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Post by serrakunda on Sept 29, 2015 11:58:27 GMT
So to add to my underperforming apprentice that I line manage, I now have DW, a new fast track apprentice. These apprentices come in a grade higher and as the name fast track implies, they are supposed to be super whizzy, top managers of the future type people.
Within 30 minutes of his arrival, he had divulged to most of the office information that you really shouldn't tell anyone, let alone your new manager, on your first day, if ever.
We have established that he is an 'anxious' person, he has no social skills or filter, fixates on things that don't matter, etc etc. I think he is highly likely to be aspi/ASD. The two most senior managers here, with relevant experience of such matters, agree with me. Speaking as a manager, quite frankly he is a pain in the posterior and will be very difficult to manage.
Speaking as a mum to the lovely but most definitely ASD Simba, is this how he will be perceived in the workplace ?
Now if DW had declared this, assuming he knows, and assuming we are right, then we would be dealing with things differently, he certainly wouldn't be a fast track apprentice, a normal apprenticeship would be more suitable and have lower expectations, and therefore less anxiety. It wouldn't stop him progressing to the dizzy heights if he is capable, it would just take him longer, so not discriminatory in terms of his access to opportunities
Interesting things to ponder on in my quiet moments
hey ho !!!
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Post by serrakunda on Sept 29, 2015 17:33:22 GMT
If only we knew, it's a central process, you get who you are given
He clearly has some 'issues'. I assigned him two weekly tasks today, one to be done on Mondays, one on Tuesday's. He says he feels anxious and overwhelmed
My job share partner also got into a raging argument with mad boss, in the team meeting, I was sat in between
Sometimes it makes home seem like an oasis of calm
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Post by mudlark on Sept 29, 2015 21:30:00 GMT
If he does have an invisible disability it would be a shame for him to waste his moment. Is there room to shift him around a bit, get him mentored by someone sensible and senior..it;s a bit like school when our little ones need to feel safe and have a go to person... could you think about it in that way...cos it sounds like he needs is! interesting! you could see it as a very informative and productive experiment. let us know how he gets on.
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Post by serrakunda on Sept 29, 2015 21:51:16 GMT
I think that someone sensible and senior is supposed to be me!!!
As as organisation, DFE is quite good at supporting disability, I have a colleague who is blind, she has special software etc, facilities staff take the guide dog out for walks, she gets support for taxi costs to get her to work.
Problem is DW hasn't declared anything, so we cannot make reasonable adjustments. But bottom line is, he has been appointed at a certain grade, gets the pay, and so has to perform at that level, I can't carry a member of staff and expect everyone else, who are at a lower grade, to pick up the slack
We had someone in the team recently with ADHD. He voluntarily downgraded himself, but ultimately he couldn't do the job he was employed to do, after a lot of support he was medically retired.
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Post by moo on Sept 30, 2015 5:37:42 GMT
Oh heck serrakunda as if you needed an extra hand to hold & steer around, what with your demented boss an' all....
Meeting sounds a nightmare hope you were madly visualising the allotment on a beautiful summer day xxxxx hugs it all just sounds far too bonkers for words...
Xx moo xx
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Post by serrakunda on Sept 30, 2015 16:53:22 GMT
Strike the word 'interesting'...............
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 7, 2015 19:30:58 GMT
So it has been decided that I cannot meet him alone to protect me from false allegations
Apparently I scare him because I have a soft voice, I am intimidating and remind him of his old headteacher, it seems I ask him to do things, i kind of thought he was here to work, he is saying that the staff conference he went on two weeks drove him to the verge of suicide , that's definitely nothing to do with me I wasn't there,
Hey ho
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Post by damson on Oct 7, 2015 19:47:24 GMT
He sounds like someone who should not make it through a probationary period. HR should be trotting round looking suitably doleful and doing something helpful.
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 8, 2015 6:54:54 GMT
No I don't think he will make it through probation, HR however do very little, it's all eat to the manager to deal with, until you get to dismissal
Could be a long 6 months though
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Post by moo on Oct 9, 2015 4:19:59 GMT
Eeek... He sounds like he has totally lost the plot... The type who could take whole departments down xxxx hang in xxx cyber chocs on way xxx
Xx moo xx
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Post by ham on Oct 9, 2015 5:45:35 GMT
Could you ask HR to call in crisis team if he is saying he is suicidal. My sons employers did that for him.
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 9, 2015 7:01:12 GMT
Ham, I seriously doubt he is suicidal. We have spoken to him, pointed out that's a very serious thing to say. I told him that I have experienced two colleagues committing suicide, which is true, and it's not something to be said lightly for dramatic effect, we have pointed him to the sources of help available but if this is really true he needs to disclose his medical conditions so that we can support him.
So far he has not. We have reason to believe he is something of a drama queen. He has said some quite bizarre things about me, which is why I can't meet him alone in case he decides to start shouting bullying and harrasment.
You know some people forget that your boss might actually check out your face book page. From what I can see, his statements don't match up with what he is posting there.
But we are keeping a very close eye
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 9, 2015 19:31:41 GMT
That's one word for it
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Post by milly on Oct 10, 2015 8:32:23 GMT
That sounds really difficult for you. We had a member of staff last year who was all style and no substance at all. Boasted about all the difficult children he'd worked with and the amazing things he'd done but couldn't teach a basic lesson and had the reasonably nice class turn into a rebellious, uncooperative mob within days / weeks. Luckily he was employed through an agency so after finding he couldn't respond to support of senior staff, he was on his way. We still heard stories back from him via another staff member of how well he was doing at his next school, of course.....
