My team and my guy - thoughts

I have three folks on my team. Two are full-time writers and the third is my student.

Technically, all three are new to my team. On a good note, they all get along. It's an interesting dynamic.

My student and I get along well. She does not hesitate to do any task that I give her. She does require an occasional trigger word to get her on track on a few tasks. Otherwise, she completes them with quality and I am pleased.

One writer is essentially my mini-me as far as work ethic goes. She is a self-starter and simply runs with whatever tasks are available. She is a fast learner and does have a lot of experience with an authoring tool that we will be cutting over to. She's great, her work is close to being perfect, and is taking over roughly have of my development work.

The concern is with the other writer. She is the oldest member of the team. I tell her information. It goes in one ear and completely out the other. I feel like I am a broken record.

She also does not read e-mails carefully. Often, she doesn't read them at all. She prefers instant messaging over e-mails. I am the complete opposite. I find the former distracting.

When I do work from home, I put myself into do-not-disturb mode these days. It means that you see me online, but I won't accept instant messages.

Both the student and the younger writer understand that I get a ton of e-mails. They also know that I am completely accessible through e-mail. The other writer seems to be all over the map.

She told me the other day that she felt that she was doing student work. She does have an issue with status, indicating that she is a senior writer. It's funny. She doesn't give me the impression that she is.

Perhaps it's me. I am also in that same senior writer as far as experience goes, although she has more of it. However, I do not label one task as being for a student and another for a senior writer. I do tasks that need to be done. Period.

Over the last few weeks, it occurred to me that I have a ton of knowledge. Even older technology that I have to resurrect from the dead comes to me naturally, which has been the case for the past few days. It's funny that I acquired this knowledge mainly through trial and error. I don't see any initiative with the older writer when it comes to self-learning. It's there with the younger one. The student has it, too.

My concern is that the older writer, who is supposed to take over the other half of my development duties, won't be able to hack it. She is set in her ways, which is a red flag.

The good news is that I am taking Friday off. I will be seeing my guy, so it will be a good, relaxing time away from work.