When my now husband first arrived from Nepal to live with me in Brisbane, Australia, we encountered a few teething problems, as was to be expected. He was raised in a village in the Himalayas, and from the age of 15 was a “Sherpa” or trekking guide in along the various mountain ranges of Nepal. His trip out to Australia was the first time he had left Nepal, and when we spent our first 30 days together in Nepal, we were not doing any cooking or cleaning as we were travelling and buying all our meals.
One day, I asked him to clean the dishes and left him to it. When I came back into the kitchen, there was water flying all over the kitchen. I exasperatedly raised my voice and asked him what he thought he was doing. He smiled at me without turning off the tap and said, “I am cleaning dish”. What my husband had done was stack all the dishes in the sink, turn on the tap and was using his hand to swipe away any food remnants along with the streaming water to clean the dish. In his method, there was no need for a dishcloth or washing liquid let alone a plug. “That’s not how you do it,” I told him. He looked at me generally confused as this is clearly the only way he had ever been taught to clean dishes. It struck me at that moment that I needed to show that my way was not the “right way”, it was just the “Australian way”. I took the time to show him the purpose of the plug, washing liquid, cloth and dish rack and how to reduce the force of the water through the flick mixer and he has been adequately washing (I believe in picking your battles) the household dishes ever since.
The way that we are first taught something is the way that we believe to be “right” until we are convinced that there may be an alternative approach. When someone new starts in a job, there is a time of acculturation where they are learning about the ways that the new culture approaches tasks. This is a critical time, particularly when an employee is early in their career or has had a significant change in circumstances leading up to this role. If the employee is lacking in self-confidence, they may not stand up and explain why they are doing it a certain way. Often, more training is required with some employees.
According to training industry, it takes between 12-24 months to become fully productive in a new role and that is dependent on the degree of training put in in the first 6 months. It is the role of the manager and team to set the new starter up for success by investing in training and projecting a feeling of approachability with them. They need to feel able to ask questions and put forward ideas and their point of view to have a fair probation period.
I have lost count of the amount of times I have been asked by a manager to terminate in probation because it seemed like the easiest option for them. They clearly were not able to spend quality time up front with an employee. This should be the highest priority for them to achieve the desired outcome. I always question: are they doing the task wrong or differently? Have you taken the time to talk through the way you would like it to be done? Are they willing to improve and enthusiastic about learning? This paints a picture of whether it was a wrong hire, or they need more support to be successful. I am not against terminating in probation and I often regard it as the best outcome, however, putting the lens of 'is it wrong or is it different' can help clarify what is really going on
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