Just How Dumb Can One Person Be? - Part 2

Give me another few weeks and I may just be able to answer that question.

The guy I talked about Thursday was even stupider on Friday.  This man is supposed to be a college graduate with experience in the work we do.  (He may have experience, but it's not with work - that seems quite foreign to him.)

Anyway, Friday he asked me how I validated a report in April because he had a problem with the validation for Wednesday's report.   I thought it would help him do the job if he actually tried to think of a solution himself so I asked him what analysis he attempted or considered before asking for help.  His reply was that he did the same thing he did in April (which obviously didn't work in April or I wouldn't have had to do the validation for him then.)

So I asked him "specifically what analysis did you do today?". 

His reply was that I never revealed what I did in April.   (He cc'd the manager in that email so she could see how mean I was being to him.   Two stupids in one email.)

So I forwarded the email that I had sent to him in April outlining the steps I took then, but explained that the problems might not be the same so the solution might not be the same.  I added that analysts often needed to think outside the box to find the appropriate solutions

Then I stopped what I was doing and did the validation for him (because I knew he couldn't/wouldn't do it) and sent it to him in an email.  I included 2 tables and 2 charts.  All had brief explanations indicating what they showed.   I did not specifically say "This is the validation" because I thought he should be able to draw his own conclusions.

(Let me say here that he took two 20 - 30 minutes breaks before 10 then went to lunch at 11.)

The validation report is supposed to be sent before 11 AM on the second business day after the report date, so shortly after twelve o'clock I asked if it had been sent.  His reply was convoluted, rather nonsensical, and included the phrase "thinking outside the box", but did not answer the question.

So I asked, "Does this mean Yes, the report was sent or No, the report was not sent"

I didn't get a reply to that email, but about 3 he replied to the first email explaining that he had looked at historical data but couldn't find any from July 2010.  He indicated that I probably knew where it was but was hiding it from him.  Then he reported that the report was definitely not validated.  (I have no idea what historical data from July 2010 had to do with validating the report.)

So I replied simply, "I validated it in the email I sent you at 10:30.  Send the validation report now."

In reply he sent me and the manager a snippy little email saying I had not validated anything because I used the phrase "may be related to the holiday" in the first paragraph and may is not conclusive.  He included a snippet of my email in his message to prove his point, but failed to notice the rest of the sentence (though he included it in his email): "The increase may be related to the holiday ... But I did not stop my analysis and research there".  Apparently, he also didn't notice the tables and two large charts that summarized the additional work I did. 

Also apparently, it's against the rules at the Dumass Corporation to fire people for stupidity and laziness.  I'm guessing it will only be a short time before he's promoted to management.