AIBU to not want this mentor at work.

[tinyfishbigpond]

I have been in my job a couple of months. It's field based working in a very small team. My 2 colleagues each have half the county to do and I have to cover it all. One of my colleagues 'half' is much much smaller than the others and only consists of a few customers.

As I'm new to the field I've been assigned a mentor. Great I thought. It turns out to be the woman who has the very small territory and she's very competitive. The only 'help' I have received from her has been to insist on coming to any customers I get to see (which imho is very unprofessional), give me conflicting advice and basically make me feel like I'm shit at my job.

She has been on the area for 2 years and grew up here. I hadn't even stepped foot in the county before I started work here and now I'm having to drive around it all day. Topped off with all this is stress at home, having to find a new job (the company have fucked me over already) and starting a new stressful job.

AIBU to tell her to piss off and shove her 'help' where it belongs?

Whoops, I am BU to post a question as a title and not punctuate it correctly!

Well I wouldn't tell her to piss off in those exact words, but you could say the same sort of thing but be a bit more tactful? Thanking her for her guidance / support / whatever but saying that you feel ready to see customers on your own and you'll feed back to her afterwards? A 'mentor' isn't the same as a line manager and it does sound like she's overstepping the mark. Does your company have some published guidelines on mentoring?

To be honest it sounds like life is really stressful for you on lots of fronts at the moment, and the last thing you need is this woman doing your head in at work. A discreet way of retreating from her attentions might be order - ie, just ignore her or 'nod & smile' whilst doing what you were going to do anyway. Easier said then done I know!