We brought you in because you were recommended to us by a friend. Your background seemed so “cham” (sorry) because your father had passed away and you had to get a job quite quickly after completing your tertiary education to help support your mother. Plus you were an intern with a reputable newspaper so writing was not a problem with you.
You seemed like an all-rounder: being active in outdoor sports, and extra-curricular activities, including organizing college events and such. It didn’t hurt that you knew how to present yourself well. You seemed like a good fit. I still recall that my boss was PERPETUALLY smiling throughout the interview. “Wow,” I thought, “this candidate really impressed him. She MUST be quite good.”
So you came in. I was pleased to have an able person to help.
You said you were keen to learn, and so we allocated jobs accordingly: let you meet the clients from the first day, brought you up to scale on the various materials we had to prepare, and taught you the delicate nuances in managing and advising clients. We even let you take charge of a new client – while always being by your side in your on-the-job training. We knew that you were lacking in some hard skills (as I was when I came in), so we encouraged you to read some of the books that would help you progress.
Then it seemed like your keenness disappeared, your energy dissipated. I don’t know when it started. Suddenly we realized that you were more lacklustre, nonchalant, not bothered. And whenever we walked past your computer screen we’d see you chatting on your IM and logged on to your facebook. I mean, if you had nothing to deliver – fine, goof around. But if we were expecting some things, it was rather surprising, to say the least.
Where did we go wrong? Did we exclude you? Did we leave you in the lurch? Did we expect too much of you? Were we too detailed and critical in reviewing work? (We can’t help that, you have seen how fussy some clients can be! And we position ourselves as market leader so all of us HAVE to deliver!)
You are part of this team, and you have a part to play in determining the atmosphere in this place. If this is a horrible place to work in, ASK YOURSELF WHY.
Your acute and consistent rudeness whenever we spoke to you because such a bane to us; so much so that we felt so mean for correcting you, but couldn’t live it down if we didn’t correct you. Much worse were those times you just 'zoned out' whenever we tried to involve you in discussions; your demeanour said that all this was worthless, meaningless, boring. We saw you trying to stifle yawns at client meetings.
On the contrary, we noticed that your eyes would light up whenever someone mentioned a new place to eat, or a new movie, or some weekend activity. Nothing wrong with that. I just wish you could demonstrate some degree of enthusiasm where work was concerned.
Is it not exciting that you have direct access to the CEOs, MDs and top management of public-listed companies to give counsel on their business strategies? Don’t you find it thrilling that the work you do literally places words in the mouths of decision-makers and has the power to shape public perceptions? Haven’t you found out that it is quite satisfying to have your client and boss commend you for jobs well done?
Look, I don’t expect you to be a workaholic like me. But at least we expect you to take pride in your work and pursue excellence so that the company is synonymous with positive reputation. And your efforts will pay off, believe you me. Things DO look different when you strive to do your best.
We don’t expect you to be perfect and know everything. No one is. But in the event that you don’t know, you have to ASK. As much as we have tried to help you along, in many cases you refused to help yourself by choosing to keep quiet whenever you didn’t understand, or be defensive when we asked you the rationale of certain things. We were here to help as friends. You treated us like the enemy. It was very hard-going for us.
I hope you realize that you are at the losing end. You will never improve if you don’t take on jobs that are too big for you and fit yourself to them. You are only 21, for goodness sake, it’s the best time for you to learn and make mistakes. But no. you wanted to show everyone you knew everything. Your own self-pride let you down.
Personally, I’m not angry that you chose to quit. I am more DISAPPOINTED that a person who had so much potential decided that it was enough just to “get by” with shoddy work and still expect to earn top dollar. Haven’t you figured out by now that even a homemaker works hard at her vocation?
I am so disappointed in you that I really am not sorry to see you leave. I just wish you knew where you’d gone wrong and be a better person.
SIGH.
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