Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My team is currently a population of 1. Me. I have a line manger who is relaxed and laidback but they don't really have the experience or skill to run the department, because everyone else has left mostly from walking out on the spot.
Next week I will be in the situation mid-week where there will be 2 new starters. I am expected to train them. They're selling it as "only observing what I do every day". If that was the case then it would be a fair call.
The truth is I'd have to go into lengthy detail and explanations on everything, and they haven't given me any training, introduction or reliable expectation on this. And I'm also concerned that I will be held as responsible if they make errors. And I don't have any experience or qualifications in training others.
In fact they haven't invested in my development or improvement at all, I've drawn most of my survival from previous work experiences or purely being resourceful, and that's another motivator for me to consider this task as unreasonable. It's surely the job of management to provide training, isn't it?
What do you think, am I crazy for feeling taken advantage of in this situation? Or is it right to expect a better deal? I know that sometimes you got to do what you got to do, but this doesn't seem fair at all. And if they fire me they'd have to do the training themselves anyway. What do you think?
This is also coming at a pivotal time for this "department" - the line manager has screwed up our electronic system so badly that we are now starting to report failing KPIs during a time when the relationship with our client is becoming particularly strained. This is causing a lot of anger from above and they have a bad habit of blaming people.
It's surely the job of management to provide training, isn't it?
My boss - the woman who approves my vacation requests, who sets my goals and objectives for the year, and who assesses my performance, is not a manager. She's just the same kind of employee as I am, just one level higher. As a matter of fact, I approve my peers' timecards - it is part of my job to attest to whether someone in the same job as I worked the hours they say they worked.
So apparently, "the job of management" and the job of non-management is effectively whatever the company says it is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dumb
What do you think, am I crazy for feeling taken advantage of in this situation?
If you don't feel taken advantage of at work, these days, you're a very lucky soul. Management at my company, at least, views the mechanism as taking advantage of "resources" to earn additional revenue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dumb
Or is it right to expect a better deal? I know that sometimes you got to do what you got to do, but this doesn't seem fair at all. And if they fire me they'd have to do the training themselves anyway. What do you think?
I think that there are a lot of dumb managers out there. I was the lead (and most well-paid) in my department two years ago and when it came time to reduce staff they eliminated me and the other two most well-paid staff members. The two less-well-paid staff members that were left have struggled for two years to try to do my job. I hear from friends I have in support and at our customers that they've done an abominable job. Do they track their current problems back to the bad layoff decisions they made two years ago? I'm sure they don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dumb
This is causing a lot of anger from above and they have a bad habit of blaming people.
This is a classical sign of a dysfunctional organization. My skip-level dotted-line manager held a meeting two weeks ago to complain about "the blame game" going on. During the meeting we raised lots of irrefutable problems with the organization itself, which he granted, but proceeded to blame on my solid-line boss and his own peers in other divisions. This kind of idiocy has become the new normal at companies in many industries.
So apparently, "the job of management" and the job of non-management is effectively whatever the company says it is.
Thanks for your reply. Maybe that's how they think it works to them, but filling in the blanks for them just because they can't seem to manage themselves doesn't swing well for me. And everyone else here has received formal training from superiors. That seems to be the general policy here.
I don't mind finding middle ground, such as introducing them to our software once they've received a few days of induction or something, but I'm wary that they will simply drop me into training two new employees from scratch on Tuesday or Wednesday morning, and that's excessive to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bUU
This is a classical sign of a dysfunctional organization. My skip-level dotted-line manager held a meeting two weeks ago to complain about "the blame game" going on. During the meeting we raised lots of irrefutable problems with the organization itself, which he granted, but proceeded to blame on my solid-line boss and his own peers in other divisions. This kind of idiocy has become the new normal at companies in many industries.
This is another legitimate concern I have. Again, the line manager will be in the firing line later in the week when they wake up, realize their KPIs have gone to hell, and will start pointing fingers. I don't have any doubt that they'll consider blaming me even though I'm all they have left.
Think hard about whether you might actually be training your and your manager's replacements. Based on your descriptions of your manager's subpar performance above, it seems like a real possibility that management may be a step ahead of you with its thinking.
