Irritating trainee

[pyzaz]

I'm currently managing a graduate trainee. At a surface level, she's lovely - polite, hardworking etc. But God, I'm finding her so irritating, and I don't know if AIBU! I've managed a few trainees over the years and this is the first experience I've had of this, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

She rushes all her work, doesn't think about what she's doing or why, doesn't check anything. She just wants to tick off that it's "done" (except it isn't). I've pulled her up on this, had frank one-to-ones, no effect. She's desperate to do well so she can get promoted quicker, but we need people who take their time, think carefully and check everything. I've told her all of this.

Then, she's constantly volunteering for extra work so once ended up doing a load of work for a completely different team, when she'd done a bad job of everything she was supposed to be doing for us, because she'd rushed it! And our team has silly amounts of work on. Why volunteer for other work when she's not doing her basic work properly?? And then I see the messages coming through from the stakeholder asking why she didn't do x or y. I reckon probably 75% of all the work she does has to be re-done due to mistakes, and the lack of checking has caused major issues down the line.
And she constantly invites herself into meetings that are irrelevant for her - I mean why? Most people try to avoid meetings like the plague, they mostly waste time, and she's got so much else she could be doing.

She's constantly asking me what else she can do to get a pay rise/promotion next month - I'm just on repeat now saying "take your time with stuff, work carefully, not fast, double/triple check everything etc.", but she doesn't listen.

And to top it off she's only 23! FFS why can't she just chill out - if she works slowly, carefully and plods along, she'll have 10 years experience by the time she's 33, and she'll be on good money with that level of experience, and still young. I've told her all of this, she doesn't listen.

I've accepted I can't change who she is, so I now just want to work on myself and stop myself from feeling so irritated by her. And if she apologises one more time (after I pull her up over another rushed job), I am going to scream.

@StMarie4me That exactly describes her!

I wonder if she just doesn't believe you. It might need one of her peers to get promoted while she is simultaneously put on a PIP to get the message across!

I'd just tell her straight when asked, that she needs to do good work consistently as standard before even thinking of promotions/increased salary. And to get on the right track she needs to stop taking on additional work as it isn't making her look good as she isn't focused on doing her own work correctly.

Being keen is not her downfall.

I've had plenty of trainees who would sit and stare at a desktop all day rather than get on with the job.

Then when you give them structured timelines to complete tasks and they do it in half the time (wrong and rushed) or milk it for days the don't get it right anyway.

I'd take your trainee over 90% of the trainees I have had because as long as the drive and determination is there you can coach and foster competence.

Set specific tasks and follow it up with regular reviews, corrections and feedback sessions. Basic questions like "what do you think went well?" and "what do you think didn't go well?" will give her some self awareness.

I actually feel sorry for anyone that age starting out because the pressure to progress, live the Insta life or even do basic things like afford to buy a house all depend on their career. I can understand why she's keen, maybe a little understanding from you would go a long way.

@Tarantella6 Hmm, maybe she doesn't. She's friends with some of the other graduates, who all seem very happy with their pay & progression, all very laid back, apart from her.

I get the feeling she's very competitive, but she hides it well. I've worked with her for about 4 months and I'm only just starting to realise. I feel like she's trying to compete with me even, which is beyond ridiculous, I'm a technical expert in the field (so I manage her technical work, but don't line manage her) with ~20 years more experience, and way above her in terms of performance/pay scales.

And to top it off she's only 23! FFS why can't she just chill out - if she works slowly, carefully and plods along, she'll have 10 years experience by the time she's 33, and she'll be on good money with that level of experience, and still young. I've told her all of this, she doesn't listen.

In many jobs these days there is no time to "plod along". Perhaps she understands that.

@Tallyrand I know she's very keen to buy a house. And all the things you've said are all the reasons why we passed her probation. I do make her re-do work, I do regularly ask her what she thinks went well, what went badly etc.

I'm just finding her so fucking irritating - I just wish I could stop feeling so irritated by her. We work on a lot of projects together, and I'm trying to gradually decouple our work, but I still have to check all her work, even if I'm not actively working on the same project.

There is a bit of team restructuring in the pipeline, so I'm hoping that will help. It should mean I have another technical expert to discuss stuff with, which will be good, I think.

Enthusiasm is great. I would much prefer that than someone who just plods along.

You need to get her to channel the enthusiasm. It's her first job, she doesn't know any better and thinks what she's doubt we'll have benefit.

Try something like, if the accuracy improves, I can let you go to meetings etc.

