All change

A whole system change is underway with our ‘IT infrastructure’. For this reason we are being forced to undertake mind-numbing Microsoft trainings, consisting of multiple topics and chapters. Topics are things like ‘how to delete an email in Outlook’. They are designed for people who have never seen a computer before. It registers when you have skipped on and marks you as incomplete, unlike most mind-numbing tutorials that you can speed through.

As is typical in international organisations, the leadership of individual country offices put the fear of god into themselves and hammer the staff to complete the trainings lest HQ in Switzerland see us with a low percentage completion score. What I think they should say is that forcing staff to take banal trainings is a bad use of time and it’ll be done when it’s done. My irreverence is badly received in Tanzania, but is not badly received in Mozambique, where people have more backchat.