Forums > Social Chat > Thinking for yourself?

Posted: 16th Mar 2004
i guess it depends on what sort of person u are, if u dont mind taking the time to help him cool, personally im of the opinion if someone cant do the job give it to someone who is able to. if u keen to teach him i guess ull have to sit down with him with some examples of all the different types of things that are wrong and explain to him why they are wrong then go through examples and get him to pick which are wrong and right, make sure that it is him that picks the wrong ones when he gets it wrong explain to him why its wrong then onto the next example

sounds like alot of work ahead of u, personally id find someone else

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?

Posted: 16th Mar 2004
Unfortuantely there is no one else to do his job which is why we are concerned here. The official boss refuses to fire him and thinks it is the manager of the groups job to "train" him properly. This manager isn't a very good manager and has no idea how to help which is why I've been trying to. Also, he has a very tedious and pain-in-the-butt type job that no one else really wants.

I've already given him several examples as you said and had him show me correct procedures for how to deal with those issues. He is getting better at recognizing some of them. However, whenever he is presented with a new concept he is at a loss and usually just ignores it and proceeds on his merry little way without so much as mentioning the problem to someone else even though we have stressed he should.

Posted: 16th Mar 2004
It sounds like you have a lack of empowerement of your workforce if that is how he works and your manager/boss manages. Some people only seem to think they have a set course to do and that's it....but hey guess what...Life ain't like that!! If you can't (boss won't) sack him, make him work, empowerment doesn't work and he still continues like this then I guess you're stuck with him.



I know this might sound weird, but if you really have exhausted all the other routes you can think of have you tried telling him off? Have a go at him!! I find it gets results where no other method will and face it, it can't get any worse can it!!



Good luck...it sounds like you need it!!

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 16th Mar 2004
what sort of images is he analysing? and how is he analysing them? in what way can there be errors in them?

Posted: 16th Mar 2004
it sound more like that he is the wrong sort of personality for the job. he would probably be suited to being something like an accountant, where you follow basic steps and work things out - generally not too much creativity nor lateral thinking is required [no offense to anyone].

although perhaps this job is not quite as black and white? withno definite answers? to deal with this job, from what you say, you need to be more flexible and open minded in your thinking.
if you could explain more about what the job is i could probably help more.

however training people to think for themselves when they are already adults takes years of mentorship.

"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.

Posted: 17th Mar 2004
What type of images does he analyze? He is looking to identify spots on a 2D electrophoresis gel (protein gel). There is software which will automatically draw circles around these spots and match the same spots on multiple gels. However, the software is not always perfect and someone needs to go through and fix it's mistakes.

It is this person's job to check each analysis and look for spots that are much darker in some gels than in other gels. The software has lots of tools for helping out in that respect, but some thought is required to know when to use each tool and also for when to notice mistakes.

This person has been taught the process to follow for examining gels and that is not the problem. He can go through those 9 steps just fine if there aren't many flaws with the initial detection. However, if one gel isn't exactly like the others, the software has some problems as does my co-worker. We have tried to explain to him that he should question any abnormality he encounters, but he just ignores them.

We are trying to give him more to do around here because the tasks we are having to do are becoming more complex and there are no simple ones at the moment, but we have also learned that we can not trust him to do something more complex as it seems above him. We have tried breaking things down into small bits but even those which require some thought as to how to accomplish the goal are above him as well and frankly we are at our wits end. Our boss has said it is our responsibility to train this guy to think but we really can't figure out how you train someone to think through a scientific process.

Posted: 17th Mar 2004
I wonder if he doesn't have some sort of high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder, or something in that general flavor/genre.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 17th Mar 2004
Lightning you stole my thunder!! I was just about to come here and sugest that after talking to my boss about his mildly autistic kid!!

So yeah........what lightning said.

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 17th Mar 2004
If he is somewhat autistic is there something specific we could do to help him with the tasks he needs to do? Is there a website somewhere that might give helpful hints for dealing with someone with that disease in a work environment?