My Path... Part 3

Cohort 12 turned out to be one of the most stressful and rewarding experiences of my working career. Management asked me to work with the group to see if the proposed mentor program outline would fit. They paired me with someone who begged to be part of the program. I was not the only one that felt uneasy about her getting selected, but this is what they gave me and I tried my best to make it work. I had a conversation with her and she told me that she wanted to be a trainer and that she would use this as a stepping stone and asked for my recommendation at the end of the project because and I quote 'for some reason they listen to you'. At that point I only asked her to be present when she was here, to actually put an effort and be present. She said she would do that.

She had already been working with the group and she was telling me that this group would be 'difficult' and that they were not as 'advanced' as other groups, that I would find it challenging and that I would not get along with one of them because she was abrasive. I had the chance to meet them the Friday before the program began, but I decided to not do that and wait until Monday. I didn't appreciate the scouting report and her trying to get these thoughts in my head, so I waited. We agreed to meet at 8:15 on Monday to introduce ourselves to the group.

It was Monday and I introduced myself and let them know the other person would arrive at 8:15 and we would make an announcement.  At 8:15 I started, gave them an introduction and run down of who I am and what I do. I explained that I felt responsible for all 8 of them; Adriana, Aldo, Cynthia, Janet, Maria, Rebekah, Sandra and Wendy told them that if they put in the effort, I would match them and help them pass probation. She decided to arrive at 8:40 and wanted to do the introduction. I told her I did mine and if she wanted to do that to go for it. It was at that moment that I knew she didn't really care about any of them.

I was helping the AM EW's: Aldo, Cynthia, Janet and Sandra. I had one on one meetings with them to see where they were and where they wanted to go. There were a few days that I had to get covered on my end and I had my friend Amilcar take care of those days. I covered for when she was out. For the first 4 weeks I would notice that the PM EW's were asking me a lot of questions early in the morning and one day the other person came over and asked me something about another project we were on, where she wanted to take the easy way out. After I told her to do what she felt was right, that I would handle the rest, no worries, I can help anyone get to where they need to be. 

One of the EW's started to tell me what was going on in the training. The other mentor was not really helpful, the perceived power this project gave her got to her head and she was rude and not open to anything. The tipping point for me to speak up was when I saw one of them who was in pain due to carpel tunnel issues, I asked her to take an extra break. When I talked to the other mentor I asked her if she had noticed that this EW was in pain and she said 'no'. 4 weeks!, 4 weeks and she didn't notice. I started hearing a lot more and I decided to speak to management to have them have a sit down with the OJT EW's so they can express what they felt. They did and the action taken was not something I would have done, but they decided and I went with it.

They decided to alternate us starting week 5. I thought this was the worst thing they could do. All the work I did with my group would be destroyed by her. So what I did was offer my services all day. That's what I did, I helped all 8 of them. They did not trust her for anything. I built up a few of them to the point where I knew they could block out the nonsense and do continue doing great and they did. I would send my weekly reports in with specific details that I knew she had no clue on. She would come to me to ask what was going on and read my reports so she could report her things. 

This all came to an explosive conversation we had.
We got into really bad, she told me that I 'set the bar too high' when all I asked of the group was to do what was asked of them, I never asked them to do more than what they were assigned. I pushed them to challenge themselves and they rose to the occasion. I envisioned the long term goal and where they needed to be to pass and asked them to meet me there. It took some more time than others, but they got there. 

I was with the group up until I went on leave, I kept in touch with the whole I was out because I didn't want them to feel that I had left them by themselves. 

I have mentioned this before, but it still is true. I was getting a bit burned out and disillusioned with everything, but this group and experience gave me a new energy and breathed a new life into me for work. So I had decided that during my leave, I would rebuild, redesign and reclaim my spot and do it with a different outlook and be more open with my peers.

One thing I was able to do that I took everyone aback was when I enlisted my cubicle neighbors Tim and Kathleen to decorate our cubicles for Halloween and Christmas. We went all out. It was awesome. 

So, like I said, I left on my bonding leave and on 3/1/18 I made my return.