To report this colleague?

The management have not made the hierarchy clear in your workplace. When a new team member started I would introduce her/him to my senior assistant and explain that she was in charge of the day to day running of the service point. Therefore she (senior asssitant) would be the first point of reference if new employee had a query and would be responsible for routine training during the probation period. This made the ranking very clear regardless of the age or gender of the people concerned.

We once had a problematic assistant like that in OP's account. She was not rude and snappy. However she had a quiet way of being insubordinate. She had her own way of working and often had to be asked 2 or 3 times to leave off what she was doing in order to help with a team task. This caused resentment with other team members and undermined the authority of senior assistant. I had to have a stern talk with her. I pointed out that when it came to her three month review I would have to mark her as "unsatisfactory" in some important respects, which could affect her probabtion period. Her performance did improve markedly as a result.

Presuming this has been a few weeks now, approach your manager and state you feel you have done what you can, but you are concerned the quality is not to standard and you are still needing to hand hold.

Agree a fixed time that is not too long (2 weeks?) by which time quality needs to be in a good place, and ask manager to send communication on this.

Offer (in writing and person) to recap any training and setup regular review meetings before the work goes to client. Take actions / improvements in writing. Keep professional and polite.

Ignore any minor comments but refuse to do her work for her, and rebuff anything more than minor in a professional manner.

At the end of the agreed period recap the progress (or lack of) to manager and let them take decision. Also highlight if they have had a bad attitude to working with you or learning.

If manager refuses to engage or backs ongoing hand holding then become very busy on important client work and state you are unsure you can support continued hand holding whilst also maintaining your own work rate. Also boot up job serve.

Stop being so apologetic!

“we need you x in this way please.”
”don’t talk to me like I’m stupid”
”excuse me? I’m assigned to train you. I’m training you. There is no need for you to take that tone with me, and given that I’ve explained this point to you already before, it’s clearly something I need to bring to your attention. In future please do X in this way. Please”

and walk the fuck away.

stand up for yourself.

If there is a repeat of her rudeness, tell her calmly and clearly that her tone is rude and unacceptable, and walk. Every time.

then go to your manager and tell them you’re not going to want to train this woman anymore. Tell them that her behaviour is appalling towards you and you are coming to them now before to give them a chance to fix it, before putting in an official complaint.

this woman must still be on probation, so document everything, follow up in an email with the instructions you have given. Set the trap so they can get rid of her.

Depends on the company @RosesAndHellebores - my last one, HR (or People Development as they were called then ) were very involved in monitoring performance during probationary periods. Although obviously with input from those who worked with/supervised the employee.

Yes, absolutely do this but also log the training u out be provided and ask her to sign it off. If she says she’s not been trained on any aspect of her work you can then close the gaps. Keep doing this because these situations have a nasty habit of turning around and the next thing you know, you’re the problem.

Also follow up absolutely everything in writing. Otherwise the errors will be 'your fault for not showing them properly'

I'd let her fall on her own sword
Then be hoisted by her own petard
Always jot down what you've showed her to do as you talk in case she claims otherwise.
Date and time it too
You've done the best you can in the circumstances, and shes gotten much worse you've spoken to management so what else to do?
If I were you, I'd also keep a record of everything for evidence/reference concerning her constant snarking
And the friend you meet up with at the end of the day, put that in your record too
Just a query, is there not one person there you consider at least a 'work friend'?
Easier said than done; but she's in the wrong, not you. Good Luck

I'd try and stand my ground. Don't talk to me like I'm stupid - I didn't, I was pointing out an error. I'm talking to you vecause its one of my tasks to correct this work. How would you prefer errors to be highlighted for correction? I can email if you prefer. Don't snap at me for doing my job'

Does she achually know you are officially there to train her?? it may seem like a silly question but I’ve known this to happen when a person appears to be poking their nose in and over stepping with advice and the recipient was unaware of the persons official role , I would make time to sit down formally with her and explain your role us to help her ( give examples ) and be clear that she needs to take this help in board and be clear about the consequences ( I assume she is under probation? )

Speak to her line manager. Put on a concerned voice and say you are worried about her as she seems to be very snappy and stressed out. You have tried to help her on multiple occasions but she has declined. You are worried she might be struggling but not want to say, or else that she might have something going on in her personal life that is causing her stress. You wouldn’t normally say anything but you hate to see someone new to the team struggling. Perhaps the line manager could have a chat with her and see if there is anything they can support her with?

