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I wonder if this situation is unique to the company I work for, or whether this is standard practice in today's corporations? I've worked at one place for a few years. My colleagues and I have asked for "refresher" coaching. Supervisors have promised it, but it never happened. In my annual performance review, management indicated they expected me to continue improving my knowledge of our products and services, via training.
In a recent team meeting with the supervisor, she announced that following feedback about her to the manager (in a "rate your supervisor" type of survey) this year, they would set up training for current employees. Great.
But then when I asked about it recently, they asked, what training do you need? In the past I made suggestions to quiz people with a standard questionnaire, but the manager said he fails to see the value in this, because things change. But some things, tools, processes, remain standard.
I don't really understand why management would announce that training would be provided, but then when someone asks about it, it's like they blame the one person for asking. I wish our company had a dedicated training department / trainer that was available to current employees, not just one person who coaches new recruits only.
What's your experience with one the job training? Should we lower our expectations and just expect a day or two when we're hired, then never again - and just learn on our own, in our free time? Basically work (train) for free? This seems to be my only alternative now , logging into our CRM software, checking resolved tickets belonging to others, surfing our web sites, because my managers refuse to expand my part time schedule and set up training sessions.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I emphatically say "yes". I'm in a service industry. The sales force brings in the clients and we provide the services. I have virtually no training. I ask questions that are never answered. The only feedback I get is when the client complains about something being done incorrectly and then I get an email from my manager berating me.
I also work a p/t job at night--again professional services. Again, very little, if any training. My managers at both places manage, period. They have no idea what I do or how to do it. If I make a mistake, they berate me, but offer no support/no training/really very little feedback.
I think my job description at this point is something along the lines of keep the client happy....and figure it out on your own time.
Lately, I've been getting great reviews. I do it by acting confident and pretending to know the answers. I focus all of my time on the activities that generate the most money. They love it.
IMO, employee development is a thing of the past. I don't have a career path. I'm just hanging out here til I find something better. I expect that is how it will be for the rest of my working life: offering my services to the highest bidder. Learning on my own.
Lately, I've been getting great reviews. I do it by acting confident and pretending to know the answers. I focus all of my time on the activities that generate the most money. They love it.
IMO, employee development is a thing of the past. I don't have a career path. I'm just hanging out here til I find something better. I expect that is how it will be for the rest of my working life: offering my services to the highest bidder. Learning on my own.
Bande, you are the kind of person I'd love to have on my team. I spend a lot of my time doing one-on-one mentoring and group training and everyone benefits from it.
Most corporations have stopped training due to costs long enough ago that current managers no longer know what it could mean. Additionally, cutbacks at all levels of staffing means that everyone is scrambling to fill several positions to keep their jobs. It's a total zoo out there.
From my experience the only industries that do any training of any sort anymore are teaching (with their many "professional development" seminars) and (very very occasionally) IT and customer service
Customer Service has become a training joke. I feel on the job training is a thing of the past. Usually some companies put someone in charge of customer service training that knows less than the people they are to be training. One of the companies I used to work for spent about 2hrs a day in training and the other 6hrs a day playing stupid games or watching dumb utube videos. That time should have been spent learning their computer programs and learning how to correctly assist the customers that called in regarding their sattelite(sp?) dishes. Job training today consists soley of a couple of weeks of learning company policy and how great the company is then you are thrown out to the wolves to sink or swim and Lord help you if you need additional training they look at you like you are a complete idiot or treat you like a leper if you maybe don't pick something up in a nano-second. Half the time the one that is doing the training doesn't know squat themselves. OK I am done with the rant.
FACT: Customer service costs the company money. It is NOT value-added. They just want to sell you their product and have you go away. Of course, they are trying to spend as little on it as possible. Sad but true.
FACT: Customer service costs the company money. It is NOT value-added. They just want to sell you their product and have you go away. Of course, they are trying to spend as little on it as possible. Sad but true.
When I worked in CS, we were reviled by the rest of the organization. We were the evil stepsister while the Sales Force was lauded and given all the glory.
Working CS is like warfare, every day. Someone sells a shoddy product to the consumer and it is broken, missing parts or a manual and the Customer Service Rep gets to have an earful of abuse about it.
When I worked in CS, we were reviled by the rest of the organization. We were the evil stepsister while the Sales Force was lauded and given all the glory.
Working CS is like warfare, every day. Someone sells a shoddy product to the consumer and it is broken, missing parts or a manual and the Customer Service Rep gets to have an earful of abuse about it.
I used to work in the service department of a new car retailer. I used to joke around with the salespeople and say that it sucks to be in service because the customers go to sales, and it's like slam-bam thank you ma'am, and then they come to service and we have to have a long-term relationship with them. Customer Service is like acting, acting like you care. The illusion of caring, sold to the highest bidder.
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