Last weekend was Janelle's last one at RHA, so yesterday and this morning I had to train her replacement. This transition was actually a smooth one - we knew that Janelle was leaving because she's been doing her 30-day trial at her new employer for the last month, so we had plenty of time to find a new front desk assistant. My boss ran a Craigslist ad, but none of the applicants really stood out. Luckily, my old friend Sarah was looking for a job that would free up her weekdays for school. When my boss interviewed her, she liked her immediately. Wham, bam, we've got a new employee ma'am!
Training went well, I hope. It's always hard to gauge how well I covered the material until the first weekend my new co-worker is on her own - if she calls or texts me more than five times over the two-day weekend, I probably missed something important during training. I was much more thorough with Sarah than with previous trainees, because one of my work projects has been writing a new front desk handbook (the old one was last revised in 2004!) so I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what we do and what sorts of things need to be covered during the first training session.
We did have one minor "pop-up" event - the random incidents that require common sense, because they happen so infrequently that we never remember to mention them during training. A man came in and told us he wanted to leave an envelope for his ex-wife with us in the office because if his wife knew that the envelope was from him, she'd never take it. Ha ha ha, no. That does not sound like a situation we want to get involved with. I told him that I was terribly sorry, but office policy was that we can't accept things for homeowners. He tried to get us to take it anyway, but I finally told him, "Sorry, my boss has made it clear that we can't hold things in the office. He's here from 8-5 on Monday, and if you want to talk to him he might make an exception for you. But I can't do it." I'm glad that the guy came in, just because it gave Sarah a taste of the random sorts of things that will pop up during her shift when she's alone.
Training went well, I hope. It's always hard to gauge how well I covered the material until the first weekend my new co-worker is on her own - if she calls or texts me more than five times over the two-day weekend, I probably missed something important during training. I was much more thorough with Sarah than with previous trainees, because one of my work projects has been writing a new front desk handbook (the old one was last revised in 2004!) so I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what we do and what sorts of things need to be covered during the first training session.
We did have one minor "pop-up" event - the random incidents that require common sense, because they happen so infrequently that we never remember to mention them during training. A man came in and told us he wanted to leave an envelope for his ex-wife with us in the office because if his wife knew that the envelope was from him, she'd never take it. Ha ha ha, no. That does not sound like a situation we want to get involved with. I told him that I was terribly sorry, but office policy was that we can't accept things for homeowners. He tried to get us to take it anyway, but I finally told him, "Sorry, my boss has made it clear that we can't hold things in the office. He's here from 8-5 on Monday, and if you want to talk to him he might make an exception for you. But I can't do it." I'm glad that the guy came in, just because it gave Sarah a taste of the random sorts of things that will pop up during her shift when she's alone.
be a laughing jackass!
