(This little girl is my inner little girl smirking at the world’s stupidity).
This sort of goes along the same lines as my “don’t interrupt me when I’m focused” pet peeve.
I mentioned I’ve been training at work. This activity is painful for me because I don’t have a lot of patience to begin with but when you train? PATIENCE IS REQUIRED. I’m feeling annoyed, I won’t lie. I’m getting impatient with this girls’ stupid-ish questions and her inability to retain what we talked about minutes before. Then I feel uber guilty because, good grief Karen, cut the girl some slack. She’s new. She doesn’t know what is happening and you’re bombarding her with a ton of information.
She’s one of these people who have to take notes on EVERYTHING. Which, I suppose, is better than never taking notes, but when you take too many notes, and then can’t function without referencing said notes, then it turns into a crutch; an excuse to stop using your brain and putting the puzzle pieces together. The problem with this approach to learning anything new is … what happens if the thing you have to deal with falls outside your carefully crafted notes?
But it’s okay, everyone has to start somewhere and I’m throwing a lot of information at her, it’s normal, right?
Yes and no. A person’s ability to learn also comes from his/her own personality. How receptive is she? How intelligent is she? Does she have the ability to multi-task, think on her feet, problem solve?
Everyone says they can multi-task, but that’s a lie. Not very many people can ACTUALLY multi-task. It takes a special sort of brain to juggle several things at once and still focus enough to get these multi tasks done.
I hate to say it, because I’m not completely convinced it’s a real thing, but I sort of think she has ADD. She is constantly talking about her dogs, shushing her dogs, letting her dogs out, letting her dogs in, she’s hot, she’s cold, she has a headache, she needs to throw another pod on her Keurig …. it goes on and on. And I think she KNOWS she’s like this because I will be talking, she interrupts me to make a comment about the above distractions and then she will reign herself in and say, “I’m sorry, yes, so getting back to A, B, C …”
I just stop and let her regroup her brain cells when she interrupts me. But I would be lying if I didn’t say it didn’t drive me crazy. Training is not a game, it’s generally not fun, it’s draining and after 11 weeks of training, I’m OVER IT. So, my patience threshold is at an all-time low. I’m trying very hard not to take it out on this girl, she’s actually very sweet and it’s hard to be truly annoyed with her … but then, it’s the over-the-top enthusiasm, too.
“Oh my gosh, I’m just soooo excited to be here!” Or, “This is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do!.” Or, “I love this sooo much.” Or, “I can’t believe I’m here right now getting to do this.” Or, “This is the best, I JUST LOVE THIS!.” Or, “This is my dream job!”
Look …
I appreciate your enthusiasm, really. It’s sort of refreshing to talk to someone who WANTS to learn and LIKES to work. You definitely don’t see that often nowadays, but girl, please, can you tamp down your overly-excited Chihuahua behavior about 15 notches because … we’ve crossed over into the weird zone and now it sort of sounds like a Stepford wife that is short circuiting.
I’ve actually had to ask her to take a deep breath, slow down, read before clicking, and I did sort of have to bark at her, (to continue the dog reference), … I feel like I’m trying to corral a 5-year old who drank one too many root beers. It’s exhausting and it’s no longer cute, or flattering, now it’s just annoying. Can we get back to training so we can get you up and running and I can stop talking to you and stop working 10:30-7:00, (because I HATE this shift), and get back to my regularly scheduled working life?
Most importantly -F.O.C.U.S
She has three dogs, and they are very cute, (how do I know? Because she posted a picture of them after they got back from the groomers), and I get that dogs, pets, are some people’s children, I get that. But when you’re constantly having to pull your attention away from work to reprimand them, talk to them, shush them, takec are of them, or, at the end of the business day, interrupt to me to say, “Daddy’s home! Go get daddy!”, I feel like I might say something I will regret, throw my computer against the wall or roll my eyes so hard I might need to seek medical help.
COME ON.
I’m all about having fun, posting funny memes and having a laugh, but when our primary purpose of spending time together is to get some work done, I’m gonna need you to get serious, retain what I’m telling you and focus – we have a job to do.
Write From Karen 