Preface: I recently got a job offer in April for a state government job working in financials. It's an automatic year long probation, which didn't concern me too much until the agencies true colors and directors behavior laid itself out.
Training is required, because certain processes cannot be strayed from since its handling money and state regulated. However, thats not truly how the agency operates because they change so much off cuff, lack effective communication and even though they explicitly said “you won't be fully trained in less than a year”, treat new hires as if they can't keep up but also consistently bring up that we don't know anything and consistently call us newbies(it's almost deragatory).
Training has been completely lacking and not prioritized… to the point me and the other new hires were told to just not ask questions on several occasions. Or dismissed when we do. They claim they want us to “find the answers” for things that have a strict process for. They're quick to chastise instead of inform.
Recently, my boss singled me out in a meeting for something I hadn't thought was an issue. It was during a 3 hr meeting they called “training”, but was really a regurgitation of information the only people who had context to were the people who already worked there, and some new information they went through but didnt really explain. But as always I listen, take my notes, try to gain some understanding.
Even though this meeting was on site, they had us bring our laptops and log on individually to Teams for people who were working remote…then mute ourselves and the computers. I didn't understand it either. The room had a large screen for presentations which the assistant Director did indeed use.
So as the meeting is going on some people are clearly still working on their laptops, running reports, sending out emails etc. But I see this all the time since I've been here, and no not from one person. Multitasking is a literal part of our job, we work from multiple screens everyday.
I saw an email sent during the meeting that we were clear to start running certain reports to meet a deadline the next day. My experience has been that when we are introduced to something new, they still expect it to be done by the end of the business day regardless of our level of understanding. So I started running reports in an effort to stay on top of things since it was nothing too complicated beyond attaching pdf documents to emails I already had drafted up. I didn't type a single thing. I sent two emails to my reviewer during downtime in the meetings (tangents that weren't about the topic we were supposed to be in there for, old stories etc).
A few minutes after that the director made an emotionally charged announcement that people shouldn't be working during the meeting and shed sent out emails to those who were “working”. I was surprised at that because that was never explicitly said or talked about until this point. I didnt know it was “wrong”. But I stopped the reports, saved and stamped the ones I already had open and continued as I was. I was already writing down meeting notes anyway though.
She waited 40 minutes after that announcement and then stopped the very important meeting to ask me to “move to the front of the room so I could pay attention”. I was extremely uncomfortable, tried to decline but since her intent was to publicly shame and call out, she wasn't going to let things continue until I did. (If you're wondering, I've laid pretty low here so there's no history of this type of stuff specific to myself.)
She sent me an email after business hours, saying that I was unfocused and didn't appreciate the presentation of the information.
I sent an email back, respectfully explaining that clearly I didn't understand this was frowned upon from observing what I have the last 6 months. But also, that it was unprofessional for her to call me out during the meeting.
She said I had no options to not do something I was “told to do” and that she didn't care about the fact I had notes.
Im a person that keeps healthy practical expectations, but now that I see how petty she is I have no real faith for anything in this agency. I'm on probation, I have nothing to protect my job. Just at the mercy of someone who is obviously emotionally charged and petty. And obviously I somehow have a target on my back. I started applying to jobs. I have a kid and need stability, so there isn't much else I can do.
TLDR: new job has weak training and terrible communication. called out and chastised during a 3 hr meeting for “working” when I had no inclination it was frowned upon. Power flex from boss. On a probation so they can do whatever they want.