Zoe Girl
3-19-16, 1:43am
I have a new staff person, it has taken most of the year to hire someone, whew. He is young, very excited, and definitely needs a lot of training. He has also missed 2 shifts in the first 3 weeks of work. Today was a snow storm, and he has almost an hour long bus ride, so I wasn't too surprised. My boss made a meeting optional today and a site inspection visit I was expecting was moved to Monday. However the other day he missed a shift because he lost his wallet, and another time he was late and visibly agitated. For this position we hire young and inexperienced people, they are not left alone with kids for a long time, they do tend to start off with basic work issues like transportation on the bus system. I talked to him today and asked him to try for the next week to get to work really early, told him he could go to my office and hang out or we could work on all the training we need to do, and we would give it the week to see if he can make it to work. That is a conversation I feel very comfortable with and can handle if it works out or not, follow the HR guidelines if he cannot get to work, etc. We have a lot of training to do so this time would be well used.
Here is the difficult one, he overshares and has since the 2nd day of work. Things about his boyfriend, weird complicated stories and he seems to be asking advice of my other staff (I am not directly with them during this time). He even told them he has a personality disorder up front. All of this turns off when the kids are there, he is actively engaged, appropriate, a little scattered but that is common with many aides. It is just during the set-up time he is making other staff uncomfortable. One thing I am planning is to adjust so I can be there during set-up. So this needs a conversation. His reference for hiring was a colleague of mine so one part of this may be calling her to check in. I basically need to tell him that there are professional boundaries with sharing and some options for support outside of work, while treating him in a way that makes it comfortable to keep working with us if he can get his transportation issue worked out.
So hmm, actually have not had this one before. I have stood between families who want to beat each other up, between a staff and a parent who almost came to blows, had an amazingly hard conversation with a co-worker about extreme body odor, mediated between sisters over a wedding and dreadlocks, followed a homeless guy who picked up my work phone and got it back, basically I am pretty good at difficult conversations. I did handle all of them well, Any wonderful ideas on this one?
Here is the difficult one, he overshares and has since the 2nd day of work. Things about his boyfriend, weird complicated stories and he seems to be asking advice of my other staff (I am not directly with them during this time). He even told them he has a personality disorder up front. All of this turns off when the kids are there, he is actively engaged, appropriate, a little scattered but that is common with many aides. It is just during the set-up time he is making other staff uncomfortable. One thing I am planning is to adjust so I can be there during set-up. So this needs a conversation. His reference for hiring was a colleague of mine so one part of this may be calling her to check in. I basically need to tell him that there are professional boundaries with sharing and some options for support outside of work, while treating him in a way that makes it comfortable to keep working with us if he can get his transportation issue worked out.
So hmm, actually have not had this one before. I have stood between families who want to beat each other up, between a staff and a parent who almost came to blows, had an amazingly hard conversation with a co-worker about extreme body odor, mediated between sisters over a wedding and dreadlocks, followed a homeless guy who picked up my work phone and got it back, basically I am pretty good at difficult conversations. I did handle all of them well, Any wonderful ideas on this one?