Double take mishpacha

amother

Poinsettia

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:09 am

This stuck out to me.
“Besides the tediousness of some of the work, I still kept having questions — there was still so much I didn’t understand. Meira was nice about it, but she wasn’t always around — I got the feeling that she felt like she’d trained me in already, we were done with that part, and she thought I could handle things independently by now.”
Something similar happened to me. The boss left after training me in and I felt so uncomfortable having to call for every question. It felt like all he cared about was money, and I was doing everything for him to make money while he was out all day. Yes, it was his business, but I left after two months because I was so upset with how the job turned out to be. Best decision ever. I think business owners are so wrapped up in making money they think their employees will be equally invested, when in reality they are just paid workers without any upside

amother

↑ Peru ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:15 am

amother Poinsettia wrote:

That part did not make sense to me. Meira seemed to be in a niche market but suddenly after a very short time she was able to just leave for hours at a time? She expected a 19 yo girl to have enough knowledge to replace her after a mere weeks?

I never had that in a job. Boss or manager delegated to me slowly and did other things but didn’t exactly give me work and disappear.

Also people might not realize how boring it is to work in a 1 person office! I did that for a while and had to listen to podcasts as I was doing my very boring work. It’s not easy!

amother

Chestnut ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:24 am

I think Meira waited until too late to hire. If she wanted someone who could take over for a month, she should have hired in time for them to have already worked there for three months at the least. You need much more time and asked questions to internalize things enough to go it alone. Especially since Meira basically left her alone after the training was over- she essentially took maternity leave early.

And yes, I would have thought of hiring a temp for during the time she was gone. You can't expect someone new to do it all by herself. And very few people, not just seminary girls, want to work completely alone. If you're going to need an employee to do that, you're not just looking for responsibility and capability- it's also a certain temperament. And working inside the owner's apartment is it's own issue, especially without the owner working. What was the plan for after the baby came and was there all day?

amother

Brass ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:29 am

I just don’t for the life of me understand how we can say someone who did everything legally and halachicly appropriate plus has bad middos because the timing isnt right for someone else. Why didn’t the boss start looking for an employee the moment she found out she was pregnant so as to find the best candidate with some skills in her niche field, train them what skills are still needed and pay them as appropriate for the job. Not wait until she’s in her 3rd trimester hire a unskilled sem girl pay her starting salary and leave her on her own in a one girl office and expect her to flourish and be as invested as she was building her business. Really bad planning and huge expectations from the boss.

amother

Periwinkle

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:39 am

amother Brass wrote:

Agree. Totally unrealistic expectations on her part. To take an unknown girl with no experience and have everything hinge on her, was unfair. Also, this girl really didn’t enjoy the work. That’s something you should be picking up on, if you’re basically handing over the business to her. Meira should have hired a more mature person, who already had similar experience.

↑ kugelEater ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 9:51 am

amother Brass wrote:

She said the hiring process was a six month process. Not sure how that makes sense, but ok. So it's not like she waited until her eighth month.

amother

↑ Eggplant

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:17 am

amother Brass wrote:

She left enough time for the girl to have a full month of training, a full month of vacation time off to go to camp, and then to have over a month of working before her maternity leave.

That's pretty good planning. If the girl had quit when she realized she hated the job, instead of completing a month of training then taking a whole month off, she could have interviewed and trained someone new.

amother

↑ Chestnut

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:23 am

amother Eggplant wrote:

Disagree. She shouldn't have taken someone who was going to camp in that case- that's time she wasn't working, and it breaks momentum and continuity with the training. Plus she was gone more often than not during that last month. Also, when hiring someone in that stage of life and age bracket, keeping the school year in mind matters. She will likely be starting classes, the summer has a different feels, etc. For that, along with the yamim tovim, to be when the boss completely takes her hands of the wheel is something that needa to be planned for better.

amother

↑ Brass ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:24 am

amother Eggplant wrote:

And if she did that there would be a double take bemoaning how kids nowadays have no work ethic or ‘stick with it’ attitude.
Facts on the ground is on most new hires it’s 3 month probation both ways. Unfortunately it’s usually skewed for the employer where they can fire at will and the employee has to give 2-4 weeks which she did plus.
As employers if we want to keep our employees we need to check in with our new young low paying employees and see how we can support them rather than have insane expectations of them. Her focus was primarily on how this will make her life better and not how to ongoingly suppprt her young low wage employee.

amother

Lightgray ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:27 am

I think it's not good planning or business sense to hire someone who is going to take a months vacation so shortly into a new job, especially if boss has maternity leave coming up so soon. What if she'd gone into labor earlier than expected? It would have made more sense to hire someone settled into the working world, maybe have a new grad be the assistant. Yes, this would mean paying higher wages and possibly two employees. The boss sounded like she was trying to do things as cheaply as possible but with high expectations. Not good business sense.

amother

Floralwhite

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:27 am

amother Eggplant wrote:

Except that she wasn't even around in September. You don't train somebody for a month and then walk off and leave the whole business to her.

