Letting ChatGPT deal with the annoying people in your life

[CO-guy]

A few years before I quit the "dumpster fire" of a former employer, I was assigned to an absolutely awful manager. Beyond a ludicrous level of micro-management, she seemed determined to undermine most people on her team. Even brief, totally benign responses to her queries were often met by, "What do you mean by that?" It quickly got to a point where seeing a message from her in my inbox made me anxious.

So, I updated ChatGPT on our past communications and explained my dilemma. From then on, I stopped responding directly and turned all communication with my manager over to ChatGPT. For example, one of her favorite things to do on Monday mornings was to send a scrolling 5-7 paragraph long email with multiple questions in every paragraph and a demand for a response by COB. In place of my brief responses, ChatGPT started replying with scrolling, 5-7 paragraph messages that simply restated her own messages (e.g., "The question of.......is an interesting one. On the one hand......... But on the other hand...... This is a challenging situation. Good luck no matter what you decide.").

The change in her attitude toward me was rapid. She started telling me (ahem ChatGPT) how much she appreciated my thoughtful responses. More importantly, my anxiety over her messages dissipated. Occasionally she'd bring up things ChatGPT emailed her about in person to thank me for putting so much time and thought into responding to her message. I'd just accept the gratitude even though I often had no idea what issue she was talking about with ChatGPT. Eventually I resigned, but turning ChatGPT loose on my manager, and my managers manager made my final few years at the dumpster fire more tolerable.

So does anyone else use LLMs to handle communicating with annoying people.

 

[TripleLindy]

Might have been useful in my prior working life, but I have no need for that kind of thing now. I have noticed that Gmail offers to write AI responses to emails for me, but I’ve never used the feature.

 

[target2019]

I use various models available in PerplexityAI to analyze confusing social media discussions. It is always expert at generating long answers.

 

[CO-guy]

Might have been useful in my prior working life, but I have no need for that kind of thing now. I have noticed that Gmail offers to write AI responses to emails for me, but I’ve never used the feature.

Good point. I should probably add that I pay for a Pro subscription to ChatGPT. It isn't just responding to a single message. It was briefed on years of past emails and responses with the assignment of helping to improve my professional relationship with my manager.

Also, I've used it to help me communicate with tour operators, B&B hosts, etc. in order to save time: Especially if I'm trying to communicate in a foreign language. However, these are minor compared to turning over my inbox for ongoing assistance.

 

[CaptTom]

Best use of AI I've seen yet. I guess the boss' style was just a lot different from yours, and once you (or rather, AI) figured it out, communication was smoother. I actually had the opposite problem. Bosses would turn to me to write things because I was better at writing. We didn't have AI back then. Another skill made obsolete by technology!

 

[Just_Steve]

I wish I had this option when I was w*orking, would have made life so much easier.

 

[sengsational]

Your boss must have been at least mildly clueless to think, in the age of LLM's, that you changed your spots. But you got away with it... that's great. Yes, one of the best uses for LLM's yet!

Kind of reminds me of that guy who was sending programming specs to India, paying them $10 for a week's worth of work that he presented as his own.

 

[Spock]

There was a X thread this morning about an exec at Meta who had OpenClaw handling her trival email account... it did fine... so she gave it her company email: "your OpenClaw “confirm before acting” and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox."

 

[CalBird]

Imaging your boss also uses chatGPT to create her email, then you let ChatGPT to read and respond the email which is also come from ChatGPT. If ChatGPT is smart enough, it may figure out what are these two humans trying to do to each and play those human beings. What an amazing world we are living.

 

[Amethyst]

A few years before I quit the "dumpster fire" of a former employer, I was assigned to an absolutely awful manager. Beyond a ludicrous level of micro-management, she seemed determined to undermine most people on her team. Even brief, totally benign responses to her queries were often met by, "What do you mean by that?" It quickly got to a point where seeing a message from her in my inbox made me anxious.

So, I updated ChatGPT on our past communications and explained my dilemma. From then on, I stopped responding directly and turned all communication with my manager over to ChatGPT. For example, one of her favorite things to do on Monday mornings was to send a scrolling 5-7 paragraph long email with multiple questions in every paragraph and a demand for a response by COB. In place of my brief responses, ChatGPT started replying with scrolling, 5-7 paragraph messages that simply restated her own messages (e.g., "The question of.......is an interesting one. On the one hand......... But on the other hand...... This is a challenging situation. Good luck no matter what you decide.").

The change in her attitude toward me was rapid. She started telling me (ahem ChatGPT) how much she appreciated my thoughtful responses. More importantly, my anxiety over her messages dissipated. Occasionally she'd bring up things ChatGPT emailed her about in person to thank me for putting so much time and thought into responding to her message. I'd just accept the gratitude even though I often had no idea what issue she was talking about with ChatGPT. Eventually I resigned, but turning ChatGPT loose on my manager, and my managers manager made my final few years at the dumpster fire more tolerable.

So does anyone else use LLMs to handle communicating with annoying people.

She must have been dumb as a stick, not to detect the smell of AI rising from those responses! I would have smelled it at once, but then again, I didn't treat reports as you described!

 

[Amethyst]

Best use of AI I've seen yet. I guess the boss' style was just a lot different from yours, and once you (or rather, AI) figured it out, communication was smoother. I actually had the opposite problem. Bosses would turn to me to write things because I was better at writing. We didn't have AI back then. Another skill made obsolete by technology!

