topic Re: People today amaze me. in Community Chat

People today amaze me.

KathyPet — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:33:36 GMT

My daughter is the head paralegal at a firm of patent lawyers. Recently they hired a new Jr. Paralegal. Since it was a Jr. Position they did not require prior patent law experience. The woman they hired was in her late 20's with no patent law experience. My daughter had to train her. Now all of you who have ever had to train a new employee know that when you are training someone you cannot get your work done nearly as quickly because you have to slow down and explain what you are doing in detail. The first week goes by and the training will last another week. Meanwhile my daughter is staying late so she can keep up with her work load. The following Monday this new employee walks in and notifies my daughter that she is resigning because she received a offer from another law firm that she had also interviewed with when she was interviewing with my daughter's firm and the second offer is closer to her home. Now here's the kicker. She gave two weeks notice. HEr new job start date was two weeks away so she actually thought she could stay at my daughter's firm for the two weeks so she would get paid until her new job started. Now remember she is in training and has not done a lick of work on her own. Her training would last another week so she expects to be able to stay and continue to be trained for a job she is never going to do there while my daughter takes her time from her work to do this. Needless to say the hiring attorney told her she could simply leave immediately and no she was not getting paid for the two weeks notice time. My daughter said she got quite huffy when she was told to hit the bricks.

Re: People today amaze me.

mstyrion 1 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:40:39 GMT

I don't think this this scenario is all that unusual.

The new employee got a better offer and took it. It is considered good form to give a two week notice. Law firms traditionally don't let people serve out the two weeks and have the terminating employee go immediately. The only thing I see that is worth criticism is the new employee being miffed she's not getting paid for the two weeks. She was too new for that.

Re: People today amaze me.

missy1 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:41:25 GMT

She probably wanted your daughter to still train her, for her "other" job. I bet she won't tell them she had this job.

Re: People today amaze me.

bri20 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:43:40 GMT

People are bold - they want to see what they can get away with.

Re: People today amaze me.

Tinkrbl44 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 22:10:18 GMT

People are strange .... and it's good the hiring attorney told her to leave. I don't know if it's possible, but it seems like your daughter shouldn't be responsible for 100% of the training for the next person. Aren't there other paralegals? If she IS responsible for 100% of the training, she should be able to shift at least part of her workload to others. JMO

Re: People today amaze me.

Kachina624 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:45:11 GMT

@missy1 wrote:
She probably wanted your daughter to still train her, for her "other" job. I bet she won't tell them she had this job.

Word has a way of getting around.

Re: People today amaze me.

Plaid Pants2 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:48:40 GMT

Maybe she'll be happy at her new job, and will fit in beautifully there.

I can't fault her for wanting to take a job that's closer to home.

Who wants to spend more time in a car communting?

Re: People today amaze me.

Hayfield — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:51:58 GMT

I guess I don't understand why your daughter, since she was the head paralegal, had to train this new person. In all my work experience of over 40 years, they usually have one of the other workers train them, not the head person.

Re: People today amaze me.

mstyrion 1 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:53:42 GMT

@Tinkrbl44 wrote:
People are strange .... and it's good the hiring attorney told her to leave. I don't know if it's possible, but it seems like your daughter shouldn't be responsible for 100% of the training for the next person. Aren't there other paralegals? Is she IS responsible for 100% of the training, she should be able to shift at least part of her workload to others. JMO

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I would thik that as "head" paralegal, part of the job duties would be the training of new hires. If the title head paralegal comes with more salary than the other paralegals, training and getting your own work done would be the trade-off for the higher pay.

Re: People today amaze me.

Yardlie — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:54:57 GMT

I've heard of this situation many times. The usual response is for the boss to tell the person that they can leave immediately...without pay. It only seems fair to me. Why should you invest anymore time in "training" a new employee who is leaving?

Re: People today amaze me.

missy1 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:02:51 GMT

So that employee will be out out a paycheck for a month+, yikes.

Re: People today amaze me.

millieshops — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:12:53 GMT

You get nothing much in the business world that you don't ask for. I fault the new employee only for getting huffy when she was asked to leave.

The hiring attorney was correct to ask her to leave.

I don't know who to fault for OP's daughter being overworked by having to train the potential new employee. If she's head of the department and getting paid more than other workers - that increase may account for the extra work load.

If not, then she, too, has to speak up to her superior - or as department head, do some reassigning of tasks. She may not get the relief she wants, but it sounds obvious she's not getting relief if she doesn't ask - and she's going to find herself in the same situation very soon again.

Re: People today amaze me.

occasionalrain — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:19:25 GMT

The new employee was remiss in thinking she would be kept on for the two weeks. She should have waited to give it until the Friday prior to the Monday she would begin her new position.

Re: People today amaze me.

Tadaki — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:24:54 GMT

@occasionalrain wrote:
The new employee was remiss in thinking she would be kept on for the two weeks. She should have waited to give it until the Friday prior to the Monday she would begin her new position.

Yes, this would have been the best move for her since she will probably not include this job on her resume.

Re: People today amaze me.

Helen852 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:30:16 GMT

In my experience, if you're leaving your job to go to a so called competitor, you are usually asked to leave immediately. Had she just given 2 weeks notice and not told them where she was going, she may have gotten away with being paid and getting the additional training.

Have seen many people walked out of the job for doing just that.

Re: People today amaze me.

deepwaterdotter — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:32:07 GMT

I have read many posts here regarding the difficulty of securing a job in the prevailing job market. It is fortuitous that this woman was able to obtain employment with two different law firms without any previous experience in the field.

Re: People today amaze me.

BlingQueen022 — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:32:10 GMT

I think that girl made the right decision to take the other job from what I've read here.

Re: People today amaze me.

KentuckyWoman — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:36:48 GMT

I think that happens a lot. I worked for a Fortune 500 corporation. We would hire someone out of college and if they resigned before their sixty day probation was up, they were released immediately. It takes time and money to train people. If they find another job for more money or better location that's fine, but where I worked if you did that you were gone the same day you turned in your notice.

Re: People today amaze me.

CelticCrafter — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 17:17:21 GMT

My daughter is a manager at a corporate owned (not franchised) restaurant and sees it all the time.

Whether you are an internal promotion or an external hire with prior management experience, all newly promoted or hired managers go through 3 months of training and a lot of them don't even last three months once they finish the program.

Re: People today amaze me.

Maudelynn — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 16:42:16 GMT

@Tadaki wrote:
@occasionalrain wrote:
The new employee was remiss in thinking she would be kept on for the two weeks. She should have waited to give it until the Friday prior to the Monday she would begin her new position.
Yes, this would have been the best move for her since she will probably not include this job on her resume.

Sorry to disagree. The young lady was trying to do what she thought was the right thing- giving her employer 2 weeks notice. The employer did what they thought was the right thing- asking her leave that day. No harm, no foul.