training

Of course, like almost everything, training can be meant in many different ways. Though when you get a job, and they say you'll be given a thorough training before you can start to work, you hope to receive precious professional information which you can then use in your day to day work, and not to be trained to get used to the complete chaos that rules the whole place, from the very beginning. Now, you don't want to give this latter to your new employee, do you?

Why is it important not only to say that you are provided all the details you need to fulfill your daily tasks, but really give it all to the one who arrives as a freshman to the company. I know, it might seem strange why I feel like explaining it at all, but from experience I can tell that most companies I had the unluck to work for recently, are obviously not aware of the most basic things that applies to professional trainings.

At most places they tell you about the company itself, but you can actually read about them on their own web sites, which you most likely do before you apply for a job at them, and go to the interview. Then they might give you a basic course in the professional area you'll be working in, like IT, financials etc.

However when it comes to the customer whom you will work with all the time, you very rarely even hear about them before you start. It's shocking how little they let you know, and the reasoning is that you can only learn about it in practice. Well, I can tell you that your colleagues who already work there, have very rarely any time, if at all, to explain things to you.

If you're lucky, you get some descriptions to read through. But you definitely won't be able to search through them when you get a call, and have measured time to answer. Or if not so, then simply an impatient customer, since they only contact you when they have a problem, and need immediate or ASAP help.

Whenever I had the chance to write training materials or teach newbies, I've always done it as thoroughly as I could, because I thought, this way I made it easier also for myself. You have to think about it as a unique chance, as later on neither you or your new colleague won't have as much time as then, to go through the necessary things you need to know to do your job.

So it happened, that once they sent me abroad to teach the new team without very detailed information, as we'd never been given them by the 2nd level team. Anyhow, to make the best out of it, I talked about the daily tasks, and how we are able to perform them. Gave them all the little tricks and nuances which you can only learn from practice. And, what I had to go through myself a few times, I didn't make it difficult for them, just because I lost my job. I knew it was not their decision.

I also use such opportunities to brush up my own knowledge. You simply don't have a better way to go through all the things, as in your day to day work you don't face all of the issues every single day. And one more thing which is crucial - I've always asked if it was understandable, and used practical examples to make it easier to see how it works, and why it is important in the big picture.

In my last job I worked on both 1st and 2nd level, though when I started there, I only received a crash course about the first one. And I was told I was lucky to get that. Well, since I pretty soon had to go over to 2nd level, I didn't feel like that. Also because then I had to learn everything by myself, from the customers (a very bad thing), or maybe if I got really lucky, little snippets from my colleagues. I don't think I have to explain why I felt this was pretty frustrating. Not only for me, but also for the customers, and for my colleagues.

Once, I was the only Norwegian speaker in a Nordic support team I started to work in. The others, who all spoke Swedish, were so enthusiastic that they used it all the time to communicate even with each other. I agreed, after all Swedish is very similar to Norwegian, though it's still not the same language, and when you are to learn new things, it might be rather important to understand everything clearly. So, I still don't understand why I had to ask them to tell me things in English instead, and why I even caused troubled faces, and some rather hostile behavior by having done so.

And finally, maybe the most fantastic excuse I've ever heard for not teaching newcomers for what they actually should be doing at work, coming right from my equally fantastic boss "What's wrong with asking the customers to hold the line, or telling them you call them back?" Well, when the phone is ringing all day long, and also emails are pouring in into your mailbox without a pause, then there's simply no time to call them back. So, either you give all the info that someone needs to do the job, before they start, or you're fucked up! Simple as that.