Roland’sMommy: How do you get information out of a co-worker who likes to give short responses?
I have a co-worker who skirts around questions every time I ask. I’ve found that you have to know exactly the right questions to ask in order to get the answer you need. However, I know virtually nothing about his job and he’s supposed to be training me – I’ve found it’s difficult to know what to ask so that I’ll get quality answers.
He’s leaving our company at the end of the month and I have to be able to do both his job and mine.
I’ve already approached my boss and he’s absolutely no help at all.
In the past I’ve asked that he come get me every time he’s working on something new – he doesn’t.
I’ve asked him to put together list of common problems and their solutions – his response is “Oh that’s just easy stuff. You do this here and that there” and I don’t get anything in writing.
What more can I do? I need to learn this stuff asap.
Answers and Views:
Answer by The Ultimate Answer Guaranteed
Just follow him around when he is working and watch exactly what he is doing. Replicate his actions and that is the easiest way to learn without communication. He might even become so annoyed that he will help you to stop following him.
I’ve dealt with this type of person in the workforce before. This person does not want you to be prepared to do a good job in fear of you “outshining” him. This type of person is impossible to deal with and the best thing for you to do is do your own research and make plenty of allies at work. Continue to ask him questions. I’m quite sure that he will not provide detailed answers, but ask — just the same. Also, be on the look out for someone else that may have performed the job before or is familiar with the job responsibilities. Befriend this person because you will need their knowledge, experience and support.
I know that dealing with this type of person is frustrating. I wish you the best of luck.
Answer by Randy WThen you need to phrase the question in a different manner, or just be blunt and tell this individual that you are tied of the short breif responses and fell like he either answers this way because he is not sure of the answer or is not capable of providing an answer to the question.
The next best thing is to have him write out the answer as if he was explaining it to a 6th grader.
Also tell him you realise that you are trying to learn his old job and he’s not really helping you learn anything other then to be rude and short with people.
You can also talk to his supervisor and explain to them that you fee like he is skirting his responsability and not training you but rather taunting you and just collecting a check till he leaves. This will usually get a result.
Lastly you should go to the library or cantact anyone you know in this field and as for help. Get some reading material and study your butt off.
The world is full of people like this, and because of this people like you end up getting hurt, fired or moved to a different position because your not able to learn.
I’m sorry you had to deal with this bean head.
Good Luck!
I have a certificate as a training specialist and believe that this guy is either too incompetent to train you or is setting you up for failure.
As much as it might not be in your nature, now is the time to be assertive and take control of the learning process. First get yourself a training note book so you can write down the information he does or doesn’t give you. Second if he skirts the question you asked, kindly remind him that didn’t answer the question and ask it again until you get a response. Write down everything said in you training note book and time and date the event.
More important email if your company has email all your request for information. It will either be usefull information you can use later, or if he doesn’t respond to them resend the request. Failure to answer the question will demonstrate his failure to prepare you for his position. If he wouldn’t answer by email take your training note book into his office and get the answer that way, writing down all the answers or his responses if he is negative. Remind him that at the end of the month he is gone and it is his duty to help the transition of his departure go as smooth as possible as he is being paid by the company to see that it continues to operate successfully.
Ask for his job description over the email, if no response in a few hours, re-email him. If his response does not give you his job description, take your training note book into his office and have him tell you he is responsible for, what reports are due, their due dates, what projects are outstanding, their status and how to do the project if you don’t know. Write all the contacts you have with him in your training note book with the time and date. If he says he doesn’t have a job description also note that, because most companies have a job description for most postitions as well as corporate manuals.
The reason to document through email and your training note book is that you wil be held accountable for the units success, and you need to be able to show that you did everything you could to learn the job. If called on the carpet about this, show all the emails that were returned with faulty information or not answered at all. Your training note book will document what you were taught and all the steps you had to go through to obtain the information. (Remember to also always write the time and dates in your training note book.)
Be assertive, be like a bulldog without biting. Also if you carry your training note pad around, it will probably scare the heck out of him because he will only assume you are writing the worst about him and he actually may start treating you differently. You may not like to be assertive to the nth degree, but this is the time and place for it.
As for the list of common problems and solutions, if he begins stating “how easy it is to do you just…”, tell him “great if its that easy I’ll be looking forward to your email, if you don’t want to email me that information, let me write it down in my training note book right now and time and date it.”
If he says he has more important things to do, ask him what could be more important for this company than a smooth transition when he leaves?Answer by [email protected]
Ask the right questions
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