To report this colleague?

You are working within a professional environment and she is not acting professionally.

You should not have your professional life impacted in this way, so you 100% need to take action, now.

Her reactions seem very strange and unwarranted, and I do not think she will react well to feedback directly from you.

In this circumstance I would speak to her direct line manager and email manager with a record of every incident. Ultimately she needs to go before probation is over or else this will turn into a permanent problem for you.

You don’t have to put up with this.

report her. Ding he afraid of her or her thoughts. You are probably vulnerable to her due to some past experience with a teacher or family member who presented the same way and made you feel small during your formative years.

it ends now, you don’t have to tolerate this

So fair enough you’ve been asked to train her, but Im not understanding why it is your job to correct her mistakes?

You need to email her with any mistakes that you have found/need amending. This then means, there's a paper trail.

If you're just verbalising mistakes, she can deny you told her. Also if you leave the mistakes, and a mistake inadvertently ends up being noticed by a client, it's easy for her to make an excuse and pass the blame back onto you.

Unfortunately, some people don't like being 'told what to do' by someone they feel is much younger and has less experience in life. It can also happen if someone has been used to being in a more senior position, and suddenly they find themselves in a lower one.

Read your company policies on performance
Document document document
Each month email her manager & hr (if you have an hr dept) with a list of the mistakes, and the consequences of each one
You are right not to report her rude behaviour at this point, but still document it

Don't fix anything. Avoid getting dragged into her decaying orbit. It'll resolve itself and she doesn't want your help or training. If you do anything, write a short email with the stuff you've trained her on. All the things she fucks up be careful to frame explicitly and positively as things you've covered. What you want is the training to be done and a clear handover so she can't say you didn't. Then steer clear. No senior person wants to deal with conflict between people reporting to them. Avoid it.

I had this problem when I was only a few years into my career. I was 24 and she was nearly 40 and hated someone younger than her being superior, and she also just wasnt very good at her job or very reliable. I have since found out that most issues of bullying in the workplace are an older woman against a younger colleague. I’m afraid it got worse and worse and completely destroyed my confidence so you have my greatest sympathies.

I wouldn’t recommend what I did. Which was remain silent about it for 18 months(!!), except for one trusted colleague who saw and knew, until I had resigned and then burst into tears in my exit interview.

You need to keep a log of every negative interaction and every mistake you note. I’d particularly recommend this because in my case the woman would make out I was bullying her(!!) and I do think she genuinely believed that. Whereas I was just politely flagging issues with her work, similarly to you. She saw this as me getting to her in a way that I wasn’t with other colleagues (but that’s because there were no issues with their work!) Luckily no one else believed she was the victim.

Keep a log and share it with HR as soon as you can, and keep sharing it.

Stop being all nicey to her and covering up her ineptitude. She hates you anyway so this just makes you look weak.

Don't apologise as much. If you are pointing out errors in person and she starts with the "don't treat me like I'm stupid" respond calmy and firmly with a "I'm not suggesting you are, I'm pointing out some necessary corrections".

Don't edit and send out her work, send it back to her with the necessary corrections instructed. Copy in her line manager/whoever will be doing her probation review so that they see the repeated mistakes.

Are you saying that you have to drag a friend to walk through reception with you every time you go past or she "makes comments to you"? What kind of comments? I wouldn't scurry past her with my head down, I would say "Good morning" or "Good evening" to her when going past. If she says anything other than a salutation back that's something to report to HR that she is behaving inappropriately.

I would report immediately. Had someone like this - he didn’t make it through probation

you absolutely need to raise this and ensure she does not pass the probation. otherwise you will be stuck with her for the foreseeable future. you have a duty to the company not to let this shit slide, she is being paid for doing her job well, not for someone else (you) redoing her job. by letting this slide you are doing a disservice to a company because they may keep this incompetent loon.

and stop apologising to her, tell her that tone is unacceptable and that you will be raising this with her line manager if this continues (but do get a log of everything in writing beforehand so she doesn't cry wolf). don't just SPEAK to her line manager, write him an email with history, dates, interactions, evidencde of her past mistakes AND start cc'ing her line manager into every interaction where you tell her to correct something.

Just to add- hopefully the email thread will either take the heat out or, if she’s this toxic, she’ll be inappropriate on email, then you have evidence for HR.

also all the edits needs logging on email so you have evidence that it’s not just you ‘picking on her’

I think you need to nip it in the bud as she thinks she can dominate you! Or that you’re a weak touch.

to avoid personal confrontation I’d take it all to email, document changes and log the errors. I’d also say any time impact it’s taking for you to the line managers so they can cover/take it seriously.

i wouldn’t edit her work at all, I’d send it back for her to edit for learning. Email to say why, copy a line manager in and say she can ask you if further training is required.

shes being pretty toxic and is counting on you not to say anything. If she says things to you, I’d prepare a stock response and practice it so you can just use it eg

a) I don’t have time to discuss this at this time, drop me an email and I’ll get back to you - walk away
b) you’ve made these errors which need correcting. I’ve been asked by lab manager to let you know so you can improve your practice-take it up with them- walk away

stop apologising. She’s choosing to be offended and it’s making you look like you’ve done something wrong.

