Imagine you are a corporate trainer.
Imagine teaching back-to-back new-hire classes, which always means overtime hours (you’re salaried so you’re not paid for them, and comp time is not allowed). It also means working through almost all of your lunches and breaks, and occasionally working on your days off as well.
Imagine having to “perform” from 8:30am - 5pm M - F, talking and entertaining classes and teaching complicated policies and processes, and doing this pretty much without a break for months on end, while still having hours of job responsibilities other than your in-class training. And when your students are on their lunch break, you’re furiously scrambling around making sure handouts are ready for the next day, researching questions, answering the 20 pieces of email that came in in the past hour and a half (at least some of those have extra work for you to do in your “free time”).
Now imagine that, from that moment on, as the years pass any mistake the employee makes on the job will always be your fault because their boss claims you didn’t “teach them good enough” in the 2 or 3 weeks you had them in new hire training back in 2006.
If a productivity policy is finally enforced 6 months or a year after a person is on the job, and that person doesn’t like the fact they are finally accountable for the work they do, imagine if the director of the entire office blamed you for the poor staff morale because you didn’t “prepare” the new employee that this might happen, despite the fact that you DID prepare the employees for this, except they have forgotten because the productivity policy was not enforced for the past two years and now suddenly it is.
If an employee who has worked for the company three months, six months, a year, is caught breaking a rule (like talking on their personal cell phone at their desk), imagine if nothing is said to the employee but you get told you didn’t train the rules well enough, even though this rule was repeated at least a dozen times during new-hire training.
Now imagine all of that, and then imagine that, after almost 2 years at the company, the new-hires you are training today make at least $500/month MORE than you, and that’s after you’ve had two yearly raises at the company, AND A PROMOTION! Keep in mind you have at least the skills the new-hires have - that was a requirement before you were hired. Plus you have more skills which qualified you to train them. Add in there that they can get paid overtime (you can’t), and they will continue to make exponentially more than you as time passes, since their raises will always be bigger.
Speaking of raises, now imagine that your boss is in another state and has never bothered to come out and observe your job performance. Imagine that your boss admits she’s never bothered to read even one of the post-class surveys to see the glowing reviews your students give you. In fact, you’ve probably only talked to your boss on the phone about four times in the past nine months: two of those times are because you called her repeatedly and insisted on a call back, one of those times she was required to call you to do your yearly performance review, and only one of those times did she call you to check in and see how you were doing.
Now imagine if that boss gave you a merely average performance review, citing the score on the basis that you had “personality issues” because you reported problems with another trainer - problems that were also being complained about and reported by dozens of other managers, coworkers and students LONG before you even worked at the company.
Then imagine if you found out that other trainer - the one with multiple complaints about them, and who is currently on a “written warning” 90 day probation (denoting serious concerns about job performance… it’s the last step before someone is fired) - got the SAME PERFORMANCE REVIEW THAT YOU DID, and the same raise.
Wouldn’t you want another job, despite the fact that when it comes to the actual work, you love what you do and are very good at it?
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I would quit that job but only after I found another and some way to take advantage of the first company. Time to start looking and screwing with the other trainer just to keep things fun.
Wow. That’s horrible. There has got to be a better company to work for doing this thing that you love. Right? And I agree with Tom, screwing with the other trainer just might do wonders for your morale.
Okay, I so read stupidtom’s advice as to screw the other trainers, as in sex, not the other way. It’s way funny to read it that way.
I wish I could fix this for you!!
This is why I quit Learning & Development years ago…
@divakitty: What did you go into?
My problem now is, because my trainer job requires me to have writing experience, advanced computer skills, teaching experience, call center experience, and be an RN, I get paid relatively well. I mean, how many people do you know that have all that? But the drawback is that I can’t go work in a hospital as an educator (requires a Masters in Nursing which I refuse to get because I no longer want ANYTHING to do with direct patient care). Other jobs I qualify for require travel, which I can’t do for at least another four years because I have Moose. I kind of painted myself into a corner.
I agree with Tom - I won’t quit until I have another job. But that might take over a year. It’s just a shame that it’s a manager or two, plus one coworker, that is running me off. Because I like what I do and I’m good at it. And when a person with ZERO self esteem says she’s good at something, she must be good at it!
you have had so many posts where i don’t know what to say….because everything you just said….i’ve actually felt. this is a big one.
i so felt this way when i worked at a non-profit years ago. and i did end up leaving. sometimes all that crap just doesn’t make up for the pride or happiness you have after a great training session.
with the exception of other staff members and relationship issues, is your job still challenging for you, or is it just stressful? challenge is different from stress. do you feel like you are helping the new hires and at least they appreciate you?
is there any way you can break off and do this on your own, sub-contractually?
i TOTALLY get what you mean about the zero self esteem and being good at something. if a person is their toughest critic, but still knows they’re good at it, there is no better evidence….
personally, i would quit, that’s what i did. and i did it because i learned first hand how that type of job stress can really affect your health in serious ways.
This is just awful. I wish I knew what to say here, but I’ll have to go with stupidtom (not so stupid) and goodbear.
Take care and the best of luck. Keep us informed.
@goodbear: I hate to hear someone went through the same thing, but it’s also good to know it’s not just me with bad luck. I can’t subcontract - being single with an iffy income and no health insurance in Denver is a sure way to lose my house, I can tell you that.
I can only teach the curriculum I’m handed, so I can’t even modify exams or job aids so that they are actually useful to the staff. The challenges in my job are all bad - being given classes to teach at the last minute with no time to prepare for them unless I work evenings and weekends, woefully out of date policies, blah blah. Every place where my job is a challenge, it is because of poor planning and documentation, not because the work is stimulating.
Ugh, I’m getting depressed!
Do you think it would help to send an email to your boss. Probably not if they he/she is anything like the bosses I’ve had. I’d say to weigh the good and the bad and make your decision on whether to quit or not based on the outcome with another job waiting of course. Tough call. I hope it gets better.
Hi Bunny,
Hmmm. Let’s see. Would I quit? Probably not for a long time. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I’ve been known to work for years at jobs that I kind of liked, but because of a complete lack of leadership, were really awful places to work. And, at least in my experience, when there are the kind of serious managerial and company structural issues that you’ve shared, it doesn’t get better. So, I guess my advice follows the majority…don’t get depressed…but get an updated resume onto Monster.com and then get out as soon as possible.
On a different note…thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the comment. Honestly, coming from one of my most favoritest bloggers, that was a real compliment.
Words of widom I’ve learned the hard way:
Never quit until you have another job lined up.
Never, EVER, badmouth previous employers.
@Cyrus: You’re so sweet Cyrus!
And I have someone reviewing my resume right now, since mine is obviously not working.
@mike: Oh yeah. I wouldn’t quit without another job - learned that the hard way myself. And I know not to badmouth former employers. Reason for quitting always has to be something positive.