That’s what I’d do. Plus if anyone is overhearing the rude comments I’d go up to them when she’s not around and innocently say in a worried voice “is she ok?”.

I’d also make a show of saying good morning or whatever in a bright cheerful way every time I walked past.

You look like a saint. She looks like a dickhead!

This has taken me back 25 years to working with a woman and sharing an office with her. She had been difficult, prickly and also rather lazy right from day one of joining the organisation. One day a colleague came into the office and asked me to find them something when I was already dealing with a query for another person. I suggested if it was urgent they asked the other woman explaining I was already dealing with a query which they did and left. I then got a tirade about how she wasn't my assistant and that I should apologise to them in front of the entire staff. There followed three months of tantrums, slamming things around and flouncing in and out of the office. I had a meeting with my manager as did the other woman. Nothing was done and in the end we ended up ignoring each other. After three months I put my notice in and the first thing my manager asked was if this woman was the reason for my resignation. It wasn't but it contributed to it.

OP please deal with the issue for your own health and sanity. I nearly had a breakdown due to my woman and her behaviour.

I clicked YABU because if you are not her line manger, just pass every mistake up to her line manager. I didn't want to vote and run though, as a horrible atmosphere at work is draining and can be awful, so please remember it is her with the problems and poor attitude and not you. mumsnetty hug xx

She clearly isn’t the right fit for the role. Everyone, including the OP, needs to stop making their own corrections before she is through the probation period. This is the whole point of a probation period.

This is at the root of the OPs problem. She has been asked to provide training and if that has been provided she should exit the situation. It is worth the OP detailing the training she has provided to her line manager and the new employee. It is worth asking both separately if any further training is required or if anything is still unclear. Let them state if there is a gap and if you need to provide further “training”. If not and they are satisfied you have done what you were asked to do, let go of the situation.

The line manager needs to be monitor the quality of the new employee’s work and if it is up to standard. If the line manager has agreed training has been provided with the new employee then it is a competency or capability issue.

It’s never a good idea to get people doing training to also monitor and report on performance. It inhibits learning and openness.

This is as they a line manager problem. Any decent line manager would be intervening and dealing with this now and shouldn’t need the OP to report on anything.

No, HR should not be monitoring her performance, the line manager shpukd be doing that. The line manager may seek advice from HR about suppprting the employee to succeed or about terminating the appointment. Ot is not the role of HR to personally manage employee performance.

She is bullying you and trying to sabotage you. You need to speak to your line manager and HR. She is behaving like a malevolent child if she is hiding your belongings and not passing on important messages.

I think that this has gone way beyond someone being a bit difficult and is obviously a campaign to get you into trouble and possibly lose your job.

I would also recommend that you join a union.

don't fix her work.
put everything in emails
start cc-ing other people

my boss is younger than me and I respect her fully. I have managed people much older than me and we got on fine... age is no excuse for being shit.

Hi there OP.

a trick I sometimes find helpful is thinking about “how would I like to tell this story in a future job interview? How would I want it to end?”. It can help you think it through. I note that you talk about career development - if you’ve got ambitions to be promoted into management in future this could be a great opportunity to demonstrate managerial chops and commitment to the organisation.

so for example - in future someone asks you “can you tell me about a time when you’ve handled poor performance?” Then you could say:

I had a really challenging situation where I was asked to train a new member of staff in their probationary period. I wasn’t their line manager - so didn’t have a formal role in their peformance management, but her work outputs affected the ability of others to do my job, including me.

it was clear to me early on that there were issues with her performance. In my coaching role I did XYZ to help her improve, but unfortunately her response was quite defensive so I tried ABC. I obviously didn’t have a formal role in her line management but I was aware that her performance issues were affecting others work, and the performance of the business as a whole. My peers were reluctant to address the situation given the hostility of the member of staff but I was concerned about the long term impact on the business if she stayed past probation and nothing changed.

