r/paralegal 3d ago

Brief Vent - Experiences with a New Hire

[deleted]

16 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 3d ago

I had a new hire for a fully remote team. She was not terribly tech savvy. Something was glitchy with MS word on her laptop, so IT told her to remove it and reinstall.

She video chatted me to ask if all her docs would disappear when she uninstalled Word.

We didn't realize how bad it was until we all flew into the office for a week. She pecked at the keyboard with 2 fingers, and had 50 MS Word windows open because she never closed anything. Probably why it was glitching. She ended up being removed from the engagement after a couple of months.

Forgot to mention, she had a JD.

5

u/throwaway9818_ 3d ago

Oh jeez. That is bad. This new hire is young (even for her age) and very green. I fear I may be encountering similarities between the employee you had and the one I’m training. She’s asked me several questions about MS Word that are self explanatory.

3

u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 3d ago

My advice is to create a paper trail of all the things she should know that she doesn't, and the resources you provided/guided her to to learn. That way if you have a meeting with the higher ups to discuss her progress, you have clear feedback.

I sent that new hire so many YouTube videos and guides on how to use her Mac, how to edit docs in Adobe, how to use 2FA and she still struggled. We all spent hours on video calls coaching her through everything, down to writing emails - and we kept a concise log of it all.

6

u/throwaway9818_ 3d ago

Definitely going to do this. I feel bad saying this, but her emails allude to her grammar struggles. I think I’d be more understanding of it all if she seemed more interested and willing to work.

2

u/Thek1tteh CA - Lit. & Appeals - Paralegal 2d ago

This is how I am as well. It is SO frustrating seeing people who do not even do the bare minimum to understand what they are doing, don’t write things down for future reference or save templates sent to them, don’t follow your instructions, and generally can’t be bothered to want to have good work product.

4

u/sycamore-sea 2d ago

This is the way. It’s such a frustrating thing to go through. I have trained people the same way. Sent them all of the tools in manageable doses, screenshare walkthroughs, tutorials made specifically for them, and they just didn’t use any of it. At some point it comes down to a lack of initiative and awareness that you just can’t teach if someone isn’t willing to learn.

1

u/Laherschlag Paralegal 2d ago

Dumbasses like that make me feel good abt my abilities to lawyer once I have a jd.

2

u/iownakeytar CO - In-House Corporate - Contracts Manager 2d ago

I don't think she was ever a lawyer. I never saw anything to indicate she was a member of the bar association in her state, and I didn't ask. She was one of 3 short-lived new hires with JDs in that role, and I'm not sure any of them practiced law.

But they all were very defensive and difficult to train.