No training weak boss etc.
I just finished my 2nd day at a new job. The company is going through huge changes, has been bought out by venture capitalists and they're expanding like crazy. This is great - only, in my department, there are 4 "old" employees who have been with the company from 4-24 years. These people almost completely disrespect the manager, who doesn't stand up for himself - he is new also, in a new position. The whole department used to be run by the 24-year-veteran, who is now a supervisor. I've already noticed how much he's allowed them to disrespect him - and it's not very encouraging for me, as a new person in the department. The trouble is, beyond what I've already stated, that the "old" people are also disrespectful of the new people: giving them all their extra grunt work in the name of training (there is no training offered, it's a fend-for-yourself situation), and yelling at people when they've made a mistake - people who are new and have never been trained. How would someone deal with this situation - is it hopeless? My plan, thinking only of fending for myself, is to let anyone who attempts to disrespect me know in no uncertain terms that I will not tolerate such behavior, and to return when a civil conversation can be had. I've been told by the supervisor to come to him with any issues, but I've heard from other newbies that this has been ineffective. The manager's goal has been to hire people very carefully for personality, as it's a problem with the old people - and he's done a great job - all the new people seem very upbeat, helpful and supportive - but disillusioned and lacking support. The old people rule the roost, so to speak - and it's clear that the manager is ineffective. I feel that if I were properly trained, first of all, I would make fewer mistakes - but proper training is not available. The new people are basically thrown crumbs of work that do not add up to a comprehensive learning experience. Any good advice? Yes! Stop stereotyping "old people" and making it sound like they' re responsible for all the problems in your office. "Old people" rule nothing. If some are rude, it is because of their personalities, upbringing, their own choice, etc. Rudeness or any other negative behavior or undesirable characteristic has absolutely nothing to do with age! Also - if you formatted your text into paragraphs, your message would be a lot easier to read and understand! I think maybe you misinterpreted what ragazzina meant by "old", not elderly but more time with the company, old as in seniority. And I would prefer non-paragraphed messages to large fonts in red. But that could be just me. R, if the situation is the way that you portray it, there probably isn't a lot that you can do to change the culture. Disrespect on a personal level you can handle, but if the culture includes it as part of the deal, you will probably only get a lot of "What's up with him/her?" when you try to deal with it. The sink-or-swim training method is really hard to change, especially if the "senior" people look at it as part of what they went through, so you should too. Not that there aren' t problems in this company, but there is also a gap in what many people feel "training" means versus what it really means in companies. In most companies, it is how you describe. You have to step up and step over that hurdle and train yourself. Go to your boss with questions, go to other newbies, read manuals and instructions, study on your own time. At the same time new or old, you need to expect that new people get the work that old people don' t want to do. That' s life. When you' ve been there longer, you can shuffle some of it to someone else. That' s "paying your dues" and also, that' s what happens when you' ve been there longer and have other responsibilities. You no longer have time (nor should you be spending the time you do have) on grunt work. Give this new supervisor time to work this out. My bet is that over the next year, these old people will either come on board or be gone. These types of transitions are tough on everyone. Imagine how you' d feel if you' d been somewhere 20 years and now some new guy is telling you how to do your job? It is tough on the new supervisor because he' s trying to build a team and get the work done and not alienate everyone while laying down the law. It is tough on the newbies because you' re not part of the club. Everyone has to give it some time to settle out. Good grief, you' re the last person who should be complaining about formatting! Your posts would be easier to read if you stopped using extra-large bolded fonts. It' s not as cute as you seem to think it is. Talk to me are giving you very good advice. Try to get the training you need any way you can, but please, don' t buy into the "every one for themselves" attitude. You may not be able to change the entire corporate culture, but you can make it a little better by respecting others (sounds like you may already be doing this). Share whatever you learn with other newbies, and if you have time, you might even start writing up some documentation on what you' ve learned. This may or may not pay off at this job, but it will pay off eventually. At the very least, you' ll know that you are doing the right thing.
Thanks for all of your responses: and yes, I meant "old" as shorthand for "people who have been there a long time" , and as opposed to "new" (thought it was made clear with the quotation marks). The delineation in my department is quite defined and I thought it an apt description. Also, I will try using a format that is easier to read, but I found the suggestion to be rather harshly communicated. Anyway, on with the topic: As for "grunt work" being par for the course, Tess has a point but in this case these tasks are being dragged out for months (for all new people), the "experienced" folks don' t seem to want to share any other types of work, when the goal of the department is to get everyone up to the same speed as soon as possible. So the department is full of filers and experts, and the filers are not advancing - the gap is remaining, and this is not the goal of the department. We' re on the brink of adding 3 more regions to our workload - we need all the people to be functioning at a high level! Also, the workload for the experienced folks would lighten massively if the rest of us were moving forward - it' s the way it happens to work in what we do. What I did do today is speak with the manager, as he had asked how things were going. We had a nice conversation about it & he agreed that the training was lousy - the department was known for it - and that it needs drastic improvement (something I wasn' t told in my interview upon asking about it, but I let that go...). He actually then asked me if I would help to make the training better, by thoroughly documenting the tasks that I do, and continuing to come to him with suggestions. Awesome. As for the corporate culture, I think it' s fine - it' s just very difficult to go through a transition such as this, going from a small company to a large corporation in a matter of months. So we inevitably have people for whom this transition is going to be much harder, as they' re used to things being a certain way. I definitely have compassion for these folks and their plight - it' s just that I yearn to help as much as I can, and my abilities and skills are not being utilized as they could be right now.... it' s just a bit frustrating. This message format looks a lot better, ragazzina! I have suggested that people use paragraphs a number of times. It makes a lot of difference. One large block of text is awful! We all learned in school many years ago how to use paragraphs when we wrote compositions. At least - I did! I guess you meant that the old people are really old timers who could be any age. That puts an entirely different spin on it.
Might I suggest to you a couple of things? The first would be to maybe be clear on someone' s intent & meaning if you' re considering angrily chastising them for something. As you' ve seen, your perception could be way off - and you' ve then already appeared to be a hothead who jumps to conclusions, which may not actually be the case. Secondly, in the way of format, you might want to consider using black in a normal font - the red is kind of hard on the eyes and the large font feels like shouting on this end. It was difficult for me to understand the fairly large block of text in your first message but once you explained what you meant, I was satisfied. My message was right to the point and not at all inappropriate. When you post on message boards and ask for suggestions and opinions, you get all kinds of messages and they are not necessarily what you want to read. I had an impression of you and I went with it. That is my privilege. Furthermore - I do not care how I come across. We are all anonymous and sometimes you get much more helpful feedback from people who tell it like they think it is. Everyone has different posting styles and you appear to also be a blunt and outspoken individual on Internet message boards. Luckily a lot of people usually chime in on Threads of this nature, so we have the benefit of getting comments and support from them and not from just one person. If the advice and suggestions you receive do not suit you, do not consider what you cannot use. | |
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