What's a reasonable expectation for training and support?

cantdecide

This is a rant and ramble but I need to figure out if I've just been backing the wrong horses in my career. I've just handed in my notice in my job due to, what I consider to be, a distinct lack of reasonable training and support in a highly complex environment. I'm at the stage where I'm strongly considering a second round of re-training, which I can ill-afford in terms of time.

I was hired to work with a small consultancy on-site in a complex, multi-billion euro firm. When I was being interviewed, I was quite forthright about areas where I was weak (admin/ spreadsheets/ data etc) and I was happy to be a trainee and I was hired on that basis. I started knowing there was a lot to master in terms of microscopic, data-based detail involved in getting up to speed. I was told repeatedly that "it will take 6 months to get to grips with the job".

When I first arrived at the firm, I was given tons of high-level training and support and I really got the sense that there was a very good culture of support. Subsequently, those who gladly helped unfortunately left the company and very quickly, I found myself on-site under the management of an individual whom I found to be highly demanding and virtually unwilling to share knowledge, even at task-level. I was being expected to know subjective details of tasks I couldn't possibly know if I weren't told and remember, there are only two of us on-site. Soon, my learning slowed to a crawl, the pressure increased and getting basic information support became like pulling teeth, all down to one individual. I look back at things I subsequently mastered and think 'how could I possibly have known where to start'. I regard my manager's approach as 'pressure to self-train' rather than any kind of reasonable training or handover.

I've been around a long time and I used to be a coach/ trainer/ big brother to a large team in a much less complex environment. Nevertheless, this isn't the first time I've had this exact experience. I've found myself twice in an environment, dependent on an individual for direction from someone who would happily leave me spinning my wheels all day trying to find out what they could explain in a minute. There is a history of turnover of people in my role and my manager is known to rub people up the wrong way.

Is this just bad luck or is this just universal. I've had a few 70-hour weeks trying to detangle things that others would have taken great care to explain and hand over. I'm certain that I'm not being unreasonable in the sense that no one could have known the subjective things that I was expected to know, let alone getting a grounding in the subjective tools and systems unique to the environment. I pushed hard as I could but I'm depressed at the thought of having to face all of this again.

OMM 0000

It's universal.

Do you send e-mails to him asking him to explain x and y?

Do you send e-mails, cc'ing other stakeholders, explaining you need training in x and y to ensure you will meet the deadline?

Basically there is a way to get what you want by playing a bit of politics. You shift the blame to him and let others see his bad management is hindering the project.

beauf

Now you know why people left.

While I agree with the advice above you have to create a paper trail of where the responsibility lies. But ultimately I think a situation like this is unrecoverable if you are dealing with a personality like that. They don't change. It's the plot of loads of movies isn't it. The hero generally pulls some impossible task, the other person gets fired or becomes best friends. Never seen that in real life.

The only solution that keeps you in the job is if you can rapidly up skill by yourself. If that is not possible you then you're out of options. It's damage limitation at that point. It's about not spending long in a damaging situation.

I don't know how common it is but I have experienced this situation about 10% of the time. Most of the time it done as means of control and office politics. I've seen it train wreck projects and teams. Very destructive mindset.

cantdecide

OMM 0000 wrote: »

Basically there is a way to get what you want by playing a bit of politics.

I've actually dabbled with that once or twice in the past but it's highly inappropriate given that we're supposed to be a team of two contractors and it really galls me doing it. It's very much against my nature.

I'm depressed going in there every day. I've met this before but it's quite rare that you end up dependent on literally one difficult person.

I actually spotted the van driving job you posted on the Cork forum and if I thought the money could be okay, I'd happily do something like that or go back to stores work. Anything is better than death by data, at this point.

cantdecide

beauf wrote: »

The only solution that keeps you in the job is if you can rapidly up skill by yourself. If that is not possible you then you're out of options. It's damage limitation at that point. It's about not spending long in a damaging situation.

Thanks for your post. It makes me feel better to know it's not just me.

The worst part is with them, you'd think butter wouldn't melt. The last time this happened, I was sure I'd never seen that kind of thing before and thought I never would again and I've been enduring a copy and paste of the whole thing. I was astounded by the fact that you'd be given a large, new, complex task and you wouldn't get so much as a 'how are you getting on with that'.

You are right about the fact the only option I have is to get out. It's already unbearable and it's already been damaging to me. The only luck I had was that this time, I knew the writing was on the wall.

OMM 0000

cantdecide wrote: »

I've actually dabbled with that once or twice in the past but it's highly inappropriate given that we're supposed to be a team of two contractors and it really galls me doing it. It's very much against my nature.

I'm depressed going in there every day. I've met this before but it's quite rare that you end up dependent on literally one difficult person.

I actually spotted the van driving job you posted on the Cork forum and if I thought the money could be okay, I'd happily do something like that or go back to stores work. Anything is better than death by data, at this point.

I agree the politics stuff can be exhausting, and feels so unnecessary when in a small team, but what choice do you have? In my experience it's the only way to guarantee action.

If it's depressing you, I think you should leave.

How much savings do you have?

beauf

Office politics or putting the focus on the blocker only works if someone above is pro active. I've seen projects costing many hundreds of thousands and even small companies fail due to the actions of one or more blockers. I don't think I've ever seen a blocker chastised or penalised for blocking.

They tend to be people who create an impression they are very busy and important. So their managers rarely check what is actually getting done. Sometimes they are people who work hard but are dysfunctional in a team. Especially leading a team or project.

Only way past in my experience is to move laterally around the person or change job. Also avoid projects with them on it. Because you get associated with those projects even if you're not responsible for them.

OMM 0000

beauf wrote: »

Office politics or putting the focus on the blocker only works if someone above is pro active.

Ohhh good point.

I worked on an important project where the development team were faking unit tests, faking implementing functionality, faking bug fixing, faking their reports to project management... all easily provable... but the decision maker didn't give a ****, and no amount of proof or paper trail could make a difference.

I think in those situations, you just have to leave.

Or stop caring.

I, unfortunately, can't do the stop caring thing, so I had to leave.

Berserker

cantdecide wrote: »

I've actually dabbled with that once or twice in the past but it's highly inappropriate given that we're supposed to be a team of two contractors and it really galls me doing it. It's very much against my nature.

It'd tiring, demoralizing, .... but it's certainly not highly inappropriate. Given the conduct of your other team member, you are not a team, so you need to do what needs to be done to highlight these issues. I've no time for office politics, it was the primary reason why I left a very senior role and moved back into day-to-day development as a contractor (I just didn't need that nonsense in my life) but it is the biggest factor when it comes to moving and shaking in the working world.