You need to start rewarding for results.

When you can you x correctly, you can have the opportunity to do Y.

In your 1:1 discuss her ambitions and goals, they put a development plan in place.

So you aren’t her line manager, you’re basically her peer but you’ve been given the task of training her? That’s not an odd situation at all

I'm just finding her so fucking irritating - I just wish I could stop feeling so irritated by her.

your style would indicate that you likely are prone to finding quite a few people and a lot in life “fucking irritating”

@Bloompetal I'm not her peer, no, I'm a technical expert, far senior to her - I'm good at my job through years of experience. I have line managed lots as well in the past, but I'm mostly employed for my technical expertise these days, and less experienced colleagues are paired with me so they can learn from me. I'm old, I've worked on and off for nearly 40 years if I count part-time 6th form jobs etc., I've worked with 100s of people and I can only think of one other person that I've worked with who has irritated me in the way she does, but I didn't have any responsibility over that person. I've not found any of my other trainees or subordinates this irritating, even when there have been issues with their work.

I get the impression that quite a few this generation are like this. People are so coddled, and are told they can be billionaires by social media with very little work, that they enter the workplace thinking they're 5 minutes from CEO and a six figure salary.

I'd have a sit-down and say we appreciate the enthusiasm, and we realise you are doing this to make a good impression and progress quickly, but (be frank), you're achieving the opposite.

Then list the jobs and the number of mistakes and people involved to correct them. I know its a no-blame culture, but she need to realise that her work is accountable. Describe the impact to the business from people acting on it (believing it is accurate) and then having to re-do it. Tell her that the people she is trying to impress have fed back that the quality of work is inadequate. Tell her that one piece of good quality work is worth ten pieces that need corrections.

I'd then drip-feed her tasks. Tell her that you will be personally reviewing one piece at a time and will not be giving her more until she gets it right. Make it clear that you're her line manager and going above you for other work is not acceptable.

She needs to get the impression that there are consequences. "I can't recommend you for any more high-profile jobs until you get these basic ones right"

Have you trained before? Training any of her peers?

I would never assign someone with decades of experience and employed specifically for their technical expertise to train a new grad.

it would be like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

I think you need to put a stop to her volunteering to help other teams until she can do her actual work to a proper standard.

The next time she asks how to be promoted/given a pay rise the response is “understanding the requirements of your current role fully, so that I don’t have to ask for everything to be redone”.

It is a shame her probation wasn’t extended rather than passed, as that would have sent a clear message however, now you/her LM need to spell out in written form exactly what she needs to do to progress e.g. consistently accurate work and this needs reviewing regularly. Bringing others into this process will help you and if you can offload her onto another team, so will that. She obviously can’t hear what she’s been told so far so maybe it’s time for someone to get a bit more direct with her, with clear consequences if she doesn’t meet goals.
This sounds another example of the entitlement I’ve seen in this particular age group in my workplace and it really gets on my wick.

You sacked the last person you mentored? Goodness that’s quite a history with people you’ve trained. Were you also not managing that one? In which case, why did you sack them?

Really it sounds like her probation should be extended due to lack of accuracy in her work and faliure to improve on this.

too late
they passed her!

Thank you for all your replies everyone - it's been very useful to work out what to do. I've spoken to her line manager and we have a plan.

What kind of work is she doing op?

If its process driven/linear type of work and she likes to tick tasks off her lists, can you include check/double check/spell check work within her process? That means she gets to tick it off and then all you have to say is 'you haven't completed step 5' when she's told this 5 times a day it might get into her head. Rather the a collection of different errors, it's just one big consistent error.

As you can't put her back in probation, could instead assign a supervisor to her or something similar that sounds like someone needs to keep an eye on her. Feels a bit like being on probation.

It's cheeky she keeps asking about promotion and pay rises. She obviously hasn't realised the extent of the problems with her work. I would be embarrassed to ask that with that record and only being there for 7 months!!

If you are her manager why is she being allowed to volunteer her resource/time to other teams? Say no you need her focus on current tasks until she improves.

Ensure when you all sit down and give her a talk, you are there, and leading the talk. Make sure you are backed up by her line manager and HR.

She doesn't listen to you because she doesn't want to. When you give work back, does she apologise and re do it?

I would say clearly that she must not take on extra work until she can do her own job properly.

Her line manager sounds a bit crap.

Also stop asking her what she would like to do, move teams etc.
Maybe buddy her up with someone to oversee her work on a daily basis? She needs daily 121 and direction. Not weekly.