Ah, newbie. Really?
I talked to my boss about newbie's poor performance on Tuesday. She said she was glad I spoke up, because she hadn't know how bad it was. It turned out that although she had finished the assignment on Sunday, as planned, she'd made another big error - she'd issued a 5 month parking permit when the maximum amount of time allowed is 3 months. My boss told me she'd write up an email to the temp. agency on Wednesday morning expressing our dissatisfaction.
Wednesday rolls around, and the e-mail is sent. It turns out to be a doubly-bad day for newbie; the CEO gave her a rather stern talking-to when she came in, forty minutes late to work. The lateness he could understand - one bad accident when you're coming from the other side of town can easily add half an hour or more to the commute - but the fact that she didn't call was bad. The funny bit? She did call. For some odd reason, she called me. I didn't get the message until much later, but everyone was baffled: why didn't she call the office to speak with someone who was actually working?
When I came in on Thursday, both the CEO and the boss told me in separate conversations that they wanted to eventually replace her, and they did NOT want to use the temp agency if they could avoid it. I have a few candidates in mind - thank goodness for social networks! - and told them I'd try to get some resumes in over the weekend. It's all hypothetical at this point, though - they don't want to get rid of newbie until after I get back from my Alaska trip, and who knows? If she manages to turn things around in the next few weeks they might just decide to keep her.
But I wonder if she will...
On Friday, there was an event. I told her twice to make sure that the party host either gave her a payment check at the end of the night or signed the receipt with the total. When I got in, not only had newbie failed to get either check or signature, she hadn't even filled out the receipt. She didn't write down an ending time for the party, or total up the bill - and there was no way for me to check what time the party ended, because for some odd reason she doesn't clock in and out when she's on site. She waits to get home to do it. That seems fishy to me, but I guess my boss doesn't care.
So when she came in this afternoon, I asked her to please finish filling out the receipt. This is when I learned that she doesn't know how to count time. If a party goes from 4:00pm to 9:00pm, that's five hours. Right? Really simple. But to figure this out, she had to log into her account with her temp. agency and input the times into their timecard system. (Funny, she still didn't clock in, even when that was open right in front of her face!) Whatever number it told her, she wrote down. So she forgot to specify AM and PM, and the computer told her the party was 16 hours long, and she didn't even blink.
I mean, good grief. That's just common sense!
Wednesday rolls around, and the e-mail is sent. It turns out to be a doubly-bad day for newbie; the CEO gave her a rather stern talking-to when she came in, forty minutes late to work. The lateness he could understand - one bad accident when you're coming from the other side of town can easily add half an hour or more to the commute - but the fact that she didn't call was bad. The funny bit? She did call. For some odd reason, she called me. I didn't get the message until much later, but everyone was baffled: why didn't she call the office to speak with someone who was actually working?
When I came in on Thursday, both the CEO and the boss told me in separate conversations that they wanted to eventually replace her, and they did NOT want to use the temp agency if they could avoid it. I have a few candidates in mind - thank goodness for social networks! - and told them I'd try to get some resumes in over the weekend. It's all hypothetical at this point, though - they don't want to get rid of newbie until after I get back from my Alaska trip, and who knows? If she manages to turn things around in the next few weeks they might just decide to keep her.
But I wonder if she will...
On Friday, there was an event. I told her twice to make sure that the party host either gave her a payment check at the end of the night or signed the receipt with the total. When I got in, not only had newbie failed to get either check or signature, she hadn't even filled out the receipt. She didn't write down an ending time for the party, or total up the bill - and there was no way for me to check what time the party ended, because for some odd reason she doesn't clock in and out when she's on site. She waits to get home to do it. That seems fishy to me, but I guess my boss doesn't care.
So when she came in this afternoon, I asked her to please finish filling out the receipt. This is when I learned that she doesn't know how to count time. If a party goes from 4:00pm to 9:00pm, that's five hours. Right? Really simple. But to figure this out, she had to log into her account with her temp. agency and input the times into their timecard system. (Funny, she still didn't clock in, even when that was open right in front of her face!) Whatever number it told her, she wrote down. So she forgot to specify AM and PM, and the computer told her the party was 16 hours long, and she didn't even blink.
I mean, good grief. That's just common sense!