yes there are stupid questions

[Zoe Girl]

I have some new staff, yeah! Very exciting. One is also a staff aide like my 'problem child'. The difference is obvious comparing her one month on the job to his 4 months. She is just excited and willing to learn and talks to everyone on the team. Meanwhile he has not done anything that is worth a write up, just conversations but nothing moving him towards the door.

So I am ready to have his mid-year review and I thought of something great. We go through the plans for the day and my assistant lays out all the supplies and answers any questions. These are usually simple things like combining things to make slime or building with recycled materials to meet a goal. Often he goes to someone else and asks what to do even after that. I have wondered about brain issues, memory or just being checked out, however you can't really ask that. So I wanted to say that he is encouraged to ask questions but they need to be focused ones. So asking 'what do I do' is putting the rest of the team in more of a caretaking role instead of a teaching role, however a question like "this part of the lesson plan is unclear, how do these 2 parts fit together to make the car" is a good question.

So it really isn't that his questions are stupid but they are not ones that show me he is paying attention.

[herbgeek]

I resent questions that indicate laziness, and wanting to be spoon fed information in small bite sized pieces, instead of doing the sometimes hard work of listening/research/figuring it out on their own. I hate repeated questions that I know I've answered in multiple ways already. I hate simple questions that can be answered by Google as that indicates they think their time is more valuable than mine (and they can't be bothered to type it in, they'd rather have someone else do that work).

[Chicken lady]

I was raised by a father who "didn't suffer fools gladly": "What do I do?" "Teach". "I mean what do I do with this station" "help the kids make cars" "but how does the car go together?" "Oh! You need further clarification on how to put the car together! Which part of the instructions were unclear?"

i'm sure you will come up with a much better approach.

[iris lilies]

Zoe, this is a low performing employee. He will always be this way. He is the entire package of low level performance.

[Tybee]

Just a quick thought--if this employee could find these threads about himself, and they are visible to the outside world, then might he have a lawsuit against his employer? Not that he would, but I know for example that people are told to not have any social media presence about their ex when they are involved in court cases, etc. I guess that might be considered paranoid on my part, but it's something to think about. . .
And maybe that is a stupid question on my part, lol.

[KayLR]

He sounds very insecure---like maybe he's so afraid of making a mistake that he's afraid of simply taking any initiative.

[ToomuchStuff]

Makes me think of the old jokes about employee reviews :laff::


“Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.”
“His men would follow him anywhere but only out of morbid curiosity.”
“This associate is really not so much a has-been, but more of a definitely won’t be.”
“Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”
“When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to change feet.”
“He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.”
“This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”
“He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.”
“This employee should go far — and the sooner he starts, the better we’ll be.”
“This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.”
“This employee should not be allowed to breed.”
“This man has the whole six pack but is missing the plastic thingy that holds them all together.”
“He certainly takes a long time to make his pointless.”
“He doesn’t have ulcers, but he is a carrier.”
“He’s been working with glue too much.”
“He would argue with a signpost.”
“He has a knack for making strangers immediately.”
“When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell.”
“Is apparently very careful with equipment, as his tools show very little signs of wear.”
“Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled.”
“If brains were taxed, he’d get a rebate.”
“He’s so dense, light bends around him.”
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Got into the gene pool while the lifeguard wasn't watching.
A room temperature IQ.
A gross ignoramus -- 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus.
A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on.
A prime candidate for natural deselection.
Bright as Alaska in December.
One-celled organisms out-score him in IQ tests.
Donated his body to science before he was done using it.
Fell out of the family tree.
Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming.
Has two brains; one is lost and the other is out looking for it.
He's so dense, light bends around him.
If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate.
If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week.
If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change.
If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean.
It's hard to believe that he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm.
One neuron short of a synapse.
Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled.
Takes him 1 1/2 hours to watch 60 minutes.
Was left on the Tilt-A-Whirl a bit too long as a baby.
Wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.

