To ask if you've ever worked with someone like this?

[NewJob22]

Hi all,

I started a new job at the beginning of December. Career change so have no experience in this type of work. I do enjoy it but also feel a little down at the minute. I had one week in the office before we were sent home due to covid and then had two weeks off for Xmas so training has been minimal. Nobody's fault of course but I'm finding it really difficult, especially because we are all still working from home so I have to phone/email my colleagues every time I have a question rather than just sitting next to them in the office.

I think I'm doing pretty well all things considered and I'm trying to use my own initiative as best I can but a lot of things I can't just guess as we
can get in a lot of trouble if a mistake is made. I get on really well with everyone and my supervisor is lovely but I'm finding one of my colleagues (who has been put in charge of training me etc) really difficult to work with, mainly because she contradicts herself all the time. She will tell me to do something a certain way and then question why I've done it that way or backtrack and say she does it a different way . It sounds really petty now that I've written it down but I honestly feel like I can't do right from wrong. I'm the type to just apologise and take it on the chin but it's really getting me down...

AIBU? Any advice or anyone who has experienced similar?

Next time you get some advice from her, say at the start that you are going to record her so you can go back through her instructions. Then see if you get a different outcome.

Contact her by email rather than phone with questions so you have evidence of her advice and can query if she then backtracks. Keep a paper trail of all contact with her.

My boss is sometimes like this but at times I’ve misunderstood them or they misunderstood me. Next time this happens, reiterate and go into full detail of the way you should do something to her. If she agrees that that’s what she wants you to do, keep a note of it so you have clear ‘evidence’. Sometimes my boss and go go back and forth a few times until we both understand what we both mean!

Good advice here. Yes she might deny it via phone call but if its written down. You can always pull up her email. God she sounds bit devious..

Even if you speak on the phone or face to face - ALWAYS follow up with an email ... 'so, just to confirm from the conversation we just had, you would like me to do XYZ and then move onto .....'

It might be inexperience at training on her side rather than malicious.

Also, I know when I am trying to explain how to do a task that I do without thinking about that I have sometimes mis-described it and then had to correct myself. It could be that she's doing the same only not realising until she sees what you've done?

And as pp said it could also just be a plain miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Either way, I wouldn't take it personally or feel bad.

Definitely this…. I feel like this is how I may come across…. I’ve been thrown in the deep end to train new staff and I’ve literally had no training and feel so uncomfortable and pressured to get it right that I end up babbling away. Please don’t take it personally, maybe speak with them or better still email…. I know on an email I would be super concise but the pressure wouldn’t be there.