Well, as most of you are aware, I’m not a very diplomatic person but I’m currently in a position where I want to tell someone to show more initiative. This particular person is a 21-year-old male who’s in his very first job since leaving polytech. He is very, very shy and does not speak unless spoken to.
I’m a bit of a chatterbox in the office (gee, no surprises there!) and my constant chatting effectively forces him to communicate with me. I think he feels comfortable around me whereas the other people seem to intimidate him. This is why I want to drop a flea in his ear about showing more initiative because the other people in the office are starting to notice that he lacks it. I’m one of five people in the company and two of these people are our employers (who spend much of their time working remotely).
Let me give an example of where he lacks initiative. As some background, our office got lightly flooded due to the atrocious weather last weekend. Our young chap was the only person there on Monday/Tuesday. For two days, he was surrounded by a pungent odour that I can only describe as smelling like damp laundry. I got back to work on Wednesday to discover this wretched stench and develop a headache within 30 minutes. I’m quickly told that my workmate had endured two days of headaches and feeling ill due to this. I saw the other company on our floor had dehumidifiers running flat-out so I promptly rang the property manager and asked him to sort something out for us. Problem solved, okay.
Now, our guy is only 21 and I understand that he has no life experience and a lot to learn. I wouldn’t expect him to ring the property manager but when your employer is aware that you’re alone in the office and rings to ask how things are going, would you not expect anyone with brains to say that the floor is flooded and that it’s making your feel unwell? Maybe he could have asked for help or for a name of who he should contact to get it fixed?
This isn’t an isolated situation. Another example (relating to a lack of communication skills) was when we hired out our meeting room and the hardware died while about 10 people were using it. Our young guy (employed as a Sys Admin/Jnr Developer) looked at the server then walked back to his desk, sat down without saying a word, then continued working. We asked him if it was going again and he said “No” then continued working. Naturally, we pressured him for information asking “so what are you doing about it? Does Al [the boss] need to come in?” then we made him phone our boss. Once he ended the phone call, he didn’t say a word about what was happening (that the boss was coming in and would be there in 10 minutes) although we had paying customers sitting there waiting for us to fix it and having no idea what was going on.
I don’t want to be brutal on this guy but his lack of actions is really starting to frustrate the people that work in the office every day. He is kind of delicate and will be easily broken. What is the kindest way to tell this guy to think for himself, act without being asked, and to let people know what’s going on?
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Originally Posted by Gubb
he's going to screw up a sweet job, possibly career. Find out what his dream / life goal is and let him know his skills and abilities are on an equal. If he feels inferior he will become inferior.
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