XBradTC

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XBradTC

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When you don't feel like being a team player

It’s fall break week here. Mr. RFH burned a great deal of leave when he was sick earlier in the year, so we are staying home. This means that I have had more than the usual amount of time in the lab because other people are taking the holiday, and thankfully, there are fewer meetings.…

It’s fall break week here. Mr. RFH burned a great deal of leave when he was sick earlier in the year, so we are staying home. This means that I have had more than the usual amount of time in the lab because other people are taking the holiday, and thankfully, there are fewer meetings.

One of the people in my management chain, whenever she sees me alone in the lab, goes and gets one of the other engineers for me to train. I understand this. I know I am the lone expert operator on too many pieces of equipment, but I’m not a very good mentor or patient with slow learners. I am annoyed with being told to train someone older than me because that seems backwards. I should be training someone to eventually take my place, not someone literally counting down to retirement. I am annoyed with people who don’t know that a lab environment means safety shoes, not cute little strappy sandals, and that fake claws fingernails are not compatible with clean room gloves. Yes, you have to wear clean room gloves in the clean room. No, I will not make an exception for you. I’m mean that way. I am annoyed with people who have watched me operate the equipment over and over, carefully written down each step, and still manage to screw things up.

So this week I’ve been left to my own devices, and it’s been:
my day
So do I get the attagirl for getting lots of real work done, or do I get the sad trombone for not doing my job as a mentor?

How do you handle that kind of situation in the military, or do you just never develop pockets of expertise lorded over by one cranky engineer?

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  1. LC Aggie Sith

    I can not speak of the military, since I am on the dependent side of the fence, but I do have some experience retail management-wise. Working for Dis-Nay, I was always given a trainee of some sort, regardless of my area of work. I was a manager operating stores, but they would send me people that needed to be trained in casting, or in barkeeping, or in DANCE, even. To say it was infuriating and was contributing to a negative workplace was an understatement. And I couldn’t refuse. Not the happiest place on Earth, I assure you.

    You get an “ATTAGIRRRRL” from me, because you got shit done.

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  2. Dave C

    Atta girl.

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  3. Clete Orris

    Atta Gurl.

    I, too, have been mentor and trainer to dips hits in several different “industries”. It sucks when they are dumber than a bag-o-hammers, or do not present the same work ethic or level of care for their J-O-B as we do.

    It became easier to just do the offing J-O-B myself and make sure it was done right. And I told management so on multiple occasions. Management, whose J-O-B I could have done far far better.

    You get an atta gurl from me. FWIW

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  4. Clete Orris

    I hate AUTOCUCUMBER!

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  5. mrfixitou812

    Atta Gurl.

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  6. KenWats

    You get an atta girl with an asterisk. Mentoring/training somebody older than you isn’t necessarily a bad idea (although it can feel weird). Who’s going to run the equipment when you do decide to take a vacation? It would feel nice to take a vacation and know that the lab isn’t going to be an unholy mess when you return, right? (speaking from experience here)

    Heck, I’m mentoring a guy who’s 2-3 years from retirement and those are exactly the reasons I’m teaching him. On the flip side, his experience in production control and knowledge of how the plant works have helped out in QA quite a bit and it’s great that I can delegate some of the grunt work to him and count on him to at least raise the right red flags for the right things when I’m not around.

    From a military perspective, it’s generally a bad idea to have all your expertise concentrated in one body. When somebody is removed from their duty position in combat, you don’t have time to train their replacement and the success of the mission may depend on how well they were trained or how well they can improvise.

    That being said, both my civilian employers and my military bosses placed a lot of value on getting stuff done. Seeing something that needs doing and stepping in and doing it are great and deserve a pat on the back.

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  7. Quartermaster

    Shoot the first one they bring you. The word will spread pretty quickly.

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  8. SFC Dunlap 173d RVN

    You are the Woman!!! Applause!! I was never saddled with anything resembling a “silverback” for additional training. Most trainees sensed there was something “in it” for them as opposed to my many solicitous exhortations to improve oneself professionally as it was the right thing to do. As time passed and TIG/TIS requirements loomed these younger soldiers didn’t want to re-learn the right procedures and advance from that point, they wanted the “tricks” which really weren’t. I’m just supicious of off the cuff grabbing for additional training scenarios. Had to be disappointed three significant times before I cranked up the suspicion meter. I’d have given my eye teeth for one genuinely interested, eager to learn for the sake of learning, love the job, go getter. I must have not engendered “mentor” well.

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  9. GuyS

    We were always under the gun to “get the work out”….it spoke well of most of the supervisors I was under that we, when work was caught up, went into “cross training mode” almost immediately. When it became my turn to lead/train that same attitude served me well. And yes, there were some duds who were only there to get their ticket(s) punched so their “evaluations” looked a bit fuller. But most became assets to the shop/command. And didn’t mind training older folks as in most of those cases it was “them” getting a better understanding of either how a particular test procedure worked or getting a more complete picture of what went on in the work center. (And sometimes. just a refresher for them….they worked on that a number of years ago…but other duties pulled them away…and now they were getting back in the saddle so to speak.)

    In any case a big “Atta Girl” from out here in the hinterlands !

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  10. Abe

    The problem exits every where. There were many times I worked alone even though for safety there should have been someone else present. After enough of us threatened to kill the jerk they would assign to us, i got to Safely work by myself.

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  11. Casey Tompkins

    pour encourager les autres…

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  12. Casey Tompkins

    Another “atta girl!”

    It’s good to see a competent trainer. Too many times around here the last one trained gets to show the next newb the ropes.

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