How do you expect to learn...

[Dragynphyre]

what it's taken me 6+ years to learn, by this FRIDAY?

I have this co-worker that has recently been assigned to my team. Since she came back from maternity leave and her old job was pretty much being handled by the people that had been handling it for the 10 weeks she was out, the hold she has on her job is tenuous. I can understand this feeling, this place is notorious for laying people off even if they know what they're doing.

However, even before she went off on leave, I am told that the clients she was handling were calling the others in her group (who have divvied up and are handling all of her accounts), anything to not speak to her because she wasn't able to handle their problems quickly and in a satisfactory manner.

Anyway...

I've been trying to explain to her as best I can all the things that my job entails - not only showing her HOW to do things, but WHY she's doing them. Every time I start explaining, she interrupts and jumps ahead of me with what she thinks is the answer, based on her prior job experience, and 9/10 of the time, she is wrong. I say "noooo..." and start explaining again, this time more slowly and I feel a note of irritation creeping into my voice.

She's a bit slow on the uptake, by my standards. I am used to having someone ask a question once, get an answer from me, and remember it, or at least write down some notes. I'm not going to take the time out of my busy schedule to write up procedure manuals for things I already know how to do. I am not going to babysit someone through a process that I can do in 1/10 the time. I know my job so well, that I have been able to walk people through over the phone while on lunch break from Jury Duty... why can't someone that is physically here with me pick up on exactly what I'm doing while I'm doing it and giving them a running commentary of what's being done?

I teach her how to use one of the tools or systems that I use, and have her do small tasks using it, and once it seems that she's got a grasp on that I move on to the next one. It's helped me out immensely that she has had the time to do the filing - it's helped me out immensely that she's been able to take care of some of the small-scale research projects, leaving me time to take care of the big fat hairy ones...

Now, for whatever reason, she wants to know everything I know before I take a 1-day vacation this Friday (wow, I get a whole friggin' day off), in case someone asks her about something. There are two other people in the group that know how to do my job in case I'm out, but she insists that she has know how to be able to handle everything herself - as if all 3 of the rest of us are going to be in the same hi-rise elevator accident on the same day or something...

Ya know, I wish there was a way I could just download everything that's stuck in my brain... I really just don't have the time or the patience for this teaching/training @#%$, and I'm afraid I'm going to wind up snapping at her at some point ... and I'm too much of a softy to tell her that I don't think that she's ever going to understand the job well enough to move beyond doing the small-scale stuff. (Back In Black)
Delissandra Splitshadow - Veteran Deceiver of the Circle of Unseen Hands
Grandmaster Poisoner (250), Master Potter (191), Grandmaster Lush (200)

Cause I'm back on the track
And I'm beatin' the flack
Nobody's gonna get me on another rap

[Glip the Gnome]

So you've got someone working under you who is eager to learn and shows iniative?

I feel so bad for you

/cheese :P Glip the Gnome
Head Administrator: The Safehouse
Overlord of Doom: The Scurvy Dog Buffet
Where are my pants?
Edited by: Glip the Gnome at: 10/20/03 9:14 am

[EZ_Phantom Rogue]

Quote:Ya know, I wish there was a way I could just download everything that's stuck in my brain

You could if you were Johnny Mnemonic

[DarthEnder]

Yes, but then you'd have to be Jonny Mnemonic. "Classes are not that out of balance -AbsorEQ"

[Dragynphyre]

This is a rant as much about her as myself. Myself because I just can't find a way to teach her everything she would need to know if she suddenly became the only person in the department.

Yeah, her drive is wonderful, but I can't teach her 6 years worth of knowledge within a few months, let alone a few days...and I haven't got the time to stop doing my job to babysit her.

I started her reading our 40 page compliance manual last week, which she says she hasn't finished reading - while I finished it within half an hour and already addressed questions to the author of the manual.

She doesn't appear to be that good at problem solving, which is why her manager took her out of the customer service end and stuck me with her. The problem here lies in the fact that 90% of my job is problem solving and hunchwork - over six years of doing this job, I've been able to see connections between bits of information that people new to the job might not see. It's just experience... not something I can teach.

I must admit, the other two in my group are much easier to train, they take notes, and don't assume anything. They'll be absolutely fine this Friday if I'm not here - they know how to do a lot of my job, at least on the regular day-to-day stuff, and will call me on my cell if there's something that stumps them.

I work in New Accounts, she used to work in Settlements - which are polar opposites - New Accounts does all the Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer research on a client before an account is opened and opens the account - Settlements takes over after a trade is done with the client if there are any problems with the settlement of the trade.

Besides, I'm only ranting so my head doesn't explode, so why am I defending myself anyway?

[EZ_patofnaud]

Tank, I need a pilot program for a B-212 helicopter.

[Dragynphyre]

Yeah, I WISH ... technology needs to catch up to me dammit.

I had a talk with her, she seems to understand that she's only going to learn through experience. I can only tell her so much, she going to learn more by doing, and by screwing up, the same way I did.

So glad I'm actually going on vacation though - don't really care who does my job when I'm away. For all I care, they could doodle on Post-It notes all day.

[EZ_pulid]

Just curious, what do you Dragon? Is it a law firm?

[Loreleli]

if it was me, I'd talk to your boss.

why is she not taking notes?

this is your key issue here - no one can retain all that info unless they have really, really good recall ( most peeps don't)

You should not have to devote more than 10 -20% of your time to training unless your boss says otherwise. Plus, there shoudl be in place certain steps to make her accountable for her learning, nto 100% all you making she retains the knowledge.

