New co-worker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the majority. I have been in my office over 10 years and thus have trained many, many people. It is my nature to be helpful and I enjoy training people. However, the work we do is complex and it takes several months of intense training in addition to follow up questions after that in order to learn how to do the work. I've found that two things happen - 1) the person I've trained leaves after I train them I get stuck doing the work again, and/or 2) the person ends up getting promoted while I am actually supporting much of their work. I don't mean to be cynical, but all the time I spend training takes away from time that could be invested in new ideas and projects, and ultimately slows my career growth. Now I refer trainees to other sources and minimally train on those things they can only learn from me. I do try to document any training I provide so that it will be available for the next person. If I was recognized more for providing training, I might have a different approach, but I refuse to continue to hinder my own career growth for someone who will leave by the time they figure out how to do the work.

+1

I used to be very helpful, very capable even if something wasn't my area until I realized people were taking advantage. I sadly learned I had to sometimes play clueless. No, I'm not sure how to run xyz report, I think this may be the document or the underlying data structure, so sorry I wish I could help more. Oh, you don't gave access to do x, oh let's make sure you get the request in to John. Oh, I learned after people had me doing stuff they COULD do themselves but it was easier to ask me to do it, meanwhile I could work overtime every weekend and still not be done because I was the new person coming into an area that had the most issues.

So bottom line, I will always share documentation, I will answer questions, but I will not do what you can do yourself or spend inordinate amounts of time helping if they don't seem inspired to help themselves and it can't be to the detriment of meeting my deadlines.

[Anonymous]

+1 to above.
I think of pointing people to documentation, etc. as "teaching people how to fish" rather than "giving them a fish"--more efficient use of my time, and builds their problem-solving skills.

I think it also depends on the group / organization--in some settings, the time spent on training / mentoring others is acknowledged and valued in various ways. In other settings, not so much.

Regardless, it's a balancing act...