Since co-worker B wanted this day shift position, you might ask why I didn't just withdraw from it and let her have it.
Why indeed?
Because I valued my sanity and mental health? Because I knew her job ethic too well?
B's current job involved covering shifts when people were on vacation or sick. Including the shift in question. Which was at the same desk as my normal job. Right before my shift.
As I've indicated before, B didn't do anything she didn't strictly have to do (my perceptions, assumptions and opinion). Meaning that when she covered the shift before mine, I would be left with things to do that could have and should have been done during the previous eight hours.
In addition, even though we were supposed to have communication during shift change I would be left totally blindsided time after time after time with the words "it's self explanatory". I guess it was. After I spent the better part of the first half hour of my shift going through every single piece of paper in all the cubbyholes.
Self explanatory? It would have been far easier and taken far less time if she had simply told me what was what at the beginning of my shift.
I was frustrated.
I was angry.
And I was tired, very tired of continually doing her work, in effect covering for her.
That was why I had applied for this change in shift.
To get away from the constant stress.
*****
Coming back into the workplace after my four week leave, all I had to do to start the job on the coveted day shift position was to survive the next three weeks and train my replacement for two weeks. After that, I would be free. I hoped.
I never made it to the new position.
I lasted a grand total of seven shifts.
My downfall? Training the trainee.
Have you ever tried to train someone who doesn't want to be trained?
I don't recommend it. It's not possible.
If you recall, this trainee had been training with B who had long standing issues with me since when I was attempting to train her.
B was the only other person of all I had trained to refuse to allow me to train her.
That didn't go very well either.
My new trainee had a very pleasant demeanour. As the three days I attempted to train her wore on, I began to think of her as the character in the movie "Christmas With The Kranks" in the scene where Mrs. Krank is trying to get a Honey Ham for her daughter's visit. Time was short. It's Christmas Eve. The worker at the store informs her that there is only one left and tells her where it is. And that is where this other very pleasant looking character comes in. She overhears the conversation and as Mrs. Krank heads to the lone remaining Honey Ham, this woman matches her stride for stride pushing her cart. When Mrs. Krank looks at her, she gives her a very pleasant smile. When Mrs. Krank quickens her stride, this character does as well. With a sweet smile. It eventually becomes an out and out race with this character still with her pleasant smile grabbing the Honey Ham.
Like the pleasant looking character in this scene, my trainee was very adept at cutting me off at the pass.
Her favourite tactic? Disputing my training methods and arguing about my instructions.
On the first day, with only two weeks to ensure she was proficient, I wanted to know what she knew so I could target my training to where it was best suited. When I tried to ask her what she knew, she demurred and said I would find out.
?????
Okay, let's try something another tack.
I asked her what she would do in a given scenario. Point by point. She gave good answers. And then she asked: "Is this a quiz?" I thought a moment and answered: "Yes".
She indicated that she was not a child, this was not school and she didn't appreciate my giving her a quiz.
Anything I said in this context was taken negatively and misconstrued.
Eventually, I said that I didn't understand how this conversation had gotten to this point. She dropped the matter.
At another point I tried to give her the benefit of some of the knowledge I'd acquired from hard experience during my tenure in this position, she bucked me and said 'I won't do it this way when the job is mine." I got the feeling she hadn't heard a word of the reason I was giving her.
One of my supervisor's favourite words when dealing with me was "insubordination". I had been accused of it many times. Too bad that word didn't apply to others because that's the only way I can describe this woman's behaviour.
On the third day, we were working on something we hadn't done together yet and she made a notation on the paperwork regarding a seal # and I advised her that she didn't need to. This, to me, is part of the purpose of training: so that the trainee knows in what circumstance something needs to be noted and when it doesn't.
We ended up in this long winded conversation where she is telling me that I should be proud of her that she's thinking of better ways to do things.
During training?????
Then she ran off to the other office where the managers have their offices.
Does this sound familiar?
I knew that no managers were present at this hour.
I felt fear. The last thing I needed or wanted was for her to go the manager and for me to have another hour and a half long conversation about how the manager felt about getting emails about me.
I went after her.
We ended up about six feet apart at either end of a copier. We were both loud. She was angry. I wasn't happy either. She said that she was just going to ask our manager if she could write things on the paperwork. I said that we would go together. She said loudly. "WE. WILL. NOT." I replied in the same manner "WE. WILL."
She said, "I don't know how we got to this point" (in the conversation).
The same words I had used two days prior during a "discussion" of my methodology.
After our shift ended, I went home. I was upset. I knew I couldn't go on like this any longer especially since no one in HR or management seemed inclined to recognize that this kind of behaviour was not appropriate and put a stop to it. I called the psychiatrist's office the next day and made an emergency appointment. When he saw me, he said "What can I do for you?"
Something broke inside me. I burst out: "Kill me. Kill me."
He reevaluated my GAF and gave me six more weeks off to get me away from these people to give me time to heal.
No comments:
Post a Comment