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As a young person I had a job at a computer repair shop. I might have been 19 years old. They did a 1 day working interview. I impressed them heavily with 10 re
by geocrasher 3y ago
As a young person I had a job at a computer repair shop. I might have been 19 years old. They did a 1 day working interview. I impressed them heavily with 10 repairs in the day, all of them solid and billable. They hired me. I was alarmed when they also hired a guy that blew up a customer's motherboard by plugging in the PSU cables incorrectly (This was the in the mid 90's).
It went downhill from there. I became the target of a lot of bullying and harassment from the alpha jackass, leader of the coked up jackasses that worked there, and eventually he gave me a degrading nickname that implied that everything I touched broke.
I was constantly stressed out, felt like the worst employee in the world (at that age I didn't know I was the victim at this point) and this self-fulfilling prophecy just made things worse. Suddenly I'd become bad at my job. I couldn't fix 5 computers a day, and they often came back with problems.
Was this issue me? No. the issue was a highly toxic workplace where I was berated for my successes ("Oh look, he fixed one, must be a F****n miracle") and expected to fail.
I'd have quit, but I needed the work. The manager, a lowlife cokehead and strip club aficionado, mercy fired me 2 months in. He saw the problem but didn't care to fix it. Of course, I was better off. They were a crooked shop to begin with and my reputation was at risk for having worked there even 2 months.
Many years later I am a well respected manager who never treats employees like this. I am well aware that if my employee is failing me, then in some way I am failing them. I work on the relationship with the employee as much as I work on the issue. I encourage their successes, help them work through any issues, and show confidence in them until they start showing confidence in themselves.
I can honestly say this approach has worked wonders, and I've seen huge HUGE turnarounds in employees who thought they could never make it. Now they're rock stars.
- namaria 3y agoSometimes a crash course on how not to do things is a most effective form of education...
- LoganDark 3y agoDefinitely not in this case.
- namaria 3y agoNo follow up?
- LoganDark 3y ago"I was constantly stressed out, felt like the worst employee in the world". Doesn't sound like a good education. I've been told what not to do before in a way that doesn't make me feel worthless - something was clearly wrong with that "alpha jackass", as they so succinctly put it.
- namaria 3y agoNever claimed it was 'good' > Many years later I am a well respected manager who never treats employees like this. Sounds like it was effective to me.
- geocrasher 3y agoSorry, no, it wasn't effective at anything except making me miserable. I didn't become a good manager because of that experience. I became despite it. I have had great mentors along the way and I've learned the right way to treat people even when they aren't at their best. I've never reflected on that experience in any kind of positive light. I appreciate what you're trying to say, but you are wrong.
- namaria 3y agoFair, we disagree then. The way it looks from the story and the way it feels from your experience can certainly be different and without control talking about "sorry you're wrong" is more ego than reason.
- geocrasher 3y agoNo ego, friend. Just being straightforward about it.
- gumby 3y ago> I am well aware that if my employee is failing me, then in some way I am failing them. I have had to fire people over the years, of course, but whenever it gets that far I feel terrible that it got to that point, that how this person was managed is a failure for the company and the departing employee. I hope it’s obvious that none of this is expressed to the person being fired — they are miserable enough about their situation and don’t care about the company any more, if they ever did. Always there is a post mortem: did we hire the wrong person — if so what could we have done better? As for the management — again, what could we have done better? BTW I’m sorry you had to deal with that horrible experience. At least it was only two months.
- itronitron 3y agoI was a rockstar at each of my previous employers except the last one, and consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to quit before being fired. So naturally, during my exit interview I had only positive things to say about the experience but it was by far the most restrictive and toxic workplace I've worked at. How was it toxic? A general lack of respect, or interest, for people's time and ability/talent which was made clear through various policies and the behavior of a few assholes. You won't find the answers you need by doing a post-mortem.
- gumby 3y ago> You won't find the answers you need by doing a post-mortem. It's really the only opportunity since if you had the answers beforehand perhaps the person would not have been "let go". If your point is that post mortems aren't that great, I agree. It's like debugging a crash dump rather than a live process. But sometimes the core dump is all you have.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jahewson 3y ago> I couldn't fix 5 computers a day, and they often came back with problems. Totally possible they were sabotaging your work. Good riddance!