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 10, 2015 9:18:39 GMT
He hasn't got much to offer in the way of style either!
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 22, 2015 19:09:13 GMT
So we have discovered that his Facebook page is in breach of the Civil Service Code of Conduct. He lied outright to us these times in as many minutes about it. If he was more senior he would be in disciplinary over it. He is being given a chance to take the stuff down but I sense trouble ahead
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Post by moo on Oct 23, 2015 9:38:00 GMT
Eeeekkkk this guy sounds like a walking disaster area... why can he not be disciplined... how will he ever learn/improve? Double standards surely? Does anyone see that he has a future!? Barmy iyam ..
Onwards serrakunda ,!
Xx moo xx
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Post by corkwing on Oct 23, 2015 14:46:31 GMT
It does sound like his time with you is likely to be limited!
I worked once with a probationer who was absolutely useless. If you said to him, "Go to the photocopier and take 10 copies of the document" he'd wander off. An hour later you'd realise that you hadn't seen him for a while and go and find him. He'd still be at the copier because you hadn't explicitly told him to come back when he'd finished.
To be honest, he wasn't QUITE that bad, but was VERY close to it. And he was very surprised when they let him go.
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Post by serrakunda on Oct 24, 2015 22:11:13 GMT
Well we do have a probationary period, I don't know if he will get through it.
On s positive note, my other apprentice, whose work is very good, but looks like he's been dragged to his granny's tea party, actually volunteered to do something!
I hate managing people, so much aggravation, can't understand people who actually want to be managers
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Post by serrakunda on Nov 9, 2015 13:42:33 GMT
Give me strength!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
he has now also 'caught the eye' of our acting chief executive
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Post by corkwing on Nov 10, 2015 7:16:41 GMT
In a good or bad sense? Or a "romantic" sense?
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Post by serrakunda on Nov 10, 2015 7:37:24 GMT
In a who on earth appointed him kind of way
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Post by serrakunda on Dec 3, 2015 10:52:10 GMT
I think I have entered a parallel universe! The plot thickens
The original subject of this thread DW, outed himself in the office very dramatically and loudly, no big deal, we knew anyway as he has some 'ahem' interesting things on his Facebook page
We already have LM, also gay, and very proud in an only gay in the village type of way
Now we also have PW, who is Brazilian but changed his name to something that couldn't be more English, who is also gay in a hipster kind of way.
They do not get on.............
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Post by serrakunda on Dec 4, 2015 16:43:18 GMT
Not that I am aware of, but we do have to recruit someone else as my job share partner is leaving so you never know!
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Post by serrakunda on Feb 1, 2016 22:58:46 GMT
Well here in the parallel universe, events take a bizarre turn, culminating in me being asked by the unit manager to confiscate PW hipster gay's pot plant for non compliance with the clear desk policy. He claims the plant is feng shui i, so I felt obliged to point out that plastic plants are in fact very baaaad feng shui. he suddenly develops a previously unknown hearing impairment, his job is to manage a telephone help desk and he doesn't want to answer the phone,
A week and several increasingly bizarre incidents later, hipster gay is being sent back from whence he came, swapped for someone who has another set of performance issues but who at least is able to answer the phone and who apparently is a bit of a hoot
LM, only gay in the village gay is turning out to be an OK kind of guy and we are enjoying a little light office banter flirting, safe in the knowledge that (a) he is gay and (b) I'm old enough to be his mum so neither of us are concerned that the other is remotely interested in acting on anything we say
Which leaves us with DW, fetish gay, who has admitted to me that he didn't really understand what he as applying for and has no clue as to how he passed the recruitment assessment centre.
These are days of my life I will never get back.........
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Post by corkwing on Feb 3, 2016 10:00:26 GMT
Sounds like they're great days for laughing about!
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Post by serrakunda on Feb 10, 2016 19:07:22 GMT
Meanwhile, bsck in the parallel universe,
Hipster gay and his pot plant have gone, his replacement is a middle aged maverick, goes off to prayers several times a day, but has taken a fancy, in a fatherly way to the rather nice N, lovely sweet young lady stick insect, in her 20s, he is very jolly, I think we are going to get on famously
Otherwise poor old fetish gay is getting increasingly out of his depth, I now have the task of persuading HR, with his permission, to let me downgrade him. He would be much happier at a lower level and would probably do a good job
Who said civil servants were dull and boring?
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Post by serrakunda on Feb 22, 2016 22:43:55 GMT
Well sorting out fetish gay appears to have become my life's work, can't believe how much paperwork is involved in extending someone's probation
But as a little light relief, he announced to myself and the unit manager that he was off to Manchester for a fetish weekend.
Lucky that despite being a 57 year old granny, the boss is quite liberal and not easily shocked
But you just don't, do you!?
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Post by corkwing on Feb 23, 2016 8:57:23 GMT
I worked temporarily in an office which meant that I got shunted from desk to desk occasionally. I was somewhat disconcerted to be put at one guy's desk while he was on holiday. Pinned to his divider were two photos of him totally naked. He was in artistic poses and had some body paint on in big, wide stripes, but it really wasn't something that I wanted to look at all day.
I was somewhat surprised that he considered it to be acceptable in an office environment.
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Post by serrakunda on Feb 25, 2016 20:51:14 GMT
Just to make life fun, I know have three sets of HR people involved in sorting out fetish gay. It's a very complicated situation and he has been badly served by the whole recruitment process,
We have got a solution which will keep him in a job within the team and he will be much better off.
He's actually OK, just a bit 'unusual'. I hope Simba gets a master as flipping marvellous as me when he starts work
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