Employee is frustrated with the younger new hire, as he has been training her for months, but she still has first-day questions, he thinks she should be laid off, but management isn't sure: 'I just don't know what [redacted] else to do!'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Jul 8, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

Sometimes someone is just not built for a job, is fine to just give up.

The corporate world is always criticized, but they have one great thing that should be applied in every single kind of job, training. Having a specialist in their field explaining things to someone who has never been in the industry before is actually amazing. Is a great way for the new hire to learn about the company and the best ways to do the work, and it is also good for the longtime employee because they get to have a fresh view that can be helpful to automate processes or to see how customers may see their services. Is a great way to keep a company always evolving and up to date. And it also produces great new workers who are following the steps of an already excellent employee. It also makes the working environment more friendly as it breaks the ice between new hires and previous employees.

Even though it sounds like a great idea with really positive outcomes, it has its problems. The training has to be for a certain period of time, during which a great employee will not be working or performing their job as usual. This may cause problems due to a lack of available employees. Also, some new hires may need a lot more training than others, causing the training step to extend and lose a valuable employee for longer periods of time. Something that is also a problem but not really taken into account usually is the fact that many longtime employees don't want to be training new people. They just want to do their job, and this training may seem like extra work for them.

This Reddit story got me to think about that last point. Nobody really asks the longtime employee if they want to train someone. They just have to. In this case, the employee had no problem training, but when faced with a difficult new hire that wasn't really learning, he didn't get the support he needed, which made him lose a lot of valuable work time to someone who could just have been helped by somebody else. All the training shows as extra work to an employee who should have only been doing his job. 
 

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  • 01
    Due to a series of unfortunate events, I'm the most senior employee for the team. For about 8 months I did everything myself while new hires came and went for a bit (to be fair, it's a very tedious job and we also had multiple instances where people would finish training, be allowed to work from home, clock-in every day and then never be heard from again) but we eventually got new hires that stuck and since I was the only one who knew how to do
    via 2baverage
  • 02
    Two women are talking while they look at the screen of a computer.
    via KOBU Agency

    Two women are talking while they look at the screen of a computer. 

  • 03
    the job, I trained all the new hires once they were finished with onboarding/basics of the job. The first 2 were a breeze. I have experience in being a trainer at other jobs, so I updated the training workflows and adjusted my training for each person. But this 3rd person...let's call her Mia. Mia worked as a temp for about 5 months, did really well and was offered to come on full time. She accepted and then
    via 2baverage
  • 04
    training began for more programs and tasks that you need certain clearance for. And since then, it's been a total nightmare. At first she'd ask to reschedule her training because she had to catch up on work that was going to hit compliance...so ok, understandable, certain things have sensitive time limits. Then it became an entire month of her needing to cancel or reschedule training because of deadlines she needed to meet for previously
    via 2baverage
  • 05
    assigned work. Then we finally got past that, but then began the constant "quick Teams chats" because she needs something explained or needed help with a task. 80% of the time it was something that she should have already known how to do while she was a temp/things I know she was trained on, and the other 20% was her asking if some of her work could be reassigned to someone else so she could
    via 2baverage
  • 06
    meet her deadlines for other projects. Quick calls would often be upwards of an hour and me nearly banging my head into my desk because I didn't know how else to explain things to her (she had the workflow, I had shown her how to do it multiple times, I watched her do it while I navigated her through it multiple times, and yet she still needed more hand holding through it and was making day one mistakes)
    via 2baverage
  • 07
    Then came the training for new systems. I was tasked with training her on a system we use to resolve tickets assigned to us. The usual training was about an hour long and usually a baptism by fire, but the tickets were often so obvious since by the time you get trained on this system you're already so familiar with the accounts that you can look and know right away what is wrong/looks off. We are currently on month 2 of training in this system for her. We sit down
    via 2baverage
  • 08
    for about 3 hours a day, 2-3 times a week, and in still repeating things I said on the first day of training and having to bring up things that were taught within her first week on the job; things that she should have been doing daily for over a year now. Today, I ended up doing a screen share over Teams at my desk since she was work from home, and after my 3rd explanation of the same ticket, I finally heard the
    via 2baverage
  • 09
    desk next to me sigh loudly in what sounded like annoyance and smack her desk. On one hand it was nice to get a little reassurance that it's not just me, but also just ???? Her inability to keep up with the work has been brought up to our manager before but I just don't know what the h I else to do!
    via 2baverage
  • 10
    Outrageous-Trifle857 I would ask her if she is taking notes. I have trained people before and I'm always very upfront about my expectations. I let them know that they need to take good/detailed notes because I don't have time to retrain over and over. While training I go very slow, letting them write things down or offering to print screenshots to
    via 2baverage
  • 11
    have as examples. Once training is done and the task is handed over, i answer questions ONCE but ask them if they have reviewed/used their notes. I always set the expectation that if they come to me with questions they better bring their notes so they can update them. If I get the same question repeatedly, I tell them, "we have covered this already, please refer to your notes". She is using your brain to
    via 2baverage
  • 12
    do her job and getting paid for it. Time to let management know that she's not working out!
    via 2baverage
  • 13
    Model image of a sign saying “for hire” in white and red.
    via Clem Onojeghuo

    Model image of a sign saying "for hire" in white and red. 

  • 14
    Aromatic_Quit_6946 So this person is either incredibly dense, or has learned that if she plays dumb someone will basically do her work for her. I am big supporter of different people need different training methods, but I am also a supporter of knowing when to let someone sink or swim.
    via 2baverage
  • 15
    bootyjudy I agree with the person who asked about notes. They need to be taking their own notes. My office was having a similar issue where a coworker just could not memorize how to sort a weekly excel spreadsheet. The trainer had to show them every week how to do it again
    via 2baverage
  • 16
    and was growing frustrated. They were considering writing out step by step instructions but was concerned it would be very tedious. I said set up a zoom call, have the other person mute themselves, share your screen and hit record. Sort the excel sheet and verbally walk through what you're doing. Then save the recording and send it to the coworker.
    via 2baverage
  • 17
    Now they have a recording they can watch if they need it explained again and the trainer doesn't have to help anymore on that task. Might be worth recording these repeat tasks and saving them. When coworker calls, say that's under training video 5, you can watch it here.
    via 2baverage
  • 18
    BratacJaglenac Sounds like it's time for you to look for another job or you will have burnout
    via 2baverage
  • 19
    Crafty_Ad3377 First speak to your manager. Make her write the entire process down. Or you can make her a step by step process including screen shots document. Send it to her via email and copy your boss. Have her execute on her own utilizing the how to document every time she asks.
    via 2baverage
  • 20
    iaMBictrochee My management style is if I have to do your job (for whatever reason) why do I need you? Mia is not only not doing her job, she's preventing OP from doing OP's job. It's (well past) time for Mia to either be demoted or fired.
    via 2baverage
  • 21
    Hminney Do the other priorities really exist? Is she actually doing another job, and the reason she can't remember anything is because she is so sleep- deprived? Temps get used to the extra pay, and might decide to take employment so they can have a steady income whilst working the night shift on temp wages
    via 2baverage

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management corporate new hire training
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