Here is some friendly advice, disguised as a bitch, for all you eager beaver college students (or anyone) who’ve just landed themselves a job. Advice which will make you unhated among your coworkers. First, don’t stand there rolling your eyes or interrupting with “ok, got it,” when you’re being told how to do something for the first time. Shut your face until they are done and then say “thank you.” Don’t start trying to impress your bosses on your very first or second day, by going ahead and changing anything that appears inefficient. Just concentrate on learning the basics of your job and get good at it. Once you’ve proved you can be a valued employee, maybe THEN you can start whipping out your amazing-ass ideas, that no one has ever thought of before. And finally, put away your FUCKING cell phone – unless you work in a job where there is a cell phone culture. Quick test – if you look around yourself and you are the only employee there texting away and everyone else is working their ass off? It might be time to fuck off. Unless you’re cool with being called Lazy McTexterson behind your back, save it for your breaks or when there is nothing else to do. —Angry McBitterson
This article appears in Sep 1-7, 2011.
With all the Mc’s the job must be McDonalds or the IRA.
“Then you can start whipping out your amazing-ass ideas, that no one has ever thought of before”……..duh, the newbie was there for a day and realized how incompetent the staff are so of course was bored of hearing you explain things that a moron would already know. ~ I think you feel threatened as they discovered you are useless.
Sometimes we say “ok, got it” or “uh huh” and nod because we’re trying to communicate the fact that we’re paying attention.
The eye rolling is another thing all together, though, so eh.
I’ve been working with students this week and I cringe when they tell me what they’re studying and it’s the same thing I did. I just want to point and laugh and say “AHHA good luck finding a job, dummy!”
In any event, I’m slowly becoming one of those jaded working joes who’s ‘post graduation eagerness’ is turning into the cold hard reality that this… this being getting up at the ass crack of dawn, commuting with 234234234 other asshats, working a job where I’m probably under appreciated and getting paid fuck all to do it… is it.
*stabs self in face*
Just give the eager beavers a little time. It’ll happen.
Whoa. Stabby McFacerton. 😛
Yeah, we had a guy who realized how incompetent we were once and made us all feel threatened. So I let him do something ‘his way’ once. It got all fucked up, the customer got screwed and waited twice as long for an issue to be resolved, and ‘smart guy who does it different in southern ontario’ doesn’t work here anymore…
lol I dunno OP, part of me wants to say that people like you are the reason no new ideas ever get implemented, or even given a change. Part of me agrees that new employees shouldn’t get too fucking comfortable too soon. And they shouldn’t be too quick to tell you how everyone could be more productive. That pisses me off. I’m on the fence.
Yeah, cranky, people really think they’re the first person to notice obvious fucking things, I’ll never understand that. I get it all the time.
You know, there *are* people out there who train new employees who SUCK AT IT.
I was trained once by this horrible woman who didn’t know shit about shit and got mad at us when we asked questions. On top of that she gave us guidelines to follow and when we said “these are great resources” she got mad at us for using them.
So….
And sometimes a fresh look at things isn’t such a bad idea.
try hiring cooks and showing them how to cook something on the menu “that’s not how we cooked it at so and so” well, i really don’t give a shit sparky, this is how WE cook it here
ah fuck, I used to totally dread NSCC or Holland College types coming in for work term. All of a sudden you have to double or triple the amount of time it takes to get shit done and yet minutes aren’t magically added to the clock. “ooh, check out the hot shot, he brought his own knives” ha ha
I disagree OP. I love it when employees, new or otherwise challenge the status quo. Fresh ideas are always good, maybe they won’t work but someone free of pre-conceived ideas often has a good perspective of a given situation.
I would get the employee in question to submit a written proposal of the idea, when they get a chance, by e-mail to all pertinent personnel. Let them know it will be reviewed and addressed in the next staff meeting. That way they feel like they’re contributing and it gives you a chance to see how much merit the idea has.
About a week ago I actually had a cashier at a Certain Tire store in Tantallon who was texting while I was getting money out of my wallet! Flabberghast!
Maaaan. Half the time you get bitched at for having no initiative and the other half you get bitched at for having too MUCH initiative.
It’s enough to give any new grad A FUCKING COMPLEX.
Make up your damn mind, employers!
Little known fact: Holland College is named for Captain Samuel Holland, first surveyor general of British North America (Canada). Originally, they were going to name the institute Samuel Holland Intstitue of Technology but thought better of it after realizing what the acronym would be, S.H.I.T.
tho, that would look good on a hoodie
Or screen-printed across the seat of your sweat pants lol
http://images.cheezburger.com/completestor…
I was thinking the bookbags…
yes, a bag of SHIT
AHAHAHA I LOVE YOU GUYS!
I smell call center on the OP. Ewwww.
I smell fag on you. Gross!
I’ve provided technical on the training for fresh graduates, and when I go through the details and ask them ‘got it?’, they always say ‘yes’. and ofcourse they should, they have taken all the necessary classes and should have gotten it.
A few hours or days later, they come back and ask me a question that proves that they didn’t get it…….so I have to repeat myself, then they get it. and they also learn an apreciation for experience.
education might be the meat but the seasoning is in the experience.
I agree 110%, GV.
usually, if something isn’t broken, you don’t try to fix it. i know fools that went against the norm, and it wound up costing more time and money, to try to show them their ideas just didn’t work, like they thought they would. you can only do so many things a certain way, either the right way, or the wrong way. and don’t try to improvise.
I double PK’s notion, GV. It’s true.
Students think they know everything and will tell people to do things that professionals and workers have already heard. Or they don’t take into account corporate or ethnic culture associated with certain things. When my co-horts went to Indian last year for our residency there was a handful of the wannabe-know-it-alls who felt necessary to share their opinions on how to do things – to people who had been doing different things for years. It’s like the recent grad who sits at a board meeting and tells a long-time professional shit they learned in a classroom that the pro has known for years, even decades.
“Wow, that’s so insightful! I have never heard that one before.”
“Look at my better mousetrap!”
We have a mousetrap.
“But mine is better!”
What does it do?
“It catches mice!”
they just haven’t realized yet that they’re nothing special. One unfortunate side effect of a university education is the sense of total intellectual entitlement that needs to be fired out a few times before they simmer down and realize they’re just another one of the herd.
Wunderkind? Actual wunderkind? You’re all good baby. You do whatever the hell you want. You just make sure you’re actually one first. Chances are you’re not.