Trainees no longer ready for workplace

[Kukcoo]

I used to love having trainees allocated to us. They were so enthusiastic, hardworking and a breath of fresh air. It was great to see them develop.

The last few have acted like they're doing us a favour if they turn up by lunchtime because they could have called in sick for nothing. Seriously can't be bothered doing the basics and expect everything to be done for them. Little respect for anyone else and the huge support they're being given. Won't meet a deadline, because this would affect their mental health and basically impinges on their human rights.

They all still expect to qualify and will be passed by the provider unless they do something truly dangerous, but they won't have the real experience or skills to join the workplace and get on with a job.

I'm barely even a different generation, but wouldn't have dreamed of acting the way they do when I was learning and felt I had to prove myself. AIBU to expect standards to be the same?

Which bodies for accountants are these that don’t require exams or have lower standards, out of interest? Thinking about what I’ve heard our finance team say about recent recruits.

The young people who did not sit GCSEs during the 1st lockdown are now in the 3rd year of their degrees. My Dd is one of them. If anything her and her friends who are on a mix of different courses ranging from stem, English, history to logistics and politics don’t seem to have been affected at all by Covid. They all have strong work ethics and all have part time jobs. My friends son seems worse off as he was already at uni during the 1st lockdown and although came out with a 1st, it took ages for him to get a job. His job is still hybrid albeit getting better now the company are stipulating more days in the office.

Being mostly office-based simply isn’t always “better” though - it totally depends on the job. When I worked in an office pre-Covid I got about half the amount work done compared to WFH during the pandemic, because the noisy, disruptive arsing around of colleagues, the pointless presenteeism, the constant bickering, and the meetings that didn’t need to happen wasted so much of my time and energy. I now work 90% from home and have undertaken more challenging and genuinely collaborative work since starting this role than ever before. In both jobs I’d say my experiences are pretty representative, and that includes older and younger colleagues.

WFH is one thing in a profession or area you are already experienced in. It's terrible for new employees though who are still learning.

I worked with a young lady who went sick for 3 months with MH issues. Our team worked with another company who used one of our rooms, they had their own employees. Some of our staff occasionally worked as hoc for them as it was essentially the same job. We would sit side by side. She turned up 4 days in to her sick leave to work for them as her MH only affected her with the pressures from our clients even this they just helped with the overspill. It came to a head when we went down the disciplinary route, she called her mum who had a go at the manager. This is not the first time I’ve seen stuff like this sadly. People can blame schools but personally I find it’s parents who mollycoddle children. Some of these kids can’t cope with pressure or stress or hard work because their parents seem to fight responsibility and are quite prepared to offer MH days. They aren’t always creating health adults who can cope with real life and take responsibility.

There is an oversupply of biology but anyone with a pulse is begged to tach physics. I did general supply for a while a couple of years ago as I like to actually teach when on supply was overheard by a passing SLT and asked to take on a permanent role as a physics teacher. I know pretty much nothing about physics having failed my o level but the were utterly desperate. I didn’t take the job!!

I’m not sure writing it off as “terrible” for new employees is helpful. As with anything, it depends entirely on the role and situation. I’m not advocating largely home-based working for brand new employees, but IME a bit of flexibility goes a long way in terms of fostering productivity and good working relationships.

In fact, we leaned good working ethics and how to behave which were further developed in the workplace.

I strongly agree with you on this. Certainly for my profession anyway.

Can’t learn from those around you simply by watching and listening to what’s going on. Can’t join in those quick, unplanned chats about difficult issues that arise from time to time within the team. They also don’t learn basic office etiquette if they’ve never worked in one before.

No, trainee, it is not ok to be bellowing down the phone at someone as if you are lying on your bed at home. Take it into a quiet room.

I think the learning from experienced staff is probably a reason for the decline in standards of some trainee teachers. The percentage of teachers that quit the profession in 5 years of starting is high, and experienced teachers are expensive so are often managed out. This has created a boiling pot in many schools of very young staff with little experience, some in management positions within their first few years of entering the classroom.

As someone who has a lot of experience with this exact situation, I have to totally disagree. Students that I am aware of on that course basically ran a class whilst being unpaid (not even travel) and receiving very little support from the teachers in schools. Most of them claiming they were too busy to help, however that leaves students and ECTs in an impossible situation. Many schools just want cheap labour from students and ECTs without actually giving them any support. Even worse, most that graduate from one of these courses don’t even get a job in the field because it’s so competitive and schools have a lack of motivation to actually support new teachers. The whole situation is a mess and it’s such a shame for the students and ECTs involved. When I look at current students now I just feel sorry for them as the whole climate of teaching is geared against them; quite frankly I don’t blame them for feeling disheartened and unmotivated. What a shame.

That's really lovely 😊