I’m sure this happens to you all the time. A new, eager employee joins your team. He or she means well, but is asking a lot of questions and not necessarily pulling his or her weight (yet). Your manager hasn’t really onboarded him or her really well so the burden fall to you. Or your boss may have asked you to help the new employee by showing him or her the ropes. Over and over again, you end up feeling the burden of addressing that junior colleague’s 1000 questions a day, as well as picking up the slack from his or her limited productivity.
So what do you do?
Let’s get right to it…
How to Handle an Annoying Junior Colleague
1. Guide them (but do not do for them)
It’s important for your junior colleague to learn how to do things for himself or herself. Or, learn where to at least find answers to his or her question. So, for example, if he or she asks you how to input expenses, you could probably easily pull up the expenses system and show him or her. However, you aren’t teaching the new employee to fish for himself/herself; rather, you are creating his or her dependency on you for answers.
Instead of showing your junior colleague the expense system, consider directing them to you internal portal (or other relevant source). So, when he or she asks about how to enter expenses, you could reply:
“Have you done a search on the portal yet for the expense system?”
Then, let the junior colleague go try that. Over time, he or she will get used to just going to the portal (or whatever is the relevant information source at your company) for basic questions before coming to you.
This example may not be directly relevant to your work and workplace, and you may not even have a portal, but the general idea is to steer them to find answers for themselves.
If you guide instead of doing for the employee, you will establish more self-sufficiency and the junior colleague won’t annoy you (or take up as much of your time).
2. Set up defined meeting times for his or her questions
If you’re finding your new junior colleague pops in your office with 1 question a million times a day, consider setting up weekly time. Ask him or her to keep a running list of questions that you can address during those meetings.
For example, schedule 30 minutes, say, 2x/week for your colleague to ask questions. Certainly if there are emergencies, he or she can reach out. But setting up scheduled time will help you “time box” your interactions with this new colleague and make him or less less taxing on your time (and less annoying!).
3. Invite him or her to join you as you work
If you’re working on something that you know your junior colleague will need to also do, consider inviting him or her to join / observe you as you work on it.
So, for example, if you need to develop a 5 year forecast, consider inviting your colleague to sit with you for an hour as you narrate what you are doing to prepare the forecast. This will help you “hit 2 birds with 1 stone” in that you are getting your work done, and training your colleague at the same time.
Other things to consider would be inviting your new co-worker to join you as you facilitate a meeting or give a presentation. This will help him or her know what “good looks like” so he or she won’t have to ask you later.
4. Share the burden with others
If you have other peers in your department, consider enlisting their help in on boarding this new, junior colleague. Identify another colleague who can answer questions for the junior colleague. In some situations, I’ve done things like direct the employee to go to our administrative staff for certain topics, and to me for others.
This way, you’re not the only person bearing the weight of onboarding!
5. Summarize for your your contributions to your manager
You should let your manager know how much work you are putting into onboarding the junior colleague. First, the manager should be aware that there is a gap in on boarding; he or she may not know if you always step up to fill that gap by investing hours upon hours teaching new employees. By summarizing your efforts, you get credit for helping, but also help nudge your manager to establish better on boarding processes so the burden doesn’t fall on you.
Even better, offer to convert this list of actions you have taken into an on boarding plan for your manager. Now you’ve become a leader in your workplace, which will absolutely benefit your future at the company!
More considerations
I know this is a lot to ask of you when you’re not getting paid to onboard the new employee. It’s easy to get stuck in the mindset that this is your “manager’s job.” Also, it may not be realistic for you spend even a small amount of time helping a junior employee.
Overall, if you treat this junior employee with empathy and come from a place of support, you will be in a good place. Remember, you were once new too!
Also, remember that your junior colleague may be around for a long time. And who knows if they someday become a more senior employee (or even your boss). So, it’s best to do the right thing and help him or her out.
If you take the steps above, you will have effectively successfully onboarded a new employee! What a great way to demonstrate leadership and potential to be a manager in the future! Imagine how great this example will sounds to future hiring managers when you interview for a management position!
If you like this post, check out these other posts:
For additional perspective check out this post on Ask a Manager.
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