3 days in with an IT job.
I’m 3 days into a new IT contract and I’m ALREADY seeing issues. Today took the cake for me. I need to vent. Sorry if this is rambling is too long. I want some support.
I was hired along with four others. I was “partnered” with a woman let’s call Ginna. Besides the manager constantly holding doors open for Ginna and I (awkward) I found it weird that only us women were paired together.
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Ginna but she is not an IT-skilled professional. Let alone a professional.
She has been constantly late, cannot follow the dress code, doesn’t mute her phone, and can’t seem to follow the instructions given. She is very sweet and I absolutely sure an AMAZING customer service person but so far has little ability or drive to fill this position. I have found that am constantly carrying her. Again, it’s only been three days.
So lets skip to today, day three. Our manager promised us that today Ginna and I would begin to learn key hands-on skills required for the everyday management of our roles. I’m beyond excited. We meet a PM of sorts as planned. She escorts us to a small conference room and explains that she needs assistance with documentation. At this point, I’m disappointed but still a team player.
Then she let’s the shoe drop. She says, “OH YOU KNOW WOMEN ARE JUST SO MUCH BETTER AT ORGANIZING AND THOSE BOYS DOWN THERE JUST KNOW HOW.”
I spent 5 hours PAINFULLY combining 3 sloppy documents with Ginna. If I didn’t tell Ginna exactly what to do she would stare off into the void. I had to keep her on a track like a toddler. At one point she let she her computer lockout and she couldn’t figure out how to get it to unlock again.
I asked her to share her documents with me and she shared the same WRONG document with FOUR times. Even argued with me when I told her the title was different.
So I finished the master documents by myself. That was my day. While the male trainees were learning how to image PCs by company policy I was babysitting Ginna in Word. That is what my NINE plus years of hard-driven experience have bought me.
I was so close to losing it. Over lunch, I did a 3rd round interview for a WAY better position. They called me shortly after I finished the documents. I’m just waiting on the offer letters now.
I’m still going in until the new job kicks in. I’ve not paired with Ginna anymore but OH GUESS the only other woman, Kristen. What are we doing? Customer service. We aren’t going to learn anything IT or value related. Whatever. I’ll take your money and you better believe as soon as my new job comes in I AM A GHOST.
Is it just me or has nothing changed in the damn 8 years of STEM? EVERWHERE I go. Damn. It’s nothing against women like Ginna because honestly they haven’t given the chance to learn skills…it’s just harrowing. I’ve proven myself time and time again, yet here I am fiddling away with with formatting a table in Word documents. WTF.