Has job training gone straight to hell??

[MergedLoki]

I think the thought of it is (with regards to retail people and call centre people).

is that 'if this person doesn't work out or quits or whatever there's ALWAYS gonna be someone else applying for a job'

[AccountingDrone]

I had a job where I was essentially shown where to find the spreadsheet I needed to work on, how to pull the report that I used to bash against that spreadsheet but not how to manipulate excel, which I had to teach myself on the job [which was very useful in my last job] and only very vague instructions on what they actually wanted me to do. Then the desired results would change randomly every few weeks.

I essentially wrote the book on how the job was done, and I had found a new job and gave my 2 weeks notice, and they never bothered replacing me until after I was gone. Then 3 days later the person replacing me galled me in a panic so I sent her the booklet I wrote on how to do my job. I would have happily trained her if they had bothered asking me ...

[Dreamstalker]

I was basically roped into training my replacement under the guise of "so if you are on vacation or out for any reason stuff will get done."...ironically this was shortly after I had returned from an out-of-town family emergency to find a literal mountain of boxes that should have gone out. A number of which had USPS date-sensitive labels printed (during my absence so somebody was at least trying to help) but which were never actually mailed--yup, I got bitched at for that too.

[Evil Queen]

Job training has gone to hell in recent years. At my hotel we put a trainee on a training schedule for 3-4 weeks before letting them loose and even then they work with another coworker for at least another week or two before working on their own.

So that's over a month's worth of training and I still get calls at 2am being asked how to do stuff! It's NOT that hard and I've completely rewritten the training manuals so even a toddler can understand them! Jeebus Christoph on a Ritz Bitz Cracker! RTFM!

[bhskittykatt]

When I started at the motel, I was in housekeeping. They basically showed me how to clean a room, handed me a clipboard, and said "GO!" Same thing two weeks later when I became head housekeeper. There were literally TWO people in housekeeping when I started, during the summer tourist season, so they were desperate to get me out on the floor.

Hubby just started a new position as crew at his fast food joint. They just showed him the training videos on sandwich construction. However, they're not going to have him make any sandwiches for at least two more weeks. By then, he'll have forgotten most of the training video. How does that make sense?

[casey13]

Kroger - bare minimum training such as videos that I finished early. I was shown the restrooms when they were messy so I equated that with clean.

Later when I worked for them a second time, I had experience as a cashier so I had no training despite the fact that the register system was completely different. I never worked with a keyboard system so it took me a long time to learn.

Wal-mart - Yes and no. I had videos that sort of taught me how to use a cash register, but most of those were outdated and the cash registers were very similar to Kroger. I already had floor experience and once a week, we would have to read up on three products or services that were currently being offered through this cyber program where vendors submitted apps. I accidentally learned a lot about services not offered at the Wal-mart I worked at.

Current job - register training, yes. Everything else, no.

Petsmart - Not really. Videos that were outdated or annoying and I didn't shadow anyone. Those booklets were handed to me but never completed.

[EricKei]

I actually have it in my contract that I *must* train my replacement and stay on for 30 days...but only if I resign. If I'm terminated, I can just hurl turn in my keys and go.

I've done a decent job of training our junior accountant (who doesn't have many clients) on the more tedious aspects of what I do, however, which leaves me more time for billables...so that works out nicely.

[jedimaster91]

When I worked at the library, the training was for new hires to work a shift with a more experienced employee. I was the favorite to train new people because I knew what I was doing. That job really wasn't that hard. What took time was learning the quirks of the system. I was there a couple years when TPTB switched to a new login software. The new software is infinitely better than the old software, but still buggy as all get out. There's only so much I can tell a new employee in a 5-hour shift.

When I got hired at the hospital, I spent two weeks "assisting" the other tech and another couple weeks taking the lead role while he was around for backup and questions. It was a month and a half before they turned me loose on my own. <Other location> didn't bother with training at all and then the supervisor got titchy when I wasn't picking it up through osmosis. Yes, they have the same camera. But they're processing is completely different as far as what info they want scanned in and where they want the images sent. Cardiac's the worst because the radiologists won't read them so we have a different "house cardiologist" for every day of the week unless it's a group that wants their own cardiologist to read and he might be in any of three offices, so send it to all of them and then some cardiologists want to stress and read their own patients....No one would actually sit down with me and go through all that craziness, so it was no wonder I didn't learn it. <Other other location> has a nice binder with a schedule and where the cardiologists will read them. 'Tis nice.

Quite frankly, the basics of my job are not difficult and I know what I'm doing. But every hospital has slightly different protocols that I can't learn until I start doing them. But then again, I learn by doing.

[Sableonblonde]

I know when I worked in the food department at an amusement park a few years ago, there was no training at all, just a learn-as-you-go type of thing. Which was a pain in the ass and sort of embarrassing. Since we didn't have time to learn the menu, for the first few days whenever someone ordered something, I'd have to keep craning around to read the menu to see what came with each order and how much it was. And then with the register, it would take awhile to locate the right buttons. It was real easy once you knew how, but getting to the "know how" part was a bit rocky.

[Whiskey]

I was kind of trained on one station in my (fast food) store. I watched a video on fryers, did fryers for 2 weeks, then was thrown on drive thru with no training. Now I'm fryers, drive thru (no training), front counter (no training), semi-prep (no training), and grill assist (no training).

[underemployeed]

We have plenty of training videos we have to watch every 6-12months at my job. but we don't have head phones and can barely makeout what they say, it really just a cover the companies ass in the case we do something stupid they can say but 6months ago you were trained on this. Im sorry that for something such as a travellers check that happens once every, two-3 months I have no idea how to take them altough did find in our operations manual what to do. Funny nobody in my store knows how to get on the computer and use it, and I get in trouble for learning things then sharing them with fellow employees.

[snugglegirl05]

For my current job as a contract parking attendant...

I received a call in March 2006 a little after 7 a.m. to come to the university I am currently working at. I get there, & the parking company manager at the time had to go to a meeting. So he briefly went over the basics. Then he had someone from Community Relations, the dept. over Visitor Parking at that time, come down & go over what they felt was important.

When I found out that there would be times when Visitor Parking was reserved, I called Community Relations to find out how we are supposed to handle difficult customers. I was given some information, but not a whole lot.
The director of Community Relations told me that my employer had information regarding handling difficult customers. So I asked my employer. There was no information. At that point I realized I had to learn on my own.

There was very little training. That is one reason why I made a manual so I can train my replacement (if my employer still has the contract after I finish my education & get a better paying job somewhere else).

[BrenDAnn]

Training for my particular job was great, until the current AM. Whether she's training someone in the kitchen or up front, she tends to everything for the trainee, instead of letting them do it themselves. This results in many calls from the noobs to myself or another more experienced clerk or kitchen worker, asking how to do very simple things. Curse you, AM! Learn how to train! Oh, and every few months we get age-restricted selling training, in the form of signing a sheet saying we know about it. Really difficult there!

[Dreamstalker]

Whether she's training someone in the kitchen or up front, she tends to everything for the trainee, instead of letting them do it themselves.

This is what game store guy did, especially on the register for some odd reason (this is why I got so uncharacteristically confused, I could see what he was doing but not how).

I figured out very quickly that his way of counting money was fairly slow, but he watched me do it his way the first night and then complained at me for being too slow When he had finished "training" I switched to my way and had the count done ~5 minutes faster on average.

I was allowed to set my own scheme for packing/shipping, then somehow that was "not paying attention" (um, ebay/paypal/USPS doesn't really care whether you do A, B, or C first as long as the transaction is completed and the item mailed).