We were short-staffed again today, and we were busy, as we always are on Mondays.  We were also missing one of our two leads, which means I was the only lead there. I was trying to catch up on work that was not covered for me while I was out on vacation last week. I continued to train the new employee, who is learning and improving, but feeling overwhelmed. She pushes herself very hard and pressures herself to do everything right the first time. I have told her to take her time, that she is doing a great job, and I try to keep her confidence up. I check in on her frequently to let her know that I'm available to answer questions or help her if she is too overwhelmed.

I had planned to speed up the training process, and this is the first employee I have worked with on my accelerated training plan. She learned to do the mail in two and a half weeks as opposed to the usual four weeks. The mail duties didn't cause her any stress, and she liked doing this less challenging task. But she is now taking mail in payments, and she has moved on to more complicated tasks, like reducing and dismissing fines, and entering the payment information in the appropriate way. No one could understand this process in just a few days, but this trainee wants to. She is doing a fine job, she is very motivated, and she's progressing fast. I'm hoping she will master taking mail-in payments in three weeks. Then I'll move her the most difficult phase of training: taking payments from walk in customers.

By training this new employee, I've learned to break down the steps of a duty into very small tasks. I take my time to explain how to do each task, and I also stand by while the trainee performs the duty for the first few times. I give them the freedom to learn in a hands-on way, allowing them to do it themselves, rather than lecture for a long time and make them watch me do the task. Then I step away, but I check in often to see if they have any questions or need any help. I encourage them to ask questions about why we need to do things a certain way, or whether there are different ways of doing things. If they can come up with a better way of doing things, I encourage them to explain their ideas to me. I try to give them the confidence to do their best.

Portland

I've been away from work for a week, visiting Portland, Oregon for the first time. The purpose for the visit was to assess if Portland is a place for future relocation. I had narrowed it down to three cities: San Francisco, New York, and Portland. Portland's major advantage over the two other cities is that the real estate market is considerably cheaper, making Portland a real contender for relocation. I have heard many great things about Portland, many of which I consider to be true after my visit to the city. Portland has a great public transportation system, making it easy to get around the city without the need of a vehicle. For example, I took just one train directly from the airport to the city center. Public transportation is free within the city center. Portland is very walkable, and many of it's inhabitants commute by bicycle as there are may bike paths throughout the city. Portland is a vibrant city with many restaurants, bars, micro breweries, art galleries, and shopping. There's also wonderful public space, like Washington park and the riverfront. People pride themselves on being green and progressive. Portland remains a possibility for me.

first week of training

This week I trained an employee from another department. As with all new trainees at the court, I started her out sorting mail and sending it on to the right departments. Usually, a new trainee would be paired up with an experienced worker, and would spend two weeks just opening and sorting mail. The trainees I've seen have mastered the mail sorting after about three days, so I want to move the training along faster.

I planned to accelerate the training process by moving trainees on from sorting mail to taking mailed in payments after three days. So the trainee would have started taking payments on Friday. However, the challenge that I didn't expect was that we were too shorthanded to have her perform a new function slowly. We had so much mail to sort, so many mailed in payments to process, and not enough employees to do the work. I had to see customers at a window and didn't have the time to explain the payment taking process to the trainee. We just couldn't afford to have her taking payments without supervision because it would take time to correct her mistakes.

I have a new plan for Monday. Training is the priority, so no matter how busy we are, I'll make sure the trainee learns to take mail payments. This means I have to take a few hours in the morning to teach and watch her perform the task. My other duties will just have to wait, and I can stay late to accomplish them. As it is, my supervisor is out, so I'm covering for him, and I'll probably have to work overtime anyway.

It has occurred to me that the training may have originally been scheduled to take such a long time to account for unexpected delays, like being shorthanded. Maybe my plan to speed it up is not practical, considering the limited time I have to supervise new trainees and still accomplish my own duties. I'm not going to give up on my goal of speeding up the training, but I am open to the idea that training is scheduled a certain way because the people who set up the training learned from their experience. Now I'm learning from my experience, too.

At our court, we cross train employees. They are sent to another section of the court to learn a different job in order to be prepared for emergency coverage needs, to increase the employees' understanding of the whole process, and to increase mobility and promotions. Last week, I learned that I'd be in charge of training employees from other departments to learn the duties of customer service. The training lasts three months per employee. The training used to be done by two leads, but now it will all be my responsibility. I am pleased that this responsibility has been given to me, and that my supervisor regards me as a good trainer. I already have plans to make certain changes, based on my observations and participation in past trainings. I'm looking forward to this opportunity to show that I'm capable of sharing my knowledge with others and assisting them to broaden their horizons.