I reverted to a more formal approach, documenting issues and gently bringing in line management. The result was that she improved/didnt pass probation, so negative affect on the business was minimised….

then if you get follow questions (eg what was challenging/what did you learn) - you can say sth like: it was challenging for me because my instinctive approach to work is collaborative and consensual- when my colleague reacted badly to my initial efforts to help her improve it felt like a real threat to my usual way of working. I had to reflect that sometimes you need different approaches, depending on the circumstances, and for the good of the business. It’s good to know I’ve got different approaches I can use if I need to in future….

NB. I often find working it through like that gives me a more objective sense of what the right thing to do is!

You have to stop apologising OP. When she says “don’t talk to me like I’m stupid” just say “I am not talking to you like you’re stupid” and carry on with your feedback, especially if you are supposed to be training her. Then send a factual email after each interaction outlining the process for that particular piece of work (e.g. X, Y, Z needs to be checked before sending to clients as standard). When you apologise you are admitting wrongdoing (that’s the point of an apology) - don’t let her play you.

Definitely do this as well. This needs nipping in the bud.

Email her at the end of every week and summarise all the mistakes, whilst praising her for things that went well. Start making a record and COPY in your superior.

Hi Clare

Great week - your training is going well and the such and such was a success on Wednesday and the appointments were all tip top.

Just to clarify a few points…

*Always do XYZ when booking appointments
*Be sure to email Joe Bloggs before x task
*Don't forget to log visitors
*Always save the X file on the shared drive
*Remember to always blah blah blah

And if it continues be really open with your superior and say ‘Look, I’m really struggling with training Sue. Like really struggling. I’ve gone from loving my job to hating it. It’s not just that she’s struggling with the job itself, she’s just openly rude to me.’

She sounds a bitch with a chip on her shoulder because you’re 30 years younger. Toughen up though. Be firm and be sure to send those emails so she can physically see all the fuck ups she’s making.

I would go to HR about the way she is speaking to you. Get in before she does as your line manager isn’t fixing it.
Also be a bit more assertive if she does say something inappropriate and STOP apologising!

Keep a trail of it. That’s what I’d do. Every rude comment, make a note of it, make sure she knows you’re doing it. Every time you ask her to do something or make a correction, email it afterwards… as per our conversation where we discussed … and I asked and you agreed…going forward etc’… she’s a bully. Shine the brightest light you can on it and she’ll have to back down because she’s the one making the mistakes. Honestly, reiterate every single thing on emails and note down every single nasty thing she says. I get exactly why you fix her mistakes. But email her from now on … you didn’t do xyz, I have corrected that for you, can you ensure xyz is in future. You need to sort it now or you’ll end up off sick with stress because people like that don’t ever back off on their own. I really feel for you, those people are hideous.

But you’re not still left with the issue of fixing her work. Nobody is telling you to do that and you need to stop. That’s why the relationship is breaking down. She feels picked at and you feel disrespected, but unless I’m missing something nobody is telling you to keep fixing her work? Let her balls it up. This isn’t your issue. Keep reporting the mistakes over and over but don’t be a martyr over something you weren’t being asked to do anyway. Just keep reporting it higher up and ask your own line manager to intervene. Remove yourself from fixing her mistakes, otherwise when she gets her review it’s not going to be accurate because you will have done her homework for her and they could end up passing her on the false belief that she’s really good at her job. They need to see all her cock ups to make a proper decision and you’re going to be stuck with someone who’s really crap at her job if you keep masking her incompetence.