PowerPoint Power Struggles

We have a manager who is required to give a presentation of the monthly report for every end-of-month meeting. It’s tedious, not because the report is boring (even though it is), but because this manager is so technologically inept that running through a simple PowerPoint presentation is beyond him.

Every presentation is double the length it needs to be, thanks to the inability to remember basic commands, broken slides, and various other low-level issues that could be fixed with a little extra patience and training when putting together the slide.

Me: *Approaching the manager after one of the meetings.* “Hey, [Manager], if you like, I can help you out with the report presentation each month. It should help you iron out some of the minor issues that you’re having.”

Manager: *Offended.* “If they’re so minor, then why even bring them up!”

Me: “I was just offering my help.”

Manager: “If I needed help, I would ask for it.”

After yet another month of his technical f*** ups, my own manager, [Tech Support Manager], speaks up in front of everybody still in the meeting room.

Tech Support Manager: “[Manager], would you like [My Name] to take a pass at the report before next month’s meeting? This way he can—”

Manager: “—I do not need his or anyone else’s help. This is not my first rodeo.”

At this point, the CEO says:

CEO: “Looks like you haven’t won one yet, though, have you [Manager]? Take the d*** offer of help and help us get through the report in under twenty minutes next month, please!”

[Manager] went red. A month later, he begrudgingly sent me a copy of the report, albeit only an hour before the meeting. That was all the time I needed to fix every broken item and technical issue that had been plaguing us for almost half a year.

The report was delivered in twelve minutes that day, a record. I’m not sure if [Manager] was more upset that I proved he did need some help, or that I was able to fix all the issues so quickly despite his attempt at sabotage caused by the delay.