Re: People today amaze me.

missy1 · ‎03-10-2010

Will your daughter train the next one?

Melania · ‎06-12-2013

@KathyPet wrote:
@Melania wrote:
Hmm...if the daughter was training her it would be her responsibility to make sure the hire was doing the work. So who really is too blame?

If the hire didn't do the work it was the daughter's job to report it to her superiors as it will fall back on her if the person stayed and didn't know how to do the work it falls back on the trainer/daughter.
It would also be her job to let them know this person wasn't a good fit whether superiors liked it or not. It' called CYA.

THis is Beyond belief. ONce again this is somehow my daughter's fault????? Are you people even reading my post. THis was a brand new employee who knew nothing about patent law and how to process the patent applications that come in. IT is a very complex and intricate process that has paperwork and processing requirements that are very specific and detailed since all the documents get submitted to the US Patent Office and one mistake can cause the entire application to be rejected. It takes a long time to get someone trained to understand and follow all the requirements exactly as they are specified. She was sitting with my daughter and my daughter was walking her through the various steps she had to follow for the different kinds of patent applications. THere are many different requirements and this is not something that a one size fits all approach can be applied to. The training period was expected to last two weeks and then she would start to,process simple applications with all of her work being checked before submission. A mistake could cause the entire application to be rejected and then it would need to be resubmitted with a new application fee needing to be paid to the Patent Office. THese application fees can run a lot of money and the applicant pays them but if the law firm makes a error then the law firm eats the second fee. We are not talking about making sandwiches in a school cafeteria here.
I can't believe that people are somehow holding my daughter responsible for this dingbat woman's decision to take another job and then to expect to stay two weeks so she would not be without a pay check when she was not even contributing anything.

Show me where I said that or anyone else here did.

YOU want vindication for your daughter doing HER job...her job, her responsibilities.

No one has control over what another employee will do. Not you or your daughter...she did her job. It wasn't her fault what happened but you want a pound of flesh.

Say Nay · ‎03-12-2010

@KathyPet wrote:
@Melania wrote:
Hmm...if the daughter was training her it would be her responsibility to make sure the hire was doing the work. So who really is too blame?

If the hire didn't do the work it was the daughter's job to report it to her superiors as it will fall back on her if the person stayed and didn't know how to do the work it falls back on the trainer/daughter.
It would also be her job to let them know this person wasn't a good fit whether superiors liked it or not. It' called CYA.

THis is Beyond belief. ONce again this is somehow my daughter's fault????? Are you people even reading my post. THis was a brand new employee who knew nothing about patent law and how to process the patent applications that come in. IT is a very complex and intricate process that has paperwork and processing requirements that are very specific and detailed since all the documents get submitted to the US Patent Office and one mistake can cause the entire application to be rejected. It takes a long time to get someone trained to understand and follow all the requirements exactly as they are specified. She was sitting with my daughter and my daughter was walking her through the various steps she had to follow for the different kinds of patent applications. THere are many different requirements and this is not something that a one size fits all approach can be applied to. The training period was expected to last two weeks and then she would start to,process simple applications with all of her work being checked before submission. A mistake could cause the entire application to be rejected and then it would need to be resubmitted with a new application fee needing to be paid to the Patent Office. THese application fees can run a lot of money and the applicant pays them but if the law firm makes a error then the law firm eats the second fee. We are not talking about making sandwiches in a school cafeteria here.
I can't believe that people are somehow holding my daughter responsible for this dingbat woman's decision to take another job and then to expect to stay two weeks so she would not be without a pay check when she was not even contributing anything.

This made me cringe. Believe it or not even those sandwich makers have specific criteria to meet. As someone in the legal profession I don't consider what I do to be superior to those in other fields. It's a skill. Nothing more.

Almost all paralegals are exempt employees and long hours are expected. Turnover for entry level paralegals is very high. Most are "gobsmacked" by the harsh treatment they receive, especially in the larger firms. It can be brutal. I don't blame young paralegals who leave after a few months or even weeks. Unlike what is depicted in the movies there's very little that's glamorous about what the legal world has to offer.

FYI for years I worked every NYE because contracts needed to be executed prior to NYD. If I didn't like their policy I knew where the exit door was.

_____ ,,,^ ._. ^,,,_____

Graciesmom · ‎08-13-2010

Kathypet ... You're correct ... IT work is tedious and very complex and I am sure your daughter needed to vent about the situation ... I would too !! To spend all that time training someone while trying to keep up with your own routine and responsibilities would cause a little anxiety for anyone, but then after putting in the time to have the trainee announce sorry ... I got a better offer ... Thanks for everything but I'll be moving on now ... is a slap in the face !! I would want to tell someone about it too ... Someone who can sympathize and offer some comforting comments ... Like my Mom. It's always more personal when it's one of our own ... and I know this doesn't correct the situation with your daughter ... but you are a FABULOUS Mom for listening, understanding and caring.

