The Covid idea was close to our thinking that he might have had a brain injury or something. His level of incompetence is something I have NEVER seen before.
The other issue is that he keeps coming up with excuses for EVERYTHING. Nothing is ever his fault, including the reclass entry.
Or when he kept asking me why the monthly computer allocation was calculated by dividing by 36 instead of 12 and I told him 3 times that it's because it's a 3-yr lease - "but I thought it said annual?" "Well, it's not." "But shouldn't it be divided by 12?" "No, it's a 3-year lease, so we're amortizing over 3 years instead of 1." "But shouldn't I change the equation to be divided by 12?" *headdesk* He wouldn't listen to me and kept insisting that he needed to change the equation that was already there and that he was right and I was wrong, even though he's the one asking me for clarification, which I gave him multiple times.
Or when he didn't know how to see the pivot table data source and I kept telling him, see where it says Pivot Table in the menu then PivotTable Source right under it? No, at the top. No, to the right. Followed by him handing me the mouse and saying, "Oh, please, can you show me." This coming from the guy that claimed that he was very excellent at Excel and used pivot tables all the time in his prior work.
Or when he was trying to figure out why he couldn't see the columns in the data source that he could also see in the pivot table list, and I asked him if he unhid all the columns in the source range and he said yes, yes he did, he promises that he did. I asked again if he was sure, and again he confirmed yes he did, and so where are those field names coming from, but ... oh, he could tell I might want to check for myself, so he gave me permission to again take control of his mouse. And lo and behold did BRIGHT YELLOW columns appear after I clicked Unhide. I'm not kidding - those header cells were highlighted with the bright yellow background and clashing awful red font.
By the way, those last 3 all happened during the first hour I sat with him on my second day on this contract. I told my supervisor that she can either have me continue babysitting him or she can let me go back to my desk and actually get some work done. I have had zero patience with him since. At one point last month when I did come over to help him with something again, he brought up that it's unfair how much time I spend with the other accountants on the floor, as though somehow a contractor brought on to fill a staff shortage gap and start helping clean up spreadsheet on the backend has anything whatsoever to do with his being able to perform his own accounting tasks without completely handing me the mouse to do it for him. That also pissed me off, and I resented the insinuation. When I work with the other accountants they don't lie to my face and they listen when I give an answer and then I go back to my desk knowing they can continue on without me. Not to mention that he said that to me WHILE I WAS IN HIS CUBICLE HELPING HIM WITH SOMETHING. Arg!
And yeah, HR wants official write-ups, follow-ups, chances of him being given specific instructions and opportunities to show that he is capable of doing the job for which he was hired. Their biggest issue isn't the mounds of proof we have that he's incompetent, but his come-back that he hasn't been given proper training even though he doesn't listen when ANYONE tells him ANYTHING. That's why she's giving him simpler and simpler tasks, like copying files into their proper folders and ridiculously simply reclass entries that should only take a competent accountant 5-10 minutes to do.
no subject
The other issue is that he keeps coming up with excuses for EVERYTHING. Nothing is ever his fault, including the reclass entry.
Or when he kept asking me why the monthly computer allocation was calculated by dividing by 36 instead of 12 and I told him 3 times that it's because it's a 3-yr lease - "but I thought it said annual?" "Well, it's not." "But shouldn't it be divided by 12?" "No, it's a 3-year lease, so we're amortizing over 3 years instead of 1." "But shouldn't I change the equation to be divided by 12?" *headdesk* He wouldn't listen to me and kept insisting that he needed to change the equation that was already there and that he was right and I was wrong, even though he's the one asking me for clarification, which I gave him multiple times.
Or when he didn't know how to see the pivot table data source and I kept telling him, see where it says Pivot Table in the menu then PivotTable Source right under it? No, at the top. No, to the right. Followed by him handing me the mouse and saying, "Oh, please, can you show me." This coming from the guy that claimed that he was very excellent at Excel and used pivot tables all the time in his prior work.
Or when he was trying to figure out why he couldn't see the columns in the data source that he could also see in the pivot table list, and I asked him if he unhid all the columns in the source range and he said yes, yes he did, he promises that he did. I asked again if he was sure, and again he confirmed yes he did, and so where are those field names coming from, but ... oh, he could tell I might want to check for myself, so he gave me permission to again take control of his mouse. And lo and behold did BRIGHT YELLOW columns appear after I clicked Unhide. I'm not kidding - those header cells were highlighted with the bright yellow background and clashing awful red font.
By the way, those last 3 all happened during the first hour I sat with him on my second day on this contract. I told my supervisor that she can either have me continue babysitting him or she can let me go back to my desk and actually get some work done. I have had zero patience with him since. At one point last month when I did come over to help him with something again, he brought up that it's unfair how much time I spend with the other accountants on the floor, as though somehow a contractor brought on to fill a staff shortage gap and start helping clean up spreadsheet on the backend has anything whatsoever to do with his being able to perform his own accounting tasks without completely handing me the mouse to do it for him. That also pissed me off, and I resented the insinuation. When I work with the other accountants they don't lie to my face and they listen when I give an answer and then I go back to my desk knowing they can continue on without me. Not to mention that he said that to me WHILE I WAS IN HIS CUBICLE HELPING HIM WITH SOMETHING. Arg!
And yeah, HR wants official write-ups, follow-ups, chances of him being given specific instructions and opportunities to show that he is capable of doing the job for which he was hired. Their biggest issue isn't the mounds of proof we have that he's incompetent, but his come-back that he hasn't been given proper training even though he doesn't listen when ANYONE tells him ANYTHING. That's why she's giving him simpler and simpler tasks, like copying files into their proper folders and ridiculously simply reclass entries that should only take a competent accountant 5-10 minutes to do.