Training people at work

[Scenuc]

This past year I have had to train a lot of people as 7 people in my team left the organisation due to bad management. I have had to train a lot of new people. I have not had any tasks removed from my workload so my work is always in a backlog and I am not paid any extra to train people. I understand people need to be trained but disgusted the organisation just left me me to pick up the pieces when they should have brought trainers in from the software company.

I have trained the people well and saved the organisation but feel burnt out. I don't want to train anyone else up now. I have an annual appraisal. I don't know how to diplomatically express this as I have worked hard but it was not acceptable to burden me with this responsibility on top of my job.

Well, an annual appraisal shouldn’t have too many surprises - have you been telling your manager in your 1:1s that you feel you have “gone the extra mile” seven times over this year?

The reality is: you sound competent and have delivered well through the year in a difficult team environment; you have taken on training tasks and still Stayed on top of the main priorities of your job. Your manager is likely to be pleased - here is a person we depend on, this person has delivered well and nothing has broken.

In my line of work, everyone who has “learned the day job” is expected to pick up extra tasks beyond those listed on the JD - whether it is (cross-)training others, improving processes, implementing new processes or taking on small projects. We don’t actually have the staff to deliver 100% on the core job - which is oftentimes very stressful and occasionally problematic. Depending on whether you have formal targets they are appraising you against, you can make the point clearly that you have gone above what was expected at the start of the year in training/supervision, which has impacted your core delivery.

You and manager can talk about what is important focus next - if you are behind due to all the training you’ve done, perhaps you could be given supervision responsibilities and you can delegate the work you’re behind on, to some of the new joiners?

The issue of being exhausted/burned out is another thing to mention especially if the team has suffered a lot of staff turnover. Your manager should have eyes and ears open for this.

Ultimately do you want to become a manager at this organisation? You seem to be propping them up. Perhaps you’re undervalued and should be thinking about moving jobs?