Being in the shoes of a rank and file and a supervisor
Author: James Ortiz
Having one job drains a lot from a person in a day... Imagine having two jobs, one as a supervisor and one as an OJT/Intern.
A week before I got the job as an HR Assistant in a call center company for my OJT, I started working for our family business for the reason that the person-in-charge of almost all the central functions of the business resigned. No one in the family forced me to take the position yet I volunteered myself because I believe so much as to what my mother was doing. The one I replaced was the only person who knew and was in-charge of everything.... and I mean EVERYTHING, from production up to the follow through of the business platform. Because our business is based on IT (Information Technology or some call in Information Systems), I was facing something which I had no knowledge of. As an undergraduate of BSBA-Human Resource Management, my knowledge was limited to psychology and business management(No, IT their except knowledge of the MSOFFICE). In addition to the situation, I was to teach 2 of our employees who both don't have a knowledge of computers(just great!). I had to squeeze in all the knowledge that the resigning person-in-charge has mastered for years and to add to the pressure I had to finish 400 hours of my OJT for this semester in order to graduate. Furthermore, my OJT as an HR assistant was not an easy job, I had to conduct testing to new applicants and document everything which we submit as a report to our respective supervisors in the company. My daily schedule was to wake up 7AM in the morning to go to my OJT work and go home at around 8pm to work for our company which sometimes end at around 2am. I cannot count the sleepless days I had yet I didn't write this blog to emote about the hardships I am undertaking now. I wrote to share with you what I learned through this experience.
We shouldn't underestimate the potential of what employees with no college or even high school background. I witness it myself as I was teaching the 2 employees with regards to how to operate the whole IT system. Can you believe that it only took me a week or two to teach them everything to the point that they are the ones teaching our other employees how to operate and use the computer. Amazing, I always would whisper to myself but not because I'm a good teacher, rather I am astonished as to how they perform even though they were not graduates of computer degree programs and as to how they absorb knowledge even though everything was done in a short period of time. Actually now, I am only giving them minimal supervision when they are performing their work. The only difference I saw between myself working in my OJT and them working in my family's company is that they lack confidence. Confidence in a sense that they are afraid of deciding for themselves maybe because they have not yet mastered the whole thing. I still do get frequent queries regarding simple decisions they should be doing on their own yet they are afraid to do so. Overall, I would still compliment their job well done and their perseverance to practice their critical thinking to the point that they were already the ones giving me ideas on how to innovate some of the operations in the system. Unbelievable!
As for being an OJT, I began to understand the side of rank and file versus management. I encountered times wherein I was blamed even though I followed what my supervisors told me to do. I usually call it "power trip" because management sees that its leaders failure are due to uncooperative members. Also, I have a lesser say compared to supervisors who sometimes don't admit their faults and sometimes feel offended when there knowledge is being tested. Everything I absorb in my OJT, I apply to my employees. One way of doing so was actually interacting with them through open forums regarding what difficulties or problems they encountered with management especially in situations wherein their voices are not heard. I make it a point to forward their complaints to the people concerned and somewhat provide them protection with what they were told to do from what they were supposed to do.
When I compare the way I work in my OJT and the way they work in our family's company, I sometimes wonder, maybe I am not doing much of what I am expected to do. Maybe I should be challenging myself more to furthermore improve the things I can contribute.
Labels: applying, learning, ojt, rank and file vs supervisor
Posted Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 8:56 PM |1422 comments | Click here to add a comment | 
