Overly sensitive employees/apprentices

[OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting]

Ok, so I pride myself on being a strengths focussed supervisor. I always want to mentor and help my employees and apprentices as much as possible. But the last two apprentices (all apprentices in this role are graduates if that's relevant) have been soooooo sensitive and just plain.annoying!

I can't give any feedback because they 'know it already.' I can't say anything right because apparently I know nothing about transgender issues or decolonisation of the workplace and I need to hear them 'educate' me on it all and lend me books because they (20 years younger with zero experience in this role) know how to resolve ingrained, inherent systemic racism and prejudice and clearly if they were in my role they'd have solved all the problems in society which impact the role, already.

They are always 'curious about X...' and 'wondering about y...' instead of just speaking in normal language

They are driving me insane!!!

They can't manage their workload (even though I'm so worried about upsetting them I give them half what I've given to previous apprentices). Apparently it's important to be 'boundaried' and assertive with your needs. (Yes,.I know that, but I'm just asking you to do your job - you are paid more for these apprenticeships than many of the more senior staff in the organisation).

They are so bloody self absorbed and self riteous. I find them so patronising.

Is this entitlement, condescending attitude and use of fluffy language a generation thing? Or (please tell me), I've just had a bad run of two extremely annoying apprentices!!? (who I found out today are friends! So I guess they feed off each other discussing how amazing and riteous they are and how everyone else in the organisation is incompetent.)

Grrr..

[OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting]

HollowTalk - They get paid more than a newly qualified nurse or teacher and are only in the workplace 2.5 days a week - the rest is uni, but they are paid the full time wage. It's a v competitive role to get so I think that adds to their sense of self importance.

[user1496262496]

Get them to apprise themselves and generate intrinsic feedback that they then record. If they recon they are good they need to be able to recognise and record why, how and opportunities for development. If you set it up so that you simply orchestrate the mentoring sessions and it all comes from them they can not complain. Surely there are written criteria, targets and standards they can benchmark themselves against? You can just check that they are being realistic and ask for facts and examples that illustrate their views and opinions about their performance.

[OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting]

I don't get to pick or interview them - the uni randomly assign based on the area the apprentice lives and what workplaces have offered to take an apprentice. I've previously been lucky with some keen to learn and hard working apprentices.

[OnaBegonia]

They're paid a full time competitive salary for 2.5 days?
No wonder they think they're chocolate!

[AffIt]

@HollowTalk

@AffIt Could you tell us how much they are paid and what you look for in the candidate?

Surely!

Our baby IT analysts start on about £35k. If they're good, they should progress to senior analyst / manager within a couple of years to £50k.

I am of the opinion that you can teach anybody anything, as long as they're willing to learn, so while a relevant degree or qualification is good, I'm also open to some experience of, or at the very least an interest, in something like DevOps or service desk / database management, with perhaps some experience of or interest in coding languages.

I just like a candidate who seems bright, interested, willing to learn and motivated to stay with us for a while and hopefully contribute positively.

I'm not an idiot: I know the vast majority of very good candidates will absorb the training and hand-holding and then probably move off and up, but we'll have had them for 2-5 years and more importantly, they'll be ambassadors for us (my industry is quite niche and almost everybody knows everybody else).

[NewNamePrivacyneeded]

Delicate little flowers. Work ethic poor.

Love to comment on how bad some have it but forget that women still don't get equality but hey ho why worry about that when you can fixate on trans women issues blah blah blah

[Luredbyapomegranate]

@slightlysnippy

I found this Simon Sinek video enlightening, if you haven't watched worth some of your time.

These are gen zders though not millennials

But anyway I think it’s a bit of bit of both Op - generational but you have got a couple of tulips.

I agree with PPs that the best way to manage them is to get supportively tough and chuck them in a the deep end. Then if it doesn’t work get shot of them/encourage them to get curious about other career paths 😁

[Luredbyapomegranate]

@OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting

I don't get to pick or interview them - the uni randomly assign based on the area the apprentice lives and what workplaces have offered to take an apprentice. I've previously been lucky with some keen to learn and hard working apprentices.