*testing
*review of written/oral communication based ont he training
* accessment of skilsls 5 day, 2 week s, 1 month after training

it's all called feedback & it would help you as the trainer and her as the 'noob' to see where it shoudl be paced and how much retention is happening.

Let your boss knwo you want the info to improve you ( kudos on review time, as you have a new skill set...) then lay oit down as to what you aree seeing. Let him/her make the noob step up to the plate and perform.

The fact that she failed to read a 40 page doc. is very telling imho ( she wants spoon feeding, then can blame you when it goes wrong...)

worse HR meeting I ever had was when someone I trained tried to focus/shift blame on me for their lack of comprehension. Didn't work, as I had already taught 5 + classes for same material ( 3 different subjects related to our job) & scored very well for teaching it & explaining the subject material in depth. My boss knew what was going on.

Always practice CYA in cases like this.

best of luck.

[Dragynphyre]

A lot of what I do is legal/compliance research in a NASDAQ firm... Anti Money Laundering and Customer Identification...

Boss wants this chick to 'sit with' me... now, I move fast, I know this. I've tried to slow down so that she has a chance to catch the info that I'm giving a running commentary on. I told her today "whoa, you're getting ahead of me" when she started jumping to conclusions again.

She just almost caught me typing this, hehe

My main problem today is ... It's not my damn job to teach someone how to use the blasted computer! The person who works for/with me should have good Excel skills, average Word skills, and has some proficiency in looking stuff up on the Internet using a variety of different tools and links we have access to, and being able to actually find stuff using a search engine like Google...

I'm afraid that, if it was a matter of "sink or swim", right now she'd be at the bottom of the Hudson right now... She pretty much lacks these skills. And, it's Not. My. Job. to teach her. I'm going to suggest to our manager that she take some sort of Internet course. I haven't found out how she is with Excel and Word yet.

[EZ_Nazbuk]

I'll tell you what the problem is. You're a geek. And I mean that in a good way. I'm a geek too. Being a geek means that you have the ability to understand the technology at a faster pace than the average joe. In these troubled times everyone seems to be going for a computer degree or work with computers. I mean let's face it....computers are everywhere.

Sooooo....you are having to work with people who just don't get some things because that's the way it is.

You are either one of two things......

1. The most valued person in your department and possibly in the company. Grossly underpaid and never takes time off because no one had thought of what they would do without you.

2. The most valued person in your department and possibly in the company. Well paid and paying the price for it. Always on call with a pager (or two) and a cell phone.

I feel your pain, man. I really do.

Sorry for going off in your rant.

Nazbuk
The Troll

[Dragynphyre]

#1 Naz, at least the way I look at it.

[Dragynphyre]

Sso now I find out that my protegee gave notice today - November 14 will be her last day... so all the time I've taken to do the training I've done thus far is completely wasted.

This is scaring me - the people whom I inherited most of my job responsibilities from are no longer at the firm - either laid off or left because of a better opportunity. Every time I try to train someone to be my coverage/replacement - they either get laid off, leave the firm, or get xferred to another department.

Whether or not I like my job, currently, I'm the only one that knows how to do everything I do. Sure, there are a few people that can kinda cover for me when I'm out, but I have to say "for X go to X person, for Y go to Y person, for Z go to Z person", there is no one person who knows everything I do.

It's great job security, but the only way I'm going to be able to have a change and do something different is to completely pack up all my stuff, leave, and not come back.

[EZ_Desolet Incognito]

Just out of curiosity, which firm do you work for? Your rant sounds very familar to me, I have been working with alot of the AML and Patriot Act crap for the past year or so - it is definetly a pain in the ass.

[EZ_Samita]

I'm in the same boat - this letter just came into my email today

(My 2nd-lvl boss),

In (My Old Group) we are working to EOL a product version that utilizes (Stuff I Developed). The User Community is managing the supplier development and proliferation of (SID)-Free version which will probably stretch into Q3’04. While we actively manage the (SID) ownership internally within (MOG) until that time, we have very few ‘experts’ left with deep experience with this interface.

By the end of this year, we will lose our best resource with (SID) experience – they will be transitioning the product ownership to another resource who will own the sustaining and level 3 support. However, this will leave us thin if we ever came on an (SID) emergency. (Samita) contributed extensively to (SID) development/maintenance when he was in (MOG), and I’d like to have his name in my back pocket in case of a Corporate emergency. We don’t have any scheduled releases or high priority issues outstanding that we need help on; I’m just looking to start this conversation early - rather than during an emergency.

Please let me know if your organization can help in this way.

Thanks.

--Some Manager


--- Realize that (SID) is running in every Intel production facility --- No job worries here....
--- But yea - its hella hard to get out of the pidgion hole Magelo for: Samita Alanna Amaryllis Merridok
Tradeskiller 1655/1750
J 249, Br 248, F 240, P 236, T 234, Ba 228, S 220
Edited by: Samita at: 10/29/03 2:41 pm

[Dragynphyre]

Tried to PM ya Desolet but it seems you don't have that function turned on?? Prefer not to be connecting my screen personality with my firm name such that a search engine could find me...

Let's just say I'm a pawn in one of the larger market making firms along the Hudson River... and I swear, the more I deal with this USA PATRIOT Act stuff (not capitalized for emphasis, it really is an acronym) the more I'm under the impression that Orwell's vision of 1984 will come true, just a little later.