Meira was obviously new at this hiring thing, but anyone who's in the business world knows that it takes a minimum of six months before you call leave an employee alone like that. She was simply expecting too much (which was a big factor in Russie leaving the job, actually) - this was a learning curve for her as well.

amother

Royalblue

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:38 am

amother Cerise wrote:

This is where being 19 and no job experience comes into play

No
This whole story and boss attitude is where a first time boss comes into play
What exactly was she thinking by training in for a mere few weeks, then sitting back relaxing and expecting the girl to take over the business and turn her into a millionaire?? Girl said boss barely ever came into the office. Talk about irresponsibility

Reading this freaked me out as I have recently had a very similar experience. Including many of the details like boss having baby soon.

First time bosses need lessons in hiring employees and how to continue being a boss while having one. Not 'retiring' like some think they can

amother

Bluebonnet ↓

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 10:59 am

I see issues with both sides. Coming as an employer myself I feel that Meira was unrealistic in her expectations for Russy to be completley trained in and on her own after 1 month of paid training and a one month vacation. She should have sat with her in the office in September as well. She then would have picked up that Russy was not so chipper, unless she is a great actress. Additionally a point it did not mention is that most post seminary girls (not all-most) go to work also for social life. So the fact that she was left by herself for the whole day probably did her in as well.

On Russy's side there is a culture of try it and leave if it doesn't work.. Girls do not have the loyalty that there was 10 years ago. As a fact a niece of mine told me she's taking her first job where all her friends are going though it's not a field she thinks she will enjoy and when she finds a better job she will move on.

amother

↑ Peru

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:01 am

amother Bluebonnet wrote:

Why on earth should there be loyalty? Loyalty is for friendships and marriages. For an employee to be loyal, the employer needs to deserve it. Whether that’s with generous compensation, a flexible schedule, a kind boss or amazing coworkers.

amother

↑ Bluebonnet

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:06 am

amother Peru wrote:

Not saying whether there should or shouldn't be. I'm saying a fact I see from my own friends, relatives etc.

amother

Teal

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:24 am

amother OP wrote:

This is the reason I don’t hire post hs/seminary girls for my business.

What do other think about the story?

My daughter works in a position that she literally took right out of seminary, and now she's there for close to 10 years. She's worked her way up by now to a managerial position. Her line of business is sought after, and other companies have tried to offer her more money. I'll tell you a few reason's she stays.
* firstly, she does like what she's doing, it's suited to her personality. Sure she sometimes is fed up, but overall it works for her.
* they show her they value her, with a competitive salary and regular raises. (even a few thousand more from another company doesn't tip it for her because she knows this place may end up being more in the long run, because they have a track record of treating her well.)
* they have shown appreciation in other ways (gifts before YT, etc...)
* they have treated her well and with extras. Like for example she took some time off before her wedding. She expected it to be w/o pay. They paid her, because they value what she's given the company
* she feels respected and supported (training when she needs it, understanding when she needs it.)

Loyalty isn't built in a day (or a month). Meira's expectations of a young girl is not reasonable. She should have hired help much sooner, so the person would be there a while already by the time she had her leave, and had built up some loyalty.

amother

Stoneblue

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 11:57 am

amother Royalblue wrote:

I also had a similar experience with a new boss having a baby. In my case it was a little different because she pretty much lied about when she was due. She gave a vague "before yom tov" type of answer, but it turned out that it was about 6 weeks before yom tov. I was not at all trained in enough to run the entire business by myself, even though I had been there for about 3 months by the time she had the baby. There's so much more to running an entire business and my boss was also running the business while training me so she never even got to lots of the details. I was a young girl in my first job trying to make major decisions and figure out how to do things that I knew nothing about. It was a disaster.

It was about 25 years ago, so there wasn't a concept yet of texting or emailing and she can respond when she feels up to it. And in those days you would never call a postpartum mother to bother her about such things, so I was flying blind.

I gave her notice when she came back from her maternity leave and she was really upset because she was planning on working part time for the first while, which she had never told me. She knew some of my relatives and she had them call me to try to convince me to stay. There was no way I was going to be convinced. It was a terrible experience.

↑ kugelEater

Sun, Sep 22 2024, 12:10 pm

It doesn't sound like Meira expected Russy to actually do the brokering work or whatever (sorry I could not grasp what her business was!!) but she wanted her there to answer emails from clients and follow up etc. I don't think that's too much to ask, considering she had a very nice amount of time to get trained in. If she decided that she MUST go to camp, that's on her, and it's really nice of Meira for agreeing and even giving her a nosh package to take along. It seems to have been pretty clear from the get-go what the job was going to look like, and if she didn't like it, she had ample time to say so.