Exactly

that is batshit.
She needs to have a probation review, and all these issues need to be addressed and if not rectified, within a specified time, they need to get rid and get someone in who can do the job.

It’s not clear what your responsibility is in relation to training and supervision. As part of training it is correct to check the training has been effective by reviewing what they have done. This can look like supervision. But it is really about whether you should go over the training again or approach it differently. At some point you need to determine if further training by you or indeed anyone is worthwhile.

You mention that the direction given to you by your line manager was vague. In retrospect you should have clarified what exactly they expected you to do and for how long with your line manager. This gives you the authority you need to work with this colleague. You can also ask that your line manager confirms this with your colleague. This ensures this person knows you are there to train and assess the impact of that training. It also ensures they know you will report back progress to the line manager as part of their probation.

It’s not to late to do this and I would probably take a proposal to your line manager for agreement on what your role is with this colleague.

Absolutely make records (don’t video anything in the office) of any interaction that makes you feel uncomfortable or bullied. Discuss it with your line manager and ask for their support.

I would see this as reporting someone. You were asked to train a probationer. If you have identified a capability problem, which is getting things wrong despite training, it needs to be fed back to your line manager. If you see behaviour problems this too needs to be fed back.

This is a line manager problem as much as anything and they need to back you up and deal with the problems.

This is not your situation to fix. Speak to her line manager, show your evidence and explain what you have done to solve it. You are not paid to manage her, you were asked to train her, she is not listening, you are now at an impasse and it the responsibility of her manager to unblock it. Do not give this any more brain space and stop apologising... you have trained, repeated, modelled, you are now at the point where someone else needs to sort this out.

As a manager, I would not want anyone who behaved so unprofessionally to their colleagues in my organisation. Give them the information they need by reporting it in meetings with your own line manager (not just once, but as long as it continues) so they have the full picture and can take appropriate steps.

Yes ask that supervisor checks it. Step back and tell your line manager you want nothing more to do with her..You dont want to risk snapping and shouting at her that shes bloody useless because it'll just make you look bad, so distance yourself..

If she is rude to you, let her finish speaking, and then say something along the lines of "I will not accept you speaking to me in this tone. I have been tasked with training you. Please do as I have asked or I am happy to arrange a meeting with your line manager to discuss with them. You are welcome to attend." And repeat it every time she is rude. If she is whispering when you come through reception, then you can again pull her up on that by telling her it is rude to whisper and she should behave more professionally in the workplace. If she has something to say that is suitable for the workplace, then she needs to say it out loud. Otherwise keep it until she finishes working. Whatever you decide to say, practice it and then you will be able to say it to her without even thinking about it. She sounds awful.

If it were me, then I would not communicate at all verbally, I would just email and cc her line manager into every email.

If i have understood the issue correctly - you are in a more client-facing role and sometimes need admin support. When you get in the poor work you have the unpleasant choice of 1) Redoing it yourself or 2) Giving it back with feedback and getting abuse.

Do you have the option of asking another admin support member for help with tasks? If so, I would do that. Youve reported your concerns and done your best with feedback so dont owe her anything else.

Email all corrections to her cc’ supervisor in

say things like on 03/01/26 I explained that you had booked an appointment for x time but it should be at y time. I note on 13/01/26 you have done the same thing. Is there any training/help you need to ensure this is correct going forward.

if she makes snarky/aggresive comments again in an email and copying in supervisor.

today you said I was talking to you like you were stupid. However I was merely explaining the process or how to do x. I note this is the 4th/5th time this has had to be explained. If you need further help to understand how to do this then please ask

please don’t feel like you are doing anything wrong. She clearly in a job role above her skill level and things because she is older she’ll get away with it.

She not say someone who has just left school or college in her 1st job. At that stage you may not understand that certain jobs are time sensitive or that you can't send clients out slapdash work or things with spelling mistakes.

The reality is that she is new into this job and she knows she has a probation period. If she is in her late 50 early 60s she has years of work experience and should know how to use spell check. She should want to be trained and ask questions so she not creating more work for you or other people. She should not be nasty with you when you correct her and not should she be ignorant on a reception desk probably in front of the business premises. If she is verbally nasty to you there you don't know who will hear her there either.

I would keep a log of everything. Send her corrections on an email and cc her manager on these also without her knowing about this. I would do this like a previous poster said here - I’ve proofed this and spotted errors. Please review and amend. Thank you’.
Keep it factual, focused on the work and in writing. If she objects then involve your manage r.
I would also send these to HR as they will have a record of this also.

Chat to the other receptionist and tell her that she needs to share the workload of typing ect. My feeling is that she sit back and leave as much work as possible to the other person if she can get away with it.
Have your phone on to record her any time you go in and out of the building so if she is verbally nasty you have a recording of this.

No one wants to report a colleague but she is not doing her job properly and is creating more work for you and possibly her other co worker on reception. Her attitude is poor also when she is corrected. Also being verbally nasty with you when she thinks no one is around is poor also.
Most people on probation are doing there best, willing to listen for training and correction and being pleasant to people so they have a long term job after probation ends.