as the turnover turns...

For only having been working for five years and not being in HR, I have way too much experience interviewing, hiring and training new people. I suppose it's good experience to have, but it hasn't been fun getting it.

In the past two years, I have helped hire and train four full-time employees and three interns. When your office is only five or six people, this is a lot. And the fun just doesn't end. Today I expect that one of our employees will give notice -- we've known about this for a month and while we've gotten a chance to get used to the idea, it's still going to suck. She's the only person who knows how to do what she does; and I'm the only person in the department who has the vaguest clue how to attempt to do what she does.

The best part about this? One of our other employees (the one I most directly supervise) has decided that she no longer likes her job (it's just not for her), and thinks she might be interested in Person A's job. Problem is she doesn't have the skills to do it. Sure, we could pay to train her. But given what I know about Person B, I think it's a bad match. Her brain just doesn't work the way that Person A's job would require. Shouldn't be an issue, right?

Nope. Rather that telling her that she might not be well suited for the job, Person in Charge wants to allow Person B to figure out that out for herself. Well, actually, he told her to talk to Person A about what her job really entails. And after that, if she is still interested, Person in Charge wants to give her a chance to do the job.

Person Jen is incredibly frustrated by the entire situation. She likes Person B, but is irritated that Person B has not talked to her about not wanting to do her current job (Person Jen found out about this from Person in Charge), is not interested in identifying the problems she has with her current job and attempting to address them, and may be handed a job that she is not equipped to do, thereby exponentially decreasing the productivity of the department.

Other issues at work here: we don't pay enough to hire new people who have the experience that we need; we don't pay enough to keep the people we have; Person B inquired as to whether if she gave notice, she would be eligible for unemployment (she wouldn't be) -- which means she's likely to want Person A's job even if she knows she's not cut out for it.

In the meantime, Person B is not doing her current job very well. And after being here for twenty minutes this morning she went home sick.

Person Jen is sick of this crap, and wonders whether being sick of crap constitutes sufficient illness for use of a sick day.