When Making Someone’s Job Easier Isn’t Always Welcome

Back in the late ’90s, I worked for a company in Boston that helped fund different business ventures.

Exactly what all of those ventures were or how the whole thing worked? I couldn’t tell you then, and I definitely couldn’t tell you now. 😂

But I did understand one particular part of the process very well.

Whenever the company had another venture going, our office manager had to prepare about 500 letters.

And this happened frequently.

These weren’t simple form letters where everyone got exactly the same thing. There were several places throughout each letter that needed to be customized for the person receiving it.

Her system was to copy the letter, paste it, change all of the individual information, save it, and then move on to the next one.

Five hundred times.

And then do it all over again the next time there was another venture.

She spent hours and hours doing this and accumulated a LOT of overtime.

There Had to Be a Better Way

At some point, I learned what she was doing and thought, Wait a minute. Why are we doing this manually?

So I showed her how to use a spreadsheet and mail merge.

We created columns in the spreadsheet for all of the information that changed from person to person. Then we connected that information to the letter so the correct details automatically appeared in all the right places.

The letters were still completely customized.

We weren’t taking away the personal information or turning them into generic letters.

We were simply letting the computer handle the repetitive part.

Now, creating the spreadsheet and entering all that information still took time. It wasn’t magic.

But once everything was set up, producing those 500 customized letters took a fraction of the time it had taken before.

I thought this was fantastic.

Our office manager?

Not quite as excited. 😂

I Had Accidentally Streamlined Her Overtime

What I didn’t really think about when I showed her the faster way was that all those hours spent copying, pasting and editing letters had created a substantial amount of overtime.

I was looking at the process and thinking:

There has to be an easier way to do this.

She was looking at the same process from a completely different perspective.

And suddenly I had made her job much more efficient.

Oops.

I was young. I genuinely thought I was helping.

And technically, I was.

But I also learned something.

Technology Isn’t Usually the Whole Story

We talk a lot today about automation, AI and all the different ways technology can save us time.

But this experience happened almost 30 years ago.

The tools have changed dramatically. The human part really hasn’t.

Sometimes people resist a new tool because they don’t understand it.

Sometimes they’re comfortable doing things the way they’ve always done them.

And sometimes the old, inefficient way is actually giving them something they don’t want to give up.

That doesn’t mean we should keep doing something the hard way forever.

But it does remind me that when we introduce someone to a better way of doing something, it helps to understand the whole picture first.

And apparently, I started trying to make technology easier for people long before I ever called it Digital Life With Sandee.

I just didn’t always make everybody happy when I did it. 😂