Easy fix: have everybody legally (or illegally, whatever works) change their first name to their last name and vice versa. Should be easy enough.

You do get paid for working, right? Do the busy work and cash in. Otherwise, you can call out your boss for being an incompetent idiot for fucking up the data, and you're not going to fix his bungling ineptitude.

export the contacts as a csv file, import it in excel (or similar) and simply change the columns of all of them in one step. export again, import into phone

Paid by the hour? Take your time and do the job, knowing that your boss is a fucking idiot.

That's easy, write a python script to do the sorting for you.

What's the problem? You're getting paid for menial simple work. Just sit on a laptop or phone and then sit each name. Simple enough

Could you not have it sort it by first names instead? If their last names are in the first name slot...

This is when you send out a mass text about his micro penis.

Or you can work smart, not hard....and click the whole column and switch places and only rewrite the column title

I'd tell him/her to get fucked.