Horrible Training Experience

This Friday and Saturday, it was my time to train a new person at my work place. Now, this wasn't my first time training anyone. I've train a couple of people before, and i can honestly say that they've turned out fine if not great. However, before i go onto a rant, let me tell you this first; the new staff members that I've trained were around my same age (16-22 years old).

So, with this new person who is a lot older than I am; I have learned some new things about him and how to handle teaching to older workers. Like I was saying earlier, this weekend I trained someone new. In here, we’re going to call him Josh. Now, just to give you a little background about him, he was a chef at his old job (which he was working about 17 years there), he’s around the age of 40, and he applied to this job as the position as a cook.

Honestly, I didn't expect too much from him. All that I heard about Josh was that the used to be a chef at his old job and he's an older fella. So the day comes and it's about time to clock in, but Josh is nowhere to be found. In my head, I was telling myself, "this always happens when I am suppose to train someone." The reason why I say this is because for the last couple times the new person doesn't show up due to some certain reason. So, I was like well I just Josh isn' t coming today. But, after working for a bit I heard that he just finally got in the building and was looking for me.

So, I met him and he seem fairly nice. I told him, "I know this is going to be a lot of information, but try to take it in and if you have any questions just ask." I also, for got to mention to you guys, but I'm actually an dietary aide/culinary assistant in a nursing home. Well we served lunch, and yes he was a bit slow but that's how it always is on the first day.

Slowly, I started to noticed that either he had a bad hearing problem or I wasn't talking clearly enough because he would always have to re-ask or have some smart remark. As the day went on, I came to realize that this guy had a smart mouth. Always, had to say something before I would finish. Or else he would get very technical with some names. Which in this case, it doesn't have much meaning (what I mean is about getting specific with pan names).

As the day went on, I noticed that for older workers it's better if I would talk loud, slowly, and in short phrases. However, this may not apply to all older folks, but in my case it was better if i did. I'm not sure how or why he didn't work at his old job but he would always refer back to it. Which didn't bother me at first much. But what he didn't understand was the fact that he wasn't working at his old facility anymore.

To continue on with the story, lunch ended and we finished serving, clearing the tables, washing the dishes, and putting them away. Now, it was time to pour drinks for the residents. To those who don't know too much about the diets of a nursing home, it can be actually quite difficult at first. Diets can be regular, dysphagia 3/2/1, pudding thick, nectar thick, honey thick, and liquefied puree.

It was here when he had a small break down. I'm not sure why, but from my assumptions is that he was just overwhelmed with all the drinks that we had to pour. To let you guys know, the shift that I work on I must pour two sets of drinks (breakfast and dinner). Within these sets, each person would get up to one-four different drinks, in different consistency, and in different styles of cups if necessary. I'm not sure what triggered him, but he was like I need a break (turned out to be a 15 minute one). After this, he was in a better mood. However, as time went by he got very frustrated again. Even though he would give me smart remarks about how our system was "fucked up" (excuse my french, also this is a quote from Josh) I was very patient with him and tried to be understanding.

The night seemed like it would never come to an end. I mean, I don't mind training any other person. However, it just that Josh was so difficult to handle. He was like a trembling rabied raccoon just ready to bite you if you touched him. Except, this raccoon was about 5'10" and about 200 pounds. Maybe, I shouldn't describe Josh to you like this, but was these two days a living hell.

He would say that we would always be arguing, when the previous day he said, "how am I suppose to know if you don't show me?" Well in my head I said, "well you act like you know everything, you cut me off when I'm talking, you talk down to me, and overall you don't respect me. So how the heck am I suppose to teach you when you won' t even listen. You're like a cup of water, I'm trying to add water to to the cup, but how can I add when it's already full?"

My overall experience with Josh was horrible. I am happy to say that these two terrible training days are over. I hope that in the future when and if I ever do train someone older than me, they will respect me just like how I would to them. Another thing that I would like to mention, is that you think within time a person would mature and grow. Yet, in this case I find that some people just have a hard time adjusting and aren't forgiving.

If you guys have any suggestion on how to train people I would appreciate it. I'm always wanting to learn how to enhance or better my ways of teaching. So, if you have something to add or suggest please leave a comment below. Also, if you did get this far with reading my blog post, I want thank you for being patient with me. Even though I have more to say about my experience, I'll just leave it at this.