Also - do feed back to the college

[dropthevipers]

Enough of this bollocks. They joined your club, not the other way round. Any chat other than the work in hand is strangled at birth. Don't like it? Fuck off. sorted.

[JazzyBBG]

What industry are you in? I know these conversations can be more prevalent in that age group but wondering if it's also an industry thing?
Also I've had two similar grads and in the end they had to be performance managed. Thought they knew it all but totally didn't. I can only think it's how we are bringing them up!

[saltinesandcoffeecups]

I used to have a revolving door of interns. For the most part I enjoyed them (Lol, I never directly managed them). We had everything from great ones to horrible ones and everything in between.

The last one was the worst. He lied on his resume. Was completely unteachable. Barely showed up for his hours, etc. After several coaching sessions by his manager () with no improvement, he was given a truthful evaluation to his university. This was after warning the university advisor of the problems while they were happening.

He then called me to give me a sob story about how this might cause him not to graduate. We had a really tough discussion about his performance and opportunities and feedback given along the way. I sincerely hope he found a lesson in his experience. It’s not the one that I want to teach, but learning it young may be the thing that turns him around. (No idea what happened after that call with him)

() His manager, my direct report, was a new manager, so it was a really good low stakes bad hire lesson for her as well.

[midairchallenger]

They're not Assistant Psychologists, are they?

[Happymum12345]

Just wondering if you have a degree and went to university?
They clearly have a lot to learn about the way of work and getting on with the job. Good luck to you and the apprentices!

[Liebig]

@slightlysnippy

I found this Simon Sinek video enlightening, if you haven't watched worth some of your time.

Dumb as the generation naming thing is, he completely messed up the Millennial cohort year range. It ends around 1994, I’m a Millennial according to that dumb book that coined this, and I’m from the time the Falkland War was a thing. I love how Millennial is now just a catch all term for useless kids. Even useless 40 something “kids”.

I’m enjoying seeing the term used to describe those born in the early ‘80s and thru to the 2000s.

But keep at the generational warfare. It’s more in vogue now over race or sex.

[DramaAlpaca]

I was going to say that focussed is an acceptable variant spelling of focused, but your reply is much better@BitOutOfPractice

[wanttokickoffbutcant]

Children are now taught to spell focussed - I am old and have a 12 year old and had many disputes when they were at primary.

[DrBlackbird]

Interesting video. Not sure I whole heartedly buy it, but have certainly seen a general shift in the undergrads that I teach. From their learning being their responsibility to it becoming my responsibility. However, in the case of UGs, they’ve been deliberately led to think of themselves as consumers of education by governments wishing to commodify HE. This has changed the learning dynamics.

[BitOutOfPractice]

Plus @DramaAlpaca it sounds and feels like it should have two doesn’t it? I have to spell the word acoustic every day at work. I’m still amazed it only has two Cs. It should be accoustic surely! Anyway, I agree, people who correct SPAG like that are deeply irritating.

[Twindow]

@DrBlackbird

Interesting video. Not sure I whole heartedly buy it, but have certainly seen a general shift in the undergrads that I teach. From their learning being their responsibility to it becoming my responsibility. However, in the case of UGs, they’ve been deliberately led to think of themselves as consumers of education by governments wishing to commodify HE. This has changed the learning dynamics.

Do you think it's different in Scotland, where Scottish students don't pay university fees?

[StClare101]

You shit down any non-work discussions and give them the full workload. Then if they are a disaster you can cull them and give the University some feedback.

[AnneShirley18]

@JuniorPenny both spellings are acceptable.

[donquixotedelamancha]

If their blathering has nothing to do with their work and their performance is poor, give them poor write-ups and hire new ones.

This. The kindest thing you can do (in the long run) is give honest feedback and targets to improve.

If you are really giving them half the workload and avoiding criticism then I'm afraid I think you are the problem.

[Charlize43]

"you are paid more for these apprenticeships than many of the more senior staff in the organisation."

Please explain. A most unusual arrangement!

[echt]

Almost Wildean in its precision and succinctness.