Everyone commenting here is seeing your daughter's situation from their own individual perspective as either employee, employer, trainee or trainor, HRdirector, etc. or however they can relate. So you have a compendium of responses ... but I must admit, the girl your daughter trained was a bit careless and sloppy in the way she handled herself and the situation. Certainly not as a professional.

nun ya · ‎03-09-2010

@bri20 wrote:
She didn't do anything wrong by accepting another job.

The only thing she did wrong was assume her employer was going to keep her on until the other job started. At least she told them she accepted another job instead of not showing up for work.

I agree!!

She could have accepted the other position and not said a word.

Worked 2 weeks, got paid for that, and never showed back up.

CalminHeart · ‎03-09-2010

This happens every day in workplaces all over the country, probably the world. It's part of doing business. I don't know how old your daughter is but she needs to get used to it.

I worked for one of the largest insurance companies in the country for 38 years, most in management, and just retired. It is normal for trainers/leaders/managers to have to stay late to get their own work done. That's what it means to be the head person on any team.

Now, I'm not saying all this is the right way to do things. But this is what employers expect from people these days. If they are salaried, they are not held to a 40 hour week. Businesses will chew a person up and spit them out but still expect them to get their work done.

Big business has way too much control over peoples' lives, among other things.

CalminHeart · ‎03-09-2010

@KathyPet wrote:
@Melania wrote:
Hmm...if the daughter was training her it would be her responsibility to make sure the hire was doing the work. So who really is too blame?

If the hire didn't do the work it was the daughter's job to report it to her superiors as it will fall back on her if the person stayed and didn't know how to do the work it falls back on the trainer/daughter.
It would also be her job to let them know this person wasn't a good fit whether superiors liked it or not. It' called CYA.

THis is Beyond belief. ONce again this is somehow my daughter's fault????? Are you people even reading my post. THis was a brand new employee who knew nothing about patent law and how to process the patent applications that come in. IT is a very complex and intricate process that has paperwork and processing requirements that are very specific and detailed since all the documents get submitted to the US Patent Office and one mistake can cause the entire application to be rejected. It takes a long time to get someone trained to understand and follow all the requirements exactly as they are specified. She was sitting with my daughter and my daughter was walking her through the various steps she had to follow for the different kinds of patent applications. THere are many different requirements and this is not something that a one size fits all approach can be applied to. The training period was expected to last two weeks and then she would start to,process simple applications with all of her work being checked before submission. A mistake could cause the entire application to be rejected and then it would need to be resubmitted with a new application fee needing to be paid to the Patent Office. THese application fees can run a lot of money and the applicant pays them but if the law firm makes a error then the law firm eats the second fee. We are not talking about making sandwiches in a school cafeteria here.
I can't believe that people are somehow holding my daughter responsible for this dingbat woman's decision to take another job and then to expect to stay two weeks so she would not be without a pay check when she was not even contributing anything.

Your daughter is the head paralegal. That makes a lot of things her responsiblity. It's called working in the real world. You and she may not like it but that's how the work world operates these days.

No one said the person's decision to leave was your daughter's fault. What I am saying is that this scenario is common. I can't even count the number of people I trained over the years, some left, some stayed. That's life. Your daughter needs to get used to it or find a job where she's not in charge of anything and is promised she'll never have to work overtime.

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@Graciesmom,

The OP is certainly a caring mom. But I see in her OP what my own mother did, and while it's understandable and commendable to a point, it's questionable whether posting here in the way she has in this thread has been beneficial in the way she'd hoped, because the way you feel about what happens to someone close to you does not necessarily relate to reality.

Her daughter didn't become a head paralegal by being a whiny wuss. She very likely knows what's what in reality and was just using her mom as a sympathetic sounding board. It's mom's extra-exuberant, righteous support of her daughter that has caused some of the responses to the OP.

My mother would do the same. If I vented to her a little, she would become "outraged" at my treatment, the situation, etc. and freely offer opinions and advice without having a clue what the realities of the situation were. Her unconditional support was nice in one way and annoying in another. It got to the point that I could no longer vent to her because the not having a clue was more irritating than me saying nothing about it. She had been part of the working world herself, but not for 50 years, so to say she was out of touch with things was putting it mildly.

What has happened in the thread is that people are responding to the work situation the "mother" describes as ridiculously unfair *to her child*, and the responses have been based on her child being just another worker, which she IS to everyone else. The disconnect from mom is part of what's happened in the thread.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all