when you get asked questions that start with

“You’ve been here a while, so I thought you might know!”

I had this in my last job, and it got right on my tits. Instead of looking on systems people would just ask me! aargh!

Unless you’re going to move jobs every few years for the rest of your working life, try to look at it as a sign that your colleagues respect your experience and value your judgment..
or just say no..

Isn’t asking people the best way of learning how to do stuff? Certainly at most places i’ve worked the “systems” are the equivalent of throwing your documentation into a massive black hole and never updating it or seeing it again.

I’ve been in the job for 24 years I get that a lot but I’m a line manager and a member of staff who’s been there years. Now while they could look on a system it’s often easier to ask someone who may know and show them or explain to them better than any written policy can. It comes with the territory.

Looking on a system might tell you the way that someone thought things should work years before (and never actually did). Asking a person means you find out how things actually work.

Had this in a few jobs

I get this all the time. To the point now where everything gets deferred through me, regardless of simplicity. Im amazed anything gets done when Im on holiday.

As above its nice to know that people respect your knowledge like that, however I agree it does get boring and often prevents me from doing my own work as I get dragged into other things. Its part and parcel of work though, Id always seek out the person who could answer my question rather than trawl through a system or read various documents to find it out, and potentially still be none the wiser.

Sometimes its a consequence of time served but thats a good thing as ‘corporate memory’ is more valuable that written systems as employees have the ability to colour information with experience – its might also just be indicative of you being a good (or easy) person to ask.

A lot of my work is in film so I’m working in an assembled crew for between 1 and 3 months at a time – different crews and different productions each time. We all start around the same time so nobody is more time-served than anyone else in the context of that job. Invariably after a few days in if the production team have a query about seemingly anything they’ll phone me – regardless of whether it has anything to do with my department or not – in fact most particularly when its not. I run the construction team in the art department but I field queries about electrics, site security, the ladies toilets, truck parking, facilities hire, minibus hire…. Usually I miss the call cause I’ve either got my hands full or we’re making too much noise to speak on the phone so I listen to the message with the query and in the time it takes to listen to question and phone them back to tell them who they should call instead …. they’ve already worked out that out for themselves. Then they call me again the next time they have a question.

I think it’s quite flattering to be asked. I did chuckle about one job – I used to get phone calls after I’d left asking how to do things!

This is not a reason to change jobs. Try losing all respect for your boss, being lied to, false promises, and being taken for granted. Then you’ll be there…a bit like me.

Maybe the information on the systems / booklets isn’t very good? It might be great from your perspective though.

Tell them where the information is and if they have any specific questions / feedback then you’ll gladly help them further.

Yeah – I get the like to be asked bit, but like treaclesponge, it gets in the way of me doing my job. Some days I can do absolutely nothing that I am supposed to be doing.

Guess i’m just letting off steam, there are plenty of worse situations to be in!

Maybe the information on the systems / booklets isn’t very good?

On the contrary, It is very good, but I think there is far too much of it to digest/find what you are looking for. My boss disagrees 😕

Have you thought of procuring fully automatic assault rifles, shotguns and shedloads of ammunition and extracting your terrible, righteous vengence on those preventing you fulfilling your true potential?

I can see you in a black leather trench coat 😀

Is it time to move Jobs…

What?! Just let him rest in peace!

Used to get that, as one of the longer served engineers — either project specific (how did we do this) or general (what happened to so and so, who was the contact we dealt with…)

it gets in the way of me doing my job

What, like starting at 9, half day Friday and the rest spent on FB STW and porn ?

Get a proper job you workshy fop.

😆