Issues with the new employee continue

I haven't talked about the new employee for a bit. She is definitely the most challenging person to understand. This post explores a lot of my thoughts that I have shared with various folks for the past month.

We have a new authoring tool that most of our team has been gearing up to move to. I have said to this person that she is not ready. She doesn't have the basics down with our current authoring tool. My team consisting of this woman and two students are staying on our current tool.

She is stubborn and adamant to learn the new tool. Her reasoning, according to what she told my two students, is that there isn't a relationship between the two authoring tools. Um, that's because you don't understand the existing tool well enough to see that your transition to the new one will be difficult if you don't have a decent foundation on how things work.

Before the Christmas holidays, I had instructions for my two students to look at the training materials on the new tool. I specifically told the new employee that she wasn't ready and to focus on learning our current tool. What does she do? She watched one of the videos on the new tool.

She has raised a number of red flags in my eyes. The first one occurred during her third interview (it was my second one with her) where she said that she was a "slow learner." I brought that up to my manager, but he dismissed it. He thought that the extra time she spends after work to learn would make her catch up.

I was right. Hiring a slow learning in an IT field is bad.

She has been with the company for over two months. She cannot grasp simple things like knowing that the entire team is away on an all-employee meeting, which means that the team will not respond to her e-mails. She couldn't attend because she had a medical appointment that day and worked from home. Yet, she constantly sent out e-mails and even texted one of my students over work when she got to this offsite meeting that was not urgent. She does not take into consideration whether folks are physically able to respond to her e-mails. She is only thinking about herself.

Most of our department has to do a test that grants you access to this new tool, but for the production (live) environment. I said to this new employee that her main focus is to get up to speed with work so that she takes over one of my documentation software release duties. Her deadline is later than everyone else's to do this test. My manager made the same comment in a departmental meeting last Thursday.

What does she do? The following day, she takes this test. She hasn't gone through all the training materials or videos. She just did the test over and over again (you select either one answer or some combination) until she passed it.

I was annoyed. I told her so on Monday. The fact that she just asked for access to the test environment and was absolutely afraid to even log on was a joke. Now, she has access to a production environment where she could mess up everything with her current "knowledge" that she allegedly proved to possess on this test.

I told her she put the cart before the horse.. How meaningful are the answers that she memorized to ultimately pass this test? Not all that meaningful at this stage.

She doesn't listen. She has difficulty comprehending simple concepts. Yet, she does whatever she feels like.

She pointed out that she's not a linear learner. Yep, it shows. She is all over the map to the point where none of us truly knows what she is thinking. She has no sound judgment about much.

I had a talk with my manager on Monday night. I told him that my students and I have been drilling her with exercises and explaining concepts in multiple different ways. It is the plan that he first devised. It doesn't appear to be helping. I levelled with him and said that she wasn't a fit for this job. He nodded.

The problem is that the company is under a hiring freeze. We let her go and I am back to doing everything. I personally don't want her becoming a permanent employee at this company. She is not pulling her weight. I don't always want to be saving the day because we can't get another employee to fill the void.

On Tuesday, my manager wrote an e-mail to her and copied me. It was a snowday. He basically reinforced that she needs to work on understanding concepts and her job. All of us have noticed that she is great at memorizing, but does not understand what she is spewing out. She doesn't have critical thinking skills. She can't think for herself.

I had this chat with my guy when we were in the States. He agrees that it's probably better to get rid of her than having her pull down everyone.

The current plan is to have my students work with her on simulating a documentation release. We are assessing how she will do within the next two weeks. I have a feeling that she will be at the level that she is currently at -- slow and incompetent.

She's a nice person. She's just not suitable for this job.

Thoughts being an interviewee

At work, I conduct a number of interviews. I tend to make interviews a conversation rather than an interrogation. I want the interviewee to be comfortable, which allows that person to open up. I then get as much information out of the candidate to determine whether that person is a good fit.

It has been ages since I went for an interview. It's strange to be the interviewee.

For a while, ever since this job opportunity was plopped into my inbox, I have been mixed about the position. I like the idea of being in a new work environment, being closer to home, and having the challenge of learning a new field. However, after being interviewed by four different people on Monday, I still don't feel that it's my dream job.

The person who could potentially be my manager reminded me of my current manager. Both have been in the industry for nearly two decades. Both don't have a good command of the English language. Both aren't good at listening.

I respectfully butted heads with this person. I saw the passion that came out of me. I didn't back down. If they didn't like that about me, so be it. I'm actually pleased that I took a stand.

This person basically said that this position would be a drastic change for me. He felt that I was doing more of a management role than a writing role. He went on to say that at my workplace, there are tons of writers. You lose one and you're fine. At this company, it's smaller. You lose a person and you feel the impact.

I completely disagreed with him. I have lost a writer a year on my team for at least the past four years. Thanks goes to my micromanaging manager. My team loses a writer. I feel the pain of picking up the slack and doing the job of two people. It is my current situation.

He completely dismissed the fact that I am in the trenches, writing daily, doing the grunt work. I hammered that point. He didn't get it. He's stubborn, just like my manager.

Is it worth taking a pay cut to be at a different company with a manager exhibiting similar personality traits and deficiencies? I think not.

I did feel good coming out of the interview. I got along with the woman with whom I had my phone interview. It was good getting back into the interview scene again.

As much as it would be nice to escape my current job for another one, this open job opportunity doesn't feel right to me.