I've had more than one occasion to thank God I had my career when I did. Starting out, all I knew was that I loved to write. I turned that into a solid quasi-journalistic career with a pension. And like you, I was the person to whom senior managers turned "because she's so good at writing."

 

[Lewis Clark]

... So, I updated ChatGPT on our past communications and explained my dilemma. From then on, I stopped responding directly and turned all communication with my manager over to ChatGPT.

I love this. Well done!

 

[Focus]

I've had more than one occasion to thank God I had my career when I did. Starting out, all I knew was that I loved to write. I turned that into a solid quasi-journalistic career with a pension. And like you, I was the person to whom senior managers turned "because she's so good at writing."

Same here. I think about this frequently, since writing and editing were the core skills in my 30-year career -- the career, mind you, that made it possible for me to retire early. I feel deeply fortunate.

 

[CO-guy]

I guess the boss' style was just a lot different from yours

My former manager's style was "petty and vindictive." She was a colleague for over a decade and regularly clashed with others on our team during that time. Two out of around a dozen people in our group were her buddies. When she was promoted, she went after all but those two people. She was also out sick more than half the time (chronic illness) and would micromanage remotely by video calling the office and having an admin walk her around with an iPad.

One of our funnier (for me) early interactions before involving ChatGPT was about her demand that everyone on her team be "in the office and accounted for" from 9am-5pm M-F. My response was, "Thanks for clarifying, but my first meeting each day is with the New York team at 7am. So 7am-3pm?" That instantly escalated to a meeting with her manager and HR.

Your boss must have been at least mildly clueless to think, in the age of LLM's, that you changed your spots.

Absolutely no clue about LLMs. One of the ongoing topics that she regularly demanded feedback on was policies on the use of LLMs. ("On the one hand, LLMs enable....... On the other hand, LLMs......This is a challenging situation.....") One of the first 'compliments' she gave me on a long response was something to the extent of, "Glad you've finally decided to fall in line."

 

[jollystomper]

I've had more than one occasion to thank God I had my career when I did. Starting out, all I knew was that I loved to write. I turned that into a solid quasi-journalistic career with a pension. And like you, I was the person to whom senior managers turned "because she's so good at writing."

A similar thing for me. Though my career was IT, it seemed that many folks in IT at the time could not write, or at least write clearly enough to be understood by people who did not know technical jargon. I was glad for my English and history classes in high school and college. Being a "techie" that was able to write a coherent sentence, and document IT activities and issues in a manner that business executives could understand, gave me executive visibility at a young age at Megacorp, and certainly helped my pay directly and indirectly.

 

[CO-guy]

I love this. Well done!

Thanks! It didn't make my position tolerable. Just less miserable.

Also, although I've said this before, it's worth repeating:

After seeing the success with my manager, I let ChatGPT respond to emails from every superior in the organization, which included writing and sending my letter of resignation.

 

[donheff]

Wow, I too was a chosen writer - in my case, I mastered government regulatory writing. The odd thing is that I didn't think of myself as a good writer when I started working as it had always come with a lot of effort in college. I think the difference is that much of my schoolwork involved creative writing and work was largely technical.

 

[target2019]

I fell into technical writing after college. At first it was defense, then a variety of industries. Went back to defense in the last stretch, with 5 final years as an analyst. I was also a technical illustrator.

Never used AI on the job, but my SIL does. She hates it since it just comes into play through management push to deliver a number about how much they use AI.

 

[Midpack]

I didn’t have that option when retired in 2011 and before, but I like the idea. I coulda used it on several of my self absorbed coworkers…

 

[CO-guy]

Wow, I too was a chosen writer - in my case, I mastered government regulatory writing. The odd thing is that I didn't think of myself as a good writer when I started working as it had always come with a lot of effort in college. I think the difference is that much of my schoolwork involved creative writing and work was largely technical.

My first career was writing and researching in government defense. Helping to lead a local nonprofit for the past few years, and having a great deal of success writing grants for them, we hired someone to focus on grant writing. Currently, I'm helping that person to use ChatGPT for identifying and writing grants, which is a game changer. We're in a transitional period with LLMs where, it seems, most applicants for grants we're going after aren't using LLMs, which has been a windfall for our organization. Also professionally, I'm regularly invited to lead webinars in my area of expertise, and LLMs have elevated my abilities to prepare for and lead talks.

While LLMs have improved productivity, income, and self-confidence in most facets of my consulting business, my original post was about using LLMs to communicate with annoying people. With grant writing and other professional activities, success is measured in terms of efficiency and income. However, when it comes to dealing with annoying people, my success is instead measured in reduced anxiety, stress, and rumination.

 

[sengsational]

One of the best compliments I got about my writing was when someone that wasn't central to the business emails that I was writing, but "had to" be copied on them said to me something like "I usually don't read all of those emails that I don't care about, but I end up reading the ones you write." Probably because they were the opposite of AI slop...I only wrote if I had something to say and tried for concentrated content. These days, on the forum, not so much

 

[MichaelB]

This has potential. I’m thinking of trying it out on my brother-in-law.

 

[Gumby]

To write clearly, concisely and convincingly takes substantial time and effort. Few succeed.

 

[street]

AI would have been a huge help to me when working. I find it very helpful in life when I need it.

 

[Amethyst]

To write clearly, concisely and convincingly takes substantial time and effort. Few succeed.

To me, it was a fun challenge.