I realize this is largely a “bitching about your job” subreddit at this point so here I am.
I have almost seven years of experience in banking. In early March, I took a position at a commercial/industrial bank, which is usually the “next step” after you stop working in branches.
The intention upon hire – and I have this in writing – was to train me on the basics, introduce me to the clients, and then after 12 months move me into the position of “Commercial Deposit Officer,” who would work with the relationship managers and credit analysts to help businesses manage cash flow and grow their business, as well as network to bring in new business. Historically these are things I have been very good at, routinely being a top performer at previous jobs, and I jumped at the opportunity.
Eight months in, this has not been what has happened. I am instead in a cubicle doing data entry and clerical work all day, which I'm not good at – I'm a people person, I'm not a “make sure the data from report 1234-678a from Friday matches the quarterly report 9876-543b from last month, scan pages 1-3 into database A, 4-6 into database B, and then print pages 1-9 and FedEx them to corporate for final review” person.
And here's the kicker – even if I was good at that kind of work, which I'm not, nobody trained me on how to do it. My “training” consisted of shadowing a few people who do slightly different jobs, and then being given a book of written procedures to reference. When I have questions, I'm told “it's in the Procedures.” Except here's the thing – it's not. Many of these procedures are incomplete and incorrect.
As a result, I am constantly fucking up. I'm not a stupid or lazy person. I graduated college a decade ago, with honors, with a double major in sociology and psychology, while working 40 hours a week. I just have found myself in the position where I'm doing a job that was not the job I signed up for and is not a job I'm good at and that nobody trained me to do.
On Wednesday, I got fucking ambushed. My boss pulled me into her office to let me know that we had failed an audit (this is serious shit, like a restaurant failing a health inspection) because I had been filing a report incorrectly for three consecutive months. Basically, I have four documents I need to pull every day – A B C and D. I am supposed to put A B and D in a folder for review and mail C to the client. I pulled up the written procedures I'd been given on how to file that report, and I showed her that I'd been following the procedures – “print A and C, put them in this folder, and mail a copy of C to the client.” She informed me that those weren't really the procedures, it was more of a set of guidelines, and pointed me to a different document, also labeled “procedures” but significantly more in depth. This document is not referenced anywhere, there is no indication that this document even existed.
I told her politely and professionally that it wasn't reasonable to expect that I would assume that the written procedures, which match how I was trained, would be incorrect, and that I would instead need to look for a secret separate document that actually has the correct procedures on it. I also noted that these reports are reviewed monthly, and that two of my colleagues, who have all been here for a minimum of five years, had signed off on them, certifying that they'd been done correctly, in July, August, and September. I even pulled up an email chain where someone said “hey, some of these folders only have A in them and C is missing,” never informing me that the folder was actually only supposed to have A B and D. She changed the subject and dismissed me from her office.
This morning I had to sign a “final warning” about my “poor performance.”
I feel like I am going insane. I'm constantly expected to read peoples' minds and know that sometimes there's a secret way of doing something that nobody ever told me about, and, more importantly, nobody is willing to tell me about. My coworkers are apparently constantly complaining about my “sloppy” or “incomplete” work, but what the fuck am I supposed to do? If I was fucking psychic I would be on television, not at a cubicle.
Has anyone else ever just… not been trained? And then repeatedly gotten hassled for not knowing how to do stuff they weren't trained on? I mean, clearly they're trying to fuck me here, but I just mean generally.