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More red exclamation marks. A week of red exclamation marks.

The latest red exclamation mark attached to an email copied to my colleagues, hoping they can help in my absence.

But I’m sorry to say that despite my best efforts, nobody will be able to help at all.

The reluctance of this crew to learn how to do anything new, no matter how mildly challenging, is famous. 

Only on my return will there be a flurry of insistence, emphasised with red exclamation marks, that they must all upskill to provide cover in my absence.

But it will not happen. They are the unteachable. The unreachable. There’s nothing that cannot be fixed with a red exclamation mark.

In a normal week, I would have quietly logged on by now, to respond to every red exclamation mark.

So far, I’ve managed to limit my interventions to one — and only to free a colleague copied in, who has nothing to do with the ask.

I would love to be part of a competent team, where each of us covers for the other. But it’s not going to happen.

Throughout my eighteen-year sojourn in public sector IT, we have been in cuts mode. Those with ambition moved on long ago.

My sole role: answerer of red exclamation marks.