[freshstart]

Zoe, this is a low performing employee. He will always be this way. He is the entire package of low level performance.

agreed, even if he does have processing issues. Is this your opportunity to say a trial period has not worked out and part ways?

[freshstart]

Makes me think of the old jokes about employee reviews :


too funny, I like the last one and when his IQ reaches 50 he should sell :laff:

[Zoe Girl]

Could he sue me? Well that is why I don't use my real name here. It is a place for me to work some things out rather than talk among people who know him. And I avoid too much information about him personally, and nothing I say is insulting.

We had his mid-year conversation today. We went through many parts, he is always on time and wearing the required shirt, he has already shown some improvement on following the lesson plans but it was a chance for me to explain where I want him to be and by what time, I was able to ask what was difficult about reading the lesson plans and tell him we needed clear and concise questions, that it affects the team negatively when he asks in general how to do things after they are going above and beyond to support him that much. We talked about other places where he can grow over the next couple months (he has already chosen not to do summer program, it is optional).

Then staff/team relationships! Oh joy. I feel really good about how I handled it but basically I don't agree with his perception of what is going on. Some things he said was that he thinks maybe we have an issue with him being a man or there is jealousy. I am perfectly comfortable just answering that 'no'. I hire men, not as many interested in this field as women, and they range in ability but not because they are men. He waffled on saying he felt negativity from P (my long term staff) and then saying things were in the past. I said that in 5 years and working with multiple teams I have never heard that P is difficult to work with or negative. At another point he did say that maybe he thought he was better at his job than he actually was, and maybe this wasn't the job for him. I of course cannot tell him to quit, but I did ask him about his educational philosophy based on that and other things he said. We have a structure of our programming and how we evaluate quality and write goals. I just asked him to think about if he could work within the program we have and support the goals we have. I am planning on checking in with him more often and if he says he is not sure about the job then I can help him find another job in our district or leave in a way that does not affect him negatively.

So he wandered a bit around verbally, going off on tangents a bit. There was an underlying theme of blame and judgment towards his team. On the playground today I asked him to make sure kids didn't go past a certain point because it was too far for good supervision. His first response was that he was the only one out there (compared to his coworkers who were supervising the playground structure). I brought that up to him, and told him that was my job. I said that about a few things, it is my job to watch for playground supervision, to monitor if a staff attitude is affecting the program, and if others are doing their job well enough. As far as being reactionary towards the others, there was just a blow up between him and another staff yesterday, he said that I didn't push his buttons. I gave a chuckle and my response was 'dude I have been meditating for 30 years, you can't expect this from other people'. Ahh just thinking about some of the extreme, aggressive, suicidal, traumatized kids I have sat with.

So I gave him homework, to assume positive intent. If he cannot assume others are thinking positive towards him at least assume neutral and that they are not trying to cause conflict. They simply do not know how things will affect him and it is not intentional if they say something that would trigger him. BTW does anyone know about living/working in Spain? He used to work in Spain and thinks it is very different, and it worked for him better. I don't know much about the culture of Spain.

[Zoe Girl]

BTW, he left an all-staff training today without talking to me (I was in the lobby so he had to sneak out some other door). I texted him after lunch and he said he was sick, which I knew from earlier in the day, and that he was putting in his notice. So 2 more weeks, then short staffed but functional again and hiring. But I really feel like a weight is off of me.

[ToomuchStuff]

Sounding like a kid in a car.....

Is he gone yet, is he gone yet, is he gone yet........

[Zoe Girl]

Yes I am that kid!

Friday at our camp day we were cleaning up from volcano project. He was using colored tissue paper instead of paper towels, we have 6 rolls of paper towels in our storage room. It will be easier without having to check on him constantly.

[Float On]

Yes I am that kid!

Friday at our camp day we were cleaning up from volcano project. He was using colored tissue paper instead of paper towels, we have 6 rolls of paper towels in our storage room. It will be easier without having to check on him constantly.

Must of been a very colorful clean up. Colored tissue paper always leaves a lot of color behind.