Some folks sure are stuck in their ways…

And the guy you’re about to hear about is definitely one of them!

So, how should someone handle a co-worker like this?

Check out what this person did…

I can call you Larry. And Larry, when you call me, you can call me Tom.

“I was hired as a warehouse clerk two weeks before Covid hit and countries started shutting down in panic, late Feb/Early March 2020.

There is only 3 of us in the back: myself, the manager and Larry. The two of them have worked there together for 27 years and have known each other for 30+. The guys are older and not the most computer literate people I’ve come across.

Guys, listen…

Think two-finger typing while staring at the keyboard. I try to push the idea that computers, since quite a long time already, are the new tool in this modern age and they should absolutely embrace the technology instead of reminiscing of old times.

I was 35 at the time and stated that it’s not unreasonable to think that I will have to adapt myself before reaching retirement and that I am prepared to. “I’ll never change the way I work” is what Larry told me at the time.

We all clock in 8-5 but Larry really likes to come in at 6. Our business is open, but most others are closed due to Covid so there is literally nothing to do for most of the day.

Hmmm…

Larry has taken the habit of doing what little I have to do when he gets in, at 6 mind you, saying “I didn’t have much to do this morning so I did your work” but then asks me to do stuff like clean his desk because he’s busy with work. That makes no sense to me but whatever, it’s not like I have anything better to do.

Now fast forward almost a year and I’ve been slowly getting more and more aggravated by Larry’s actions. He absolutely has to print and verify every single order, my computer is an arm’s length from the printer and I have both access and permissions from management, but I have to wait for him to pull it from the printer and then hand it to me or he gets upset.

This guy sounds like a huge pain in the ***.

He’s rude and pushy with customers and a complete jerk to colleagues. He already knows everything you tell him. He is quite loud and quick to call other people idiots but then whispers on the phone when he screws up. He tried to pin a few of his screw ups on me as well.

We sell construction machinery and our parts are exclusively sold by us, so if anything is backorder the procedure is to have the parts ship courier overnight once a week from our 3 other warehouses. Usually that’s 3-6 boxes total and takes little to no time to receive, pull the orders and ship them out.

Except lately it’s been closer to 20-25 boxes regularly and I am starting to get really annoyed by Larry’s process.

With regular volume it’s an OK process honestly and normally wouldn’t be an issue but since almost no new machinery is being sold and we are only selling service parts for the most part, we are not receiving the big truckload transfers we used to so our part inventory is much slimmer, so more backorder parts.

Essentially Larry’s process is to manually go through each part one by one and associate it to an order. Once complete, and only then, does he then send an e-mail to someone to release the orders so we can ship.

It’s now taking so much time that I have nothing to do for 6 hours during the day but must rush like a madman to get things packed and labeled before the truck arrives for our daily pickup.

This guy…

We use SAP for an ERP/WMS but he likes to call it the Stupid *** Program. Apparently SAP cannot do what he does. Well Larry, I beg to differ and now my life’s goal is to make it happen.

I start browsing what’s available in SAP during lunches looking for a query already in place or something I can easily modify, I’m no developer but I’ve taught myself how to code over the years.

After two weeks of searching on and off, it finally pays off: I find the holy grail I am looking for, but I need to run it after receiving parts for it to give any results. Finally get to try it and it works!

It takes a few minutes to process but eventually it spits out a bunch of orders, I validate and everything is good to go! Time to put the plan in motion.

The truck arrives on cue as Larry leaves for his one hour lunch, as usual. I hastily start working on making sure we got everything that’s on the manifests, receive it in SAP and proceed to run the query.

I send off the results by e-mail to the girl who handles releases saying something along “Good day, here are the orders for which we’ve received parts today. Thanks!” and get a single “LOL” as a reply from her. Larry comes back from lunch and tells me he will start working on the orders right away.

I took care of it!

I respond that “It’s ok, I’ve already sent it out” and he tells me “Oh, I know”. While Larry is busy doing his thing, I’m spamming F5 waiting for orders to pop up and one eventually does. I send it to the printer and pick it up, Larry is completely oblivious to what is happening and is about 5 ft away from me.

I grab what Larry has already reserved from the shelves, even though the program considers first come, first served and reserves inventory based on order date. I then go and pick the remaining part from the pile he is working with.

He immediately tries to stop me by saying “No, that is for customer X” which is when I finally show him the papers and say “I know Larry, I have the order right here”.

The look on his face after enduring this guy for well over a year while turning the other cheek was so exhilirating and the best part is that it didn’t even stop there! He spent the rest of the day on the phone with the girl and I can only imagine what was being said as he was speaking in his native language, which is not English!

I could tell from the tone that he wasn’t as enthused as I was about the situation. I was bleeding from the cheeks from trying to restrain myself from laughing, shoutout to the Covid mask for helping as well.

He called in sick on the Friday and I was told by the girl he spoke with that he had not called in sick in over 15 years.

Oh, Larry…

I was given a lot more leeway in our system after word got around and that made him freak out even more and I took full advantage of it:

“NO! We can’t do that we need to ask X to do it for us!”

“No Larry, you can’t do that. I have X’s authorization to make modifications that I deem necessary”

Petty and sassy.

Even though I didn’t enjoy working with the guys in the warehouse, the office staff was great and the Covid situation provided me with a unique opportunity to take on the role of an unofficial Logistics Coordinator for a brief period. I knew very little apart from assumptions about supply chain and trucking industry prior to joining but I’m a quick learner.

I left a few months later, eventually landed a job in logistics brokerage and now work hybrid remote in transportation for a major retailer. There’s a business analyst position that will open up shortly that I will be gunning for.”

Check out what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person shared their thoughts.

Another reader weighed in.

This Reddit user was impressed.

Sometimes, you gotta take things into your own hands and just get it done!

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