is usually smarter!

[spiffikins]

OMG.

"I ignored all your words, and instead I googled and found this helpful link that I am sending to you!"

I don't even know where to begin, when I get responses like that from my customers? Like...you are SO FAR in outer space, we are clearly not even speaking the same language? And I don't have time to start at the beginning of "teaching you the alphabet" in order to be able to get you to the point where I can try to explain what is happening?

[missdiane]

I used a lot of "per our conversation" and "as mentioned" in my reply to this doofus.

Oh and he tried to be "helpful" when it came to when I said we have a 1:1 match requirement asking if the service agreement where he gets contracted money to do something for the State counts as match.

No, dingus. You can't use contract money, no matter the source, as match on a Federal grant.

[vysila]

People do not listen, or they have selective memory. That has always been true but it is getting worse.

How bizarre that he would not leave any messages, though. Really, do people truly expect you to just return a random incoming call and ferret out what they want?

[missdiane]

The thing that gets me is that I sent him examples and links to our site where it tells you exactly what to do and he still went fishing elsewhere for irrelevant crap

I mean bottom of the page
https://sebsnjaesresearch.rutgers.edu/capacity-funding/
Project Proposal Guidelines for McIntire-Stennis Projects tells you EXACTLY what to put in your proposal.

Then he tried pulling some rank with this shit "What I think I should do before we start setting up a proposal with NIFA is have NJAES leadership read what I wrote to ascertain if this is something they want to pursue."

I said that *I* am the one that makes the determination and that if I have any reservations then *I* discuss it with Bosslady.

[vysila]

So obviously you did get in touch with him in the meantime. I read the earlier comments and... yikes. How condescending and moronic can a person get?

It sure puts you in a difficult spot, trying to respond diplomatically when his level of obtuseness is so high.

[missdiane]

He came from the State so clearly that's where he gets his lack of brain cells and honestly, shit work ethic.

A while ago, I sent something to leadership, including him, that I found where USDA was giving funding for renovations/equipment if you applied and while it had match, we had state funding earmarked for some of these renovations already so it would have been free federal money. It sounded like a no brainer and Bosslady asked me to sit in on USDA's online information webinar even though I'm not the grants office. I did and sent them more information and this guy SHOULD have been tasked with applying for the grant but like with other situations, he just couldn't be bothered.