Hit the ground running

Elise has worked in plenty of places where she had to hit the ground running and nobody had time nor interest to show her the ropes or even introduce her around, and while that's okay if we know what we’re doing it is an horrendous experience if everything is new and there’s a monster in the shadows waiting to pounce on you.

"My experiences as a freelancer have given me valuable insight that I pass on to my adult children who, like me, have been forced by lack of permanent jobs into doing contract work," says Elise.

“I tell them that if they have been in a job for more than two weeks and have not yet been given all the tools and information required to perform the job, all the training needed to do the job or directed to manuals where they can learn the information for themselves, then they are in trouble.”

"I advise them to request proper training when they start a contract job because if they don’t, they will get stressed and because they won’t be in control of the job someone is going to gloat in calling them incompetent," says Elise, “and once they are in this situation it is virtually impossible to dig themselves out of it.”

"I advise them to do what I do now," laughs Elise. "I ask at the interview stage what sort of training will be given and ensure that it is written into the contract."

"I favor formal training," says Elise. "I am very wary of on-the-job training without back-up manuals to explain every procedure."

"No matter what our particular skills are," says Elise, "every company has its own inimical way of doing things and not all of us will be very lucky enough to find two companies that use the same applications or even the same hardware.”

"It is vital for self-esteem, health and well-being to be given adequate training upon commencing a job," says Elise, “and it is unrealistic to expect new staff to hit the ground running.”

"I know that some companies can be particularly lax in providing proper training for young adults," says Elise, "and it scares me that my own kids may one day be put into a similar situation to the one I found myself in."

"Kids are often fired unfairly for incompetence when the employer failed to train them," explains Elise, "and no kid deserves to start his or her working life with a record of incompetence when the employer is at fault, not the kid."

"Education may equip kids with the skills to work, but it’s our job as parents to teach kids their legal rights at work and how to fight for them - and keep on fighting for them.”


Read more by Elise on this issue:

set up to fail
denied training

Unfair distribution of work

Unfair distribution of work is a particular problem of teamwork and if the team leader or manager is not addressing the situation when his or her attention is drawn to it, as Anna took pains to do in her job, then there is an additional problem.

"I have a job specification, I was given good training and I am supposed to be doing the same work as everyone else for the same pay," says Anna, "so there is no excuse for an unfair distribution of work that dumps everything on me."

"I appreciate that this problem is fairly common and is not entirely related to my home circumstances," concedes Anna, "but I did hear some of the other women whispering about how awful it must be to have a disabled child -- and this hurt me terribly and I think they are dumping on me because of it."

"It's an awful situation to be in," says Anna. "I can either refuse to do the extra or menial work and suffer the consequences, or I can find a new job and not be so eager, enthusiastic, willing and open next time around."

"I definitely won't be divulging my personal circumstances to the people at work in my next job because they will inevitably treat me differently -- if not badly -- when they know my situation."

“I am convinced that letting everyone know that I had a disabled daughter acted against me,” says Anna, “and my manager seems sympathetic but has failed to address my concerns.”

“I can appreciate that sometimes this sort of thing happens because the manager just doesn't have a clue about who is doing what,” says Anna, “and this may be a fault of my manager’s, but I am beginning to believe that she is playing favorites.”

“I think it is a deliberate ploy among the existing staff members to get the new person to do everything they do not want to do, and my manager just turns a blind eye.”

Read more by Anna on this issue:

sunshine at home, doormat at work
the workplace patsy

tidy girl in messy job

Betty is 19 and found her first job through an agency which put her on a course in coding and guaranteed her a placement. Unfortunately the placement turned out to be a square peg in a round hole type job - it was a bad fit for her.

"I'm a tidy girl and this is a really messy job!"

"I've been in this job for three months now and I'm still technically in training," says Betty, "but there’s no designated trainer, nobody knows what they're doing - although everyone claims to know it all - and there’s nothing in manual format to standardize the work."

She has been bombarded with information from co-workers - much of which conflicts, or is totally unnecessary - and because she is prevented from doing her job properly she feels miserable and incompetent.

"My mom tells me not to despair," says Betty, "but I didn't expect a job to be anything like this. Most of my co-workers are very much older than myself but I am not experiencing reverse ageism."

"On the contrary," says Betty, "the company and staff bent over backwards to make my commencement pleasant."

"There was a week-long induction program that had me learning the detailed history of the company from its inception in 1898 right through until the present time," says Betty.

"I also got to formally meet every single person in the company from the CEO to the janitor," says Betty, "and I was shown around every nook and cranny in the building in order to familiarize myself with the various departments and what they do."

Exhausted from this exercise, Betty was eager to settle down in her job and get some work done in peace and quiet in her second week on the job.

However, peace and quiet escaped her. In stark contrast to the detailed induction program, her on-the-job training was woeful.

"There was absolutely nobody in charge of training and absolutely nothing documented in writing to give me an inkling of what was going on," explains Betty.

"The two guys on either side of me took me under their wing." laughs Betty. "They were so helpful - but one told me to do this, the other told me to do that. And when I asked a third guy what I was supposed to be doing, I was then told something completely different from what the first two guys had told me. And then all of the guys came over and put in their two cents worth!".

"Everyone was so helpful," laughs Betty, "but the place is crazy!"

Betty is sorely confused and overloaded with useless information.

She would start on something and someone would come over and say: 'No, you do it this way.' Then as soon as she had changed what she was doing, someone else would come over and say: 'No, you do it this way'.

Given this sort of on-the-job training anyone would soon go quietly, if not loudly, insane, and Betty couldn’t understand what was going on.

"The guys are not being deliberately obstructive," explains Betty. "They are all laid-back and don’t seem to care that nobody is in charge and nobody really knows what they are doing."

Being a tidy sort of girl who likes to have everything in order and be in total control of her work, Betty could not believe that after three months on the job she was still none the wiser because nobody really had a clue what they were doing even though they all somehow managed to fill eight hours a day doing something.

She describes the place as complete and utter bedlam and is in the process of quitting and looking for another job.

"Next time around," laughs Betty, "I am going to make sure that I have written into my contract who will be training me, how long the training will last and whether work practices are consistent and detailed in manual format."

"I'm the only one having a problem coping with lack of structure and consistency in the workplace," admits Betty, "so I guess it's a classic case of being a square peg in a round hole."

"I'm looking forward to finding a nice square hole into which I can fit," laughs Betty, "but my mom wants me to give the job at least two years."

"I told her that a job isn't like marriage," explains Betty. "I made no vow to stay with it forever and since I'm starting out in life I want to be learning and doing something constructive so that I can get ahead. At this job, I'm going backwards and feeling incompetent. That's why I've made up my mind to move on."