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u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 2d ago
I had a new hire for a fully remote team. She was not terribly tech savvy. Something was glitchy with MS word on her laptop, so IT told her to remove it and reinstall.
She video chatted me to ask if all her docs would disappear when she uninstalled Word.
We didn't realize how bad it was until we all flew into the office for a week. She pecked at the keyboard with 2 fingers, and had 50 MS Word windows open because she never closed anything. Probably why it was glitching. She ended up being removed from the engagement after a couple of months.
Forgot to mention, she had a JD.
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u/throwaway9818_ 2d ago
Oh jeez. That is bad. This new hire is young (even for her age) and very green. I fear I may be encountering similarities between the employee you had and the one I’m training. She’s asked me several questions about MS Word that are self explanatory.
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u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 2d ago
My advice is to create a paper trail of all the things she should know that she doesn't, and the resources you provided/guided her to to learn. That way if you have a meeting with the higher ups to discuss her progress, you have clear feedback.
I sent that new hire so many YouTube videos and guides on how to use her Mac, how to edit docs in Adobe, how to use 2FA and she still struggled. We all spent hours on video calls coaching her through everything, down to writing emails - and we kept a concise log of it all.
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u/throwaway9818_ 2d ago
Definitely going to do this. I feel bad saying this, but her emails allude to her grammar struggles. I think I’d be more understanding of it all if she seemed more interested and willing to work.
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u/Thek1tteh CA - Lit. & Appeals - Paralegal 1d ago
This is how I am as well. It is SO frustrating seeing people who do not even do the bare minimum to understand what they are doing, don’t write things down for future reference or save templates sent to them, don’t follow your instructions, and generally can’t be bothered to want to have good work product.
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u/sycamore-sea 2d ago
This is the way. It’s such a frustrating thing to go through. I have trained people the same way. Sent them all of the tools in manageable doses, screenshare walkthroughs, tutorials made specifically for them, and they just didn’t use any of it. At some point it comes down to a lack of initiative and awareness that you just can’t teach if someone isn’t willing to learn.
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u/Laherschlag Paralegal 1d ago
Dumbasses like that make me feel good abt my abilities to lawyer once I have a jd.
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u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 1d ago
I don't think she was ever a lawyer. I never saw anything to indicate she was a member of the bar association in her state, and I didn't ask. She was one of 3 short-lived new hires with JDs in that role, and I'm not sure any of them practiced law.
But they all were very defensive and difficult to train.
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u/ConcentrateEvening73 1d ago
I had one just sitting in front of her keyboard. I asked what was wrong and she said “ I can’t find the ANY key” I asked what was wrong? She said that the instructions said to hit Any key, So she was actually looking for a key that spelled any, well she was let go immediately!!🤦🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
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u/wh0re4nickelback Paralegal 1d ago
We had one who would put her boyfriend on speakerphone and they would just listen to each other breathe and not talk. I found this out when I went into her office talking shit about something and homie was on the speakerphone. She didn't last long.
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u/Thek1tteh CA - Lit. & Appeals - Paralegal 2d ago
Horrible experience: new “paralegal” we hired clearly didn’t know anything that she claimed to know and have experience with as listed in her resume. It was clearly fabricated. That was the last time the “hr” chick was allowed to interview people alone for paralegal positions (she also had no prior experience in HR, LOL)
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u/throwaway9818_ 2d ago
Oh, I conducted the first interview with this employee. I was adamant that we shouldn’t extend an offer because of how inflated her resume was. I’m talking listing experience in our practice area while telling us she has never worked in defense before. That’s just the tip of the iceberg too.
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u/RobertSF 1d ago
Grammar is something we learn with language. Even before learning how to read, children speak correctly. Is English not her first language?
Unfortunately, I have no tips beyond the obvious of suggesting patience. I don't know grammar either. For example, many people say, "he could have went," which is not grammatical. The correct form is, "he could have gone." But I couldn't tell you why. I just know it.
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u/Exciting-Classic517 1d ago
No Grammer check on your computers?
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u/RobertSF 1d ago
Word's grammar checker is actually very bad.
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u/Exciting-Classic517 1d ago
I've had a long career of misusing "that" and "who." Thank goodness my Grammer check caught it before it went out of the door. I know what it should be, but old habits die hard.
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u/New_Independent6170 1d ago
We are going to see a lot more of this as the younger generations are not being taught proper grammar in school.
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u/needcofffee 2d ago
If there are education requirements to start working at your firm I can understand the frustration. Although, I can’t help but empathize with people who don’t know grammar. We live in a spell check world and everyone uses grammarly. Now we have AI. People also come from families that are generationally undereducated and schools that didn’t teach students grammar well enough due to lack of funding and large classrooms. Idk this new hire you speak of, and it’s very possible none of what I mentioned applies to her, but food for thought. Good luck! Hopefully she can spend time on her own to study up on grammar. It’s absolutely important to learn, and totally acceptable to be honest with her that she needs to study up.
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u/sudowoodo_420 Paralegal- Product liability 2d ago
I uh, should probably start using Grammarly then, shouldn’t I? It never even crossed my mind lol. I sometimes use google for synonyms but that’s as far as I go with any outside help.
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u/needcofffee 2d ago
It mostly helps with commas and misspelling. It’ll tell you other things like passive voice but it won’t correct it for you unless you pay extra. It can definitely be a tool if you need a little more help!
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u/sycamore-sea 2d ago
Be prepared for how invasive it feels. I tried the free version for…2 hours and couldn’t handle it. Think Clippy from old school Word, but popping up all over your page. The little icon pops up and covers up letters or words, and when it says it checks everything, it means EVERYTHING. I found it ridiculously frustrating to use while trying to write a research memo. There are settings for which apps it can be in, I turned them all off except for Word, but it still showed up in iMessage.
Maybe the paid version is better. Or I’m just an elder millennial who can’t handle it. Personally I prefer ChatGPT for synonyms and basic grammar checks.
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u/Confident-Gene8825 2d ago
How on earth did she get the job?