Training new employees has been part of every job I've held since the very first paid work I did nearly 40 years ago. Someone trained me, then I trained the next people and so on. Routine.
Next week I will be in the situation mid-week where there will be 2 new starters. I am expected to train them. They're selling it as "only observing what I do every day". If that was the case then it would be a fair call.
The truth is I'd have to go into lengthy detail and explanations on everything, and they haven't given me any training, introduction or reliable expectation on this. And I'm also concerned that I will be held as responsible if they make errors. And I don't have any experience or qualifications in training others.
Who do you answer to? Who can tell you "You're fired" and you can't just ignore them?
Go to that person and ask. "What, exactly, is expected of me? What resources will be provided? If I'm expected to do my job and provide all of this training, what is going to be done to make that possible?"
Think hard about whether you might actually be training your and your manager's replacements. Based on your descriptions of your manager's subpar performance above, it seems like a real possibility that management may be a step ahead of you with its thinking.
Nope, higher management leaves it to our office management who are experts at flying by the seat of their pants day by day. They've barely been able to maintain this team at all let alone develop some elaborate staff replacement scheme.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jnojr
Go to that person and ask. "What, exactly, is expected of me? What resources will be provided? If I'm expected to do my job and provide all of this training, what is going to be done to make that possible?"
My line manager has their own line manager who runs everything, so they would have the final say, but it's unlikely they would take it drastically further. They'd probably just try and sweet talk me into it if it came down to it.
And we've already had this conversation about how I'm supposed to do this and my own job at the same time with the line manager. They just mumble and say things will get better once others are trained. I worked nearly 60 hours last week and still couldn't keep up. The new starters won't be able to do any work anyway for the first several days as the manager hasn't arranged any equipment for them either. So I'd be expected to provide a weeks' worth of training while simultaneously juggling an extremely busy workload.
What aggravates me the most however is being asked to thoroughly lead and train others despite receiving such little leadership or training myself. Although I appreciate the autonomy, it isn't a fair transaction considering how many entangled problems I have to deal with on a daily basis, much of it caused again by bad management.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
Training new employees has been part of every job I've held since the very first paid work I did nearly 40 years ago. Someone trained me, then I trained the next people and so on. Routine.
In my experience, I have not worked a job before when myself, the bottom tier level employee, was expected to take the responsibility for the learning and training of new starters. This has always been the field for other managers and trainers.
You are being paid for your time. Your assignment is to put some training onto a couple of new people. It's not like they expect you to come in on your day off and do it for free.
Are these newly trained people going to help you to do your job? If so, train them the way you want them trained. Then add "training and supervising new hires" to your resume.
My team is currently a population of 1. Me. I have a line manger who is relaxed and laidback but they don't really have the experience or skill to run the department, because everyone else has left mostly from walking out on the spot.
Next week I will be in the situation mid-week where there will be 2 new starters. I am expected to train them. They're selling it as "only observing what I do every day". If that was the case then it would be a fair call.
The truth is I'd have to go into lengthy detail and explanations on everything, and they haven't given me any training, introduction or reliable expectation on this. And I'm also concerned that I will be held as responsible if they make errors. And I don't have any experience or qualifications in training others.
In fact they haven't invested in my development or improvement at all, I've drawn most of my survival from previous work experiences or purely being resourceful, and that's another motivator for me to consider this task as unreasonable. It's surely the job of management to provide training, isn't it?
What do you think, am I crazy for feeling taken advantage of in this situation? Or is it right to expect a better deal? I know that sometimes you got to do what you got to do, but this doesn't seem fair at all. And if they fire me they'd have to do the training themselves anyway. What do you think?
This is also coming at a pivotal time for this "department" - the line manager has screwed up our electronic system so badly that we are now starting to report failing KPIs during a time when the relationship with our client is becoming particularly strained. This is causing a lot of anger from above and they have a bad habit of blaming people.
Of course it is the job of management to provide training and in this instance they are having the training provided to the new employees by the person most familiar with the job. This happens to be you. Why is this a problem? They're paying you to work there and training others is a legitimate job function.
Previous work experience and the ability to be resourceful are reasons to be hired, not reasons to shun assigned tasks. Just do your job.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
