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Apparently, the girl and her boss have been having disagreements left and right, whatever. So now every meeting she's distracted, po'ed, frustrated, almost to tears. I say lets just do this project, we'll show them what we can do and let all this other stuff go. Yesterday her boss told her that she might as well turn the project over to me as I'm doing all the work! That upset her. Then apparently my boss went to ask her boss why we are meeting everyday. Her boss had no clue and he and the girl got in a "fight" over it this morning. Yesterday the girl cancelled our meeting because she wasn't up for it. Today she cancelled again because of the fight this morning.
Sounds to me like her problems have nothing at all to do with you whether you are helping her or not.
She's only been there a month and is already having disagreements with her boss. Bad, bad sign.
I will allow for the possibility that her boss is very unreasonable in which case she should quit the job now and forget the whole thing happened. Otherwise, she has problems that will follow her anywhere until/if she matures.
I dont think the CEO needs to be part of the solution. He didnt ask the OP to have daily meetings with this employee. That was either the OP's idea -- or it was the new employee's idea and the OP went along with it.
According to the OP's initial post, "Her Excel skills aren't the best, so the CEO asked me to work with her on putting some charts together." Bringing the CEO into a prooblem that wasnt his making and isnt serious enough to warrant his time is a good way to make everyone aware that the OP has issues with following instructions.
Well shouldn't the CEO be informed that both bosses don't want the OP to help this woman on this project with Excel anymore because it's disrupting her own work? That is how her boss is leaning and how the woman's boss is leaning. Helping with Excel was what the meetings were about in the first place.
Well shouldn't the CEO be informed that both bosses don't want the OP to help this woman on this project with Excel anymore because it's disrupting her own work? That is how her boss is leaning and how the woman's boss is leaning. Helping with Excel was what the meetings were about in the first place.
Yes, need to let CEO know how things stand. Email is sufficient, meeting with both supervisors and CEO (as suggested by 20yrsinBranson) is excessive. Sometimes I wonder how people in a modern corporate workplace get anything done with so many meetings...
Excel is something that can be self taught. If she was truly motivated to do her job she would pick up some books and do some on-line tutorials so she could do it herself. At least that is what I would do if I were her. She seems content to just dump most of the work on you. If I were a supervisor I would not be crazy about that arrangement either.
Well shouldn't the CEO be informed that both bosses don't want the OP to help this woman on this project with Excel anymore because it's disrupting her own work? That is how her boss is leaning and how the woman's boss is leaning. Helping with Excel was what the meetings were about in the first place.
I agree and my post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek on that part. If the OP cant/wont stop the daily meetings and doesnt know how to stop giving the new employee so much help, her boss will probably advise the CEO.
I wonder why the new employee cant get the hang of Excel with minimal assistance from the OP. There are many internet sites from which one can learn basic, or even advanced, Excel. That's how I learned it but, then, I may have been more motivated than the new employee. I was definitely more motivated than the OP to do what made my boss happy.
I don't understand people sometimes, but here is what's going on at work.
I work in Finance (been here 4 months). We have a service department and they just hired a girl to work with the service contracts, she's been here one month. Her Excel skills aren't the best, so the CEO asked me to work with her on putting some charts together which would analyze different aspects of our business from the service side. No problem, I love this stuff.
First day we meet to tackle the project, I notice there is tension between her and her boss. No problem. We start meeting for a little each day as we need to get this done ASAP. My boss says to me "I don't want to be mean, but why are you meeting with her each day, your job was to help her not do it for her." I said that the analysis requires some skills that she does not possess and my goal was to set up the database so that only new information would need to be added and all of the reports/charts would calculate automatically. This takes time. My boss is laid back and didn't make any further comments.
Apparently, the girl and her boss have been having disagreements left and right, whatever. So now every meeting she's distracted, po'ed, frustrated, almost to tears. I say lets just do this project, we'll show them what we can do and let all this other stuff go. Yesterday her boss told her that she might as well turn the project over to me as I'm doing all the work! That upset her. Then apparently my boss went to ask her boss why we are meeting everyday. Her boss had no clue and he and the girl got in a "fight" over it this morning. Yesterday the girl cancelled our meeting because she wasn't up for it. Today she cancelled again because of the fight this morning.
WTH! I'm just fed up with this whole thing. I am ready to tell her that with all this stuff going on between her and her boss, maybe it's better that she work on it and if they need something let my boss know and I will help for that instance only. In fact I think that's what I should do. The only thing is, the CEO is not aware of this (yet I suppose). If she produces a piece of crap (pardon my expression), I'm afraid that I'll be brought into that failure was well, when I know how good of a job I can do on this.
I have never been in this situation before and I honestly don't know how to handle it. I'm laid back, will help wherever, but I'm afraid I'm being put into a bad position here.
What does this mean? You're great at Excel and she barely understands it. Are you supposed to do the charts and let her watch or do one chart and let her continue or..? Why was she hired without the appropriate level of office skills? Is she great at something else the company needed?
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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In this case, your only job is to keep yours. I'd ask for clarification from my boss. I'd be honest and say I'm perfectly willing to train her---if you want me to. I anticipate her training to require x amount of hours. Would you like me to train her? How much time do you want me to devote to this assignment? How frequently? Then I'd write up brief summaries of the training sessions and keep my boss in the loop. I'd drop the training sessions in a heartbeat if my boss wanted me to do something else.
I have been asked to mentor/train others. This is how I handled it. I always kept notes. There would be a few times when the new hire just wasn't going to get it. My notes and communications with the boss covered my butt because, inevitably, the new hire would claim I didn't train property or failed to tell him/her something, etc.
In this case, your only job is to keep yours. I'd ask for clarification from my boss. I'd be honest and say I'm perfectly willing to train her---if you want me to. I anticipate her training to require x amount of hours. Would you like me to train her? How much time do you want me to devote to this assignment? How frequently? Then I'd write up brief summaries of the training sessions and keep my boss in the loop. I'd drop the training sessions in a heartbeat if my boss wanted me to do something else.
I have been asked to mentor/train others. This is how I handled it. I always kept notes. There would be a few times when the new hire just wasn't going to get it. My notes and communications with the boss covered my butt because, inevitably, the new hire would claim I didn't train property or failed to tell him/her something, etc.
It wasn't the OP's boss who directed the OP to help the woman with the Excel part of one project. It was the CEO of the company, who it doesn't seem even notified the OP's boss about it.
It wasn't the OP's boss who directed the OP to help the woman with the Excel part of one project. It was the CEO of the company, who it doesn't seem even notified the OP's boss about it.
Why do you think the CEO didnt advise the OP's boss that the OP had been asked to help the new employee with Excel?
The OP said: My boss says to me "I don't want to be mean, but why are you meeting with her each day, your job was to help her not do it for her."
The OP's boss asked why the OP was meeting with the new employee every day. That doesnt imply that the boss wasnt aware of the CEO's request -- only that the boss didnt feel that daily meetings were necessary.
She's been there 1 month and is already fighting with the boss and cancelling meetings with you because she is upset. Plus she doesn't have the skills to perform her job so others have to hold her hand/do the work for her.
She's going to be fired any day.
Sad thing about this is they probably interviewed/got resumes from several other people that were perfectly capable of doing this job. Maybe one of them steps in next.
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