In anticipation of my graduation and career change, my boss decided to start looking for my replacement now. On the one hand, it's a little early, as I still have two months of school left, plus however long it takes to apply, interview, and accept a job offer. On the other hand, between the horror stories of the people they had in before I was hired and the fact that the learning curve for this position is six months at the least (there are days I feel like I'm still on the learning curve after 3 years), I can't really argue.
The theory is that we will hire someone to shadow me, and in slow periods, they will crosstrain with my equivalent in the asset management (AM) side of things. As it stands now, both asset management and development are small departments - we joke that if any of us gets hit by a bus, we're all in trouble - so crosstraining is not a bad idea.
Last month, we went through a number of interviews. The people interviewed with HR, my boss, and the AM boss. One lady in particular stood out: very type A personality, perfectionist, ex-military, attention to detail, etc:
So she starts, and makes it through the first week. It was a presentation week, which means I'm extremely busy getting things ready for my boss to present a project to a county's planning board, so most of her time is spent with AM. She's not super computer savvy, but seems to be picking things up fairly well. She does seem to spend a significant amount of time texting or on the phone (both hers and the company phone), and seems to want to talk a lot, to the point where even my co-worker, who is far more social than I am, is making "ok, let's get back to work now" noises, but she's returning to the workplace after raising five kids, so okay... we'll cut her some slack.
Week 2 is similar, as I start to show her some of the things I do, and it gets a lot more technical. I show her some photo editing, architectural software, updating budgets in excel and construction software, and making physical presentation boards. Her enthusiasm is visibly waning in both electronic and hard copy format, but we make it to the end of the week. A few other warning flags pop up with professionalism and conduct, but again, it might just be adjustment.
Week 3, my boss is on vacation, so I'm trying to catch up and get ahead, very nose-to-the-grindstone style. If I move my head about 6" to one side, I can see her desk and her computer, so I try to give her the easier tasks to work on while I knock things out, and monitor her progress every few minutes. It is not going well. She is on the phone or texting almost every time I look over, and doesn't speak up when she's done with a task. A few times, when I ask her if she's done, she says "I wasn't sure how to do [something]..." and never finishes the sentence. Finally, I get this:
Not just once, but several times. Maybe I was raised on a different work ethic, but in my mind, that's a terrible attitude and poor way to work. My coworker and I discussed things over lunch, and had decided to advise my boss this wasn't working when she approached HR and said she was quitting. Despite being told by multiple people in interviews, she claimed she didn't understand why I was still there, and why she was being trained in two departments. Regardless of the veracity of that statement, we quickly agreed that she wasn't a good fit, and are moving on. We'll see how this goes.
The theory is that we will hire someone to shadow me, and in slow periods, they will crosstrain with my equivalent in the asset management (AM) side of things. As it stands now, both asset management and development are small departments - we joke that if any of us gets hit by a bus, we're all in trouble - so crosstraining is not a bad idea.
Last month, we went through a number of interviews. The people interviewed with HR, my boss, and the AM boss. One lady in particular stood out: very type A personality, perfectionist, ex-military, attention to detail, etc:
So she starts, and makes it through the first week. It was a presentation week, which means I'm extremely busy getting things ready for my boss to present a project to a county's planning board, so most of her time is spent with AM. She's not super computer savvy, but seems to be picking things up fairly well. She does seem to spend a significant amount of time texting or on the phone (both hers and the company phone), and seems to want to talk a lot, to the point where even my co-worker, who is far more social than I am, is making "ok, let's get back to work now" noises, but she's returning to the workplace after raising five kids, so okay... we'll cut her some slack.
Week 2 is similar, as I start to show her some of the things I do, and it gets a lot more technical. I show her some photo editing, architectural software, updating budgets in excel and construction software, and making physical presentation boards. Her enthusiasm is visibly waning in both electronic and hard copy format, but we make it to the end of the week. A few other warning flags pop up with professionalism and conduct, but again, it might just be adjustment.
Week 3, my boss is on vacation, so I'm trying to catch up and get ahead, very nose-to-the-grindstone style. If I move my head about 6" to one side, I can see her desk and her computer, so I try to give her the easier tasks to work on while I knock things out, and monitor her progress every few minutes. It is not going well. She is on the phone or texting almost every time I look over, and doesn't speak up when she's done with a task. A few times, when I ask her if she's done, she says "I wasn't sure how to do [something]..." and never finishes the sentence. Finally, I get this:
Not just once, but several times. Maybe I was raised on a different work ethic, but in my mind, that's a terrible attitude and poor way to work. My coworker and I discussed things over lunch, and had decided to advise my boss this wasn't working when she approached HR and said she was quitting. Despite being told by multiple people in interviews, she claimed she didn't understand why I was still there, and why she was being trained in two departments. Regardless of the veracity of that statement, we quickly agreed that she wasn't a good fit, and are moving on. We'll see how this goes.
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