How confident is my boss about the promotion? Confident enough that I helped with the working interview of someone that would fill the vacancy.
I find it interesting that I was chosen for this particular task, given my track record.
Of the five people that have been hired since I got on, I’ve helped train two.
The first was Ronda. Ronda and I hit it off famously. We shared very similar outlooks on work and we were frustrated by many of the same things.
She quit after one week.
Then there was Cameron. I didn’t like Cameron as much due to his arrogance, but nonetheless we worked together pretty wello while I helped him settle in.
He quit after two weeks.
The three that I didn’t train? They’re still here.
I’d love to chalk it up to coincidence, but it probably isn’t. I tend to be pretty blunt about the downsides of the job. I tell them that no matter how perfect they try to make the reports, at least one in three (probably two in three) will come back with a FAIL stamp because of something you didn’t know about, weren’t told about, and were last instructed otherwise.
It can be pretty daunting. On top of this, the job itself is dreadfully monotonous and I made no effort to conceal that fact. No one did with me and I appreciate it.
So while I was showing my perspective replacement around, I found myself doing the same thing: This job is impossible, it’s monotonous, and you can’t believe a word that comes out of this company’s mouth.
I stopped myself and focused on the positive aspects and said that as long as you have infinite patience, a thick skin, and the ability to zone out while you do monotonous chores, it’s a great job.
If you can live on $9.50 an hour.
Willard should really keep me away from new people.
Too bad you weren’t actually responsible for interviewing them, so that these “downsides” could addressed at that point. Same thing happened in my old job where I eventually supervised our graphic designer. I was really blunt about what to expect, and he wound up staying the longest of any one else.
Comment by Becky — April 21, 2005 @ 6:38 pm
They were a bit vague during my interview, but it’s not the easiest job to describe without making it sound miserable (and it’s not that bad), which is why they generally have people do a brief working interview. Of course, what they don’t see during that period are the procedural ones that can be he most frustrating. Not that the company is being intentionally deceptive there, but that the report process takes longer than the working interview is.
But it would certainly be nice if some of these issues were address. The job itself isn’t a particularly pleasant one, but the times I’ve been pushed to almost quit (without a job lined up) have actually been over the company’s failure to recognize the difficulties/frustrations of the job and stop pretending that there are policies and standards when they either aren’t in place or are routinely ignored at the request of management.
Fix that and I don’t think that turnover would be so high.
But that’s the subject of another post, probably
Comment by trumwill — April 22, 2005 @ 11:38 am