They should teach it to elementary students, and again in high school. That, and how you properly use a search engine, digital reference library, and photocopier.
I actually have no idea how to use a photocopier. Never needed to use one. It would be nice to know though, since I'm inevitably going to have to at some point, and will look like an idiot when I have to spend ages figuring it out.
You put the paper you want to copy in the slot, you enter the number of copies you want and then you press the button.
Well, yeah. 'ages' may have been an exaggeration - it's hardly going to be impossibly complex. But you know what I mean.
Although actually, the ones they have at uni are these strange combined photocopier/printer/scanner things, and they are pretty complicated. They have touch screens and the interface is terrible.
Then you have to put it in the photocopier mode meaning you have to press one more button.
No, no, no. I have to log in first, which means either scanning my ID card in a non-existant scanner, or typing in my username and password manually on the touch screen. That takes me to the "My jobs" screen, which (usually) has any pending print jobs I've submitted, which is all I've used it for so far (to print them I have to select one, then go to "tasks" then "send" (because "print" would be too descriptive). This needs to be done individually for each job). There's an "options" menu, within which there's a "mode options" menu, which I assume is where you switch to photocopy/scan mode, but since I've never actually tried, I have no idea.
I was just making a rude comment about the inconvenience of using the university library, like I said, I've never actually tried to photocopy anything before 
It's not hard, but I've seen lots of fail at it. It would take less than ten minutes to effectively teach people how to use all the functions on most photocopiers. Also, how to input paper and deal with jams and such. It's one of those things people don't think about until they have to use one, and even if you just use it once, the sensation of knowing what you're doing is invaluable.
The first time I tried was in the second year at university, I ended up with the font being too light and having to spend a whole 'nother dollar just to print off a chapter of some textbook.
Heh, I spent a day of professional development on that. One of the few such programs that I've actually found valuable in my general work. Proper email composition and management is something I assume everyone can do, and yet...
They should teach it to elementary students, and again in high school. That, and how you properly use a search engine, digital reference library, and photocopier.
They called it 'Effective Edge' at my company. I'm expecting that they'll make it mandatory for everyone, but until they do, I'm ignoring it. I've very rarely had challenges in keeping up with my emails or workload, and when I do it's usually because I'm getting overloaded with work.
Most of my immediate co-workers at the same level as me probably handle at most 10 to 15 or so projects/fixes per week; in times past, it's not unusual for upwards of 30 to 40 projects/fixes to pass through my hands in any given week, and that's without working overtime. I think my record is 43 or 44. So I chuckle a bit every time I see something about efficiency pop up at work. What goes through my mind is usually something like, "Yeah, asshole, you guys can teach me about efficiency when you can keep up with the same volume of work I handle."
I suspect efficient organization is a common characteristic of people in your profession. The same is true generally with the people I work and associate with, but in areas that differ from desk work.
I'm amazed how many people over the age of 30 can't write emails -- or letters for that matter -- which are concise, conveying the correct information, and well formatted. Not to mention the number of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. I'm less critical of those personally if I can understand the general message but... it just seems odd coming from people with advanced degrees.
