Attack of the Apprentice!

The Apprentice - without Alan Sugar! 

So I'm seeing it again; workplace bringing in apprentices to do the work of experienced professionals. While these 'wide-eyed' naive youngsters look shell-shocked at the amount of work they are expected to do - the older experienced professionals hover between panic (someone's taking my job) to irritation and anger! 

So yes the attack of the Apprentice continues - and I can't see where it will end....  Are you currently going through this at work? Are you training an Apprentice who could 'take' your job? 

Is there a war between parent and non-parent professionals?

It's never talked about a great deal but is there a 'war' between those in the office with kids and those who don't? I've seen it and been through it myself where the parents have the perfect 'get out of jail' card against working late or getting the holiday requested - children! Although I have nothing against them, the 'childless' employees often fill in the gaps and have to pick up a lot extra. Bosses seem to expect the single employees to do the extra. So what's your experience? Is there an undercurrent of resentment over this in your office?

Here's an article I found about the same thing:

Anger of non-parents forced to work long hours

Coffee, tea, me? My days looking after a tea trolley...

"Coffee, tea, me?"  I'm sorry it's a line from working girl (you've got to see the film!) - but I've had a few weeks of it. The managers decided to do some 'morale boosting' and serve people on the phones with tea and coffee - and guess who got to make the drinks? Oh yes luckly me. 

So here i have another example of how the corporate world is undervaluing 30 & 40 somethings in the workplace. It's scary when i think about how companies loose valuable experience by doing this. It's even scarier for my career prospects- don't think i'll add making the coffee to my cv :S

Is conforming at work easier for younger employees?

I've often looked around at younger and older employees and wondered who is really being themselves at work? We all have a 'public' and a 'private' personality for work, home and depending on who we're with. But in the fast paced corporate world, how much do you have to pretend to be someone else to get ahead? When 30 and 40 somethings have been doing it for a number of years and then 'hit' a point where they say "I can only change so much..."; do younger employees step in and happily change who they are at work to succeed? 

Agreeing to all the managers suggestions without asking "why" and working 24-7 are just a few things I've seen younger employees do. Despite their experience, I've wondered is that 'really them?'

Some describe it as a workplace identity crisis and it can affect employees by stiffling their productivity, creativity and meaning the company doesn't have a real culture ('cause everyone's being 'fake'). What do you think? Are you allowed to really be yourself at work? Here's the Forbes article about Employee Identity Crisis

The fight against gender discrimination must continue...

Linda Yueh is a BBC Business Correspondent who discuss some really topical news pieces. She did a programme about the gender gap at work and this video from Christine Lagarde talking about the discrimination she suffered, shows how widespread this problem is. If you have a moment take a look:

Working Girl - a woman trying to find her space at work...

Working Girl is one of my favourite films. Ok, I know it's from the eighties and there's shoulder pads and 'big' hair everywhere! But what the film's heroine, Tess Mcguill goes through is something alot of us women are going through today. 

Bosses who take your ideas (but say it's a 2-way street), feeling like you're always having to prove yourself and being 'relegated' to the office junior is still common in our offices today. If you've never seen the film, you've got to watch it and here's a trailer below. After watching it, I'm sure you'll also be tempted to say the great line: "I have a head for business and a body for sin".

If you get a minute, tell me what you think - have you been treated like 'Tess Mcgill'?

How did I handle my job being given to the Office Junior?

It's never easy when you realise that your job is being given to someone else and you have to train them! Stomach churning, anger, worry and feeling backed into a corner.... I have felt a mixture of all of these! It was obvious what was happening when increasingly I was told to hand everything I was working on over to this person (not very subtle!).

Why was it happening? They wanted to pay someone less money to do my job. Sadly these things are often about the 'bottomline' and how hard you've worked isn't always remembered. The fact this person was younger also helped because they wouldn't ask questions or raise objections to anything. 

So how did I handle it? First, I restrained myself from telling my manager what I really thought of him (and that was hard!). Then I decided to do my job and train the student - after all, she hadn't created this situation, it really wasn't her fault. So I took her through everything. But that wasn't it for me - what was really important was that I prepared myself for when I'd leave (yes my manager wasn't aware of this & I wanted to surprise him :D)

First I thought about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go and updated my CV. Then I gathered examples of my work and made sure I had some good material to take with me to refer to (for interviews etc). It would have been easy to have been so angry and left without anything but why 'short change' yourself because a company doesn't recognise your value?

So if you are going through this, get angry (it's only normal!), do your job, as you don't want the company to 'turn against you' (remember you will need a reference), and get organised by putting together examples of your work/having something to refer to.

Always remember, this is just a moment or a point in time. It's not your life and you can always take your valuable experience with you; no-one can take that away from you :)

How have you handled having to train someone to take your job?