Probem at work, not sure what to do..

Quiet Girl

Ok,

so recently (3 months ago) I started a new job as an intern which I thought would be exciting and great, and help to boost my career. I was assigned a mentor who is supposed to be guiding me etc. At the start things were ok, my mentor was giving me tasks and we were sitting down once a week to discuss the following week etc. However in the last few weeks iv just been kinda left on my own, not really sure what to do with myself, I am onyl an intern so I dont want to do anything without the go ahead. I have been consulting my mentor an he has been saying oh yes we will do that tommorrow and so on. Still I am left on my own. I spoke to him yet again today and he said he was really busy all day yet when I walk by his office I can hear he is watching golf on his laptop, I am so frustrated.

Should I confront him? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

kylith

Is there someone else you can talk to? If possible approach management and tell them that your mentor doesn't have anything for you to work on right now, and ask if there's anything else you can be working on. Never be afraid to ask for more to do.

SunnyDub1

Confront him and tell him what you have said here.

Ask him should you just go a head with the work or wait for him to consult with you it's just that you just feel like you are on your own and want to be doing stuff and gaining as much experience as possible while you are there.

If he doesn't react to this and things still stay the same, go above him to the supervisor/manager.

He sounds like a lazy twat that's just not bothered with you, and considering you are there to gain experience for your future it's very selfish behavior on his behalf.

Best of luck

Diziet

Maybe after 3 months you are expected to take a bit more responsibility. Ask for some more long term tasks and report back by email on progress perhaps?

'Confronting' you mentor is actually the wrong way to think about it (and the wrong language to use; why seek a confrontation?). You are trying to build a presence and, presumably, a career, so think in terms of self development in your next conversation.

P. Breathnach

kylith wrote: »

Is there someone else you can talk to? If possible approach management and tell them that your mentor doesn't have anything for you to work on right now, and ask if there's anything else you can be working on. Never be afraid to ask for more to do.

Good advice.

You might not even have to go to a higher level. Look around the workplace and see if there is anybody who seems approachable, and who might welcome an offer of help.

Taltos

Don't confront him.

Schedule a recurring meeting with him for 20 minutes each day.
Set the agenda.
1. Review of previous tasks
2. Agreement on new tasks
3. General feedback

Don't mention golf or boredom. First try to work it out with him and failing that ask him if he has no current work could he reach out to his peers or his manager for some other tasks. Stress that you are enjoying the opportunity and love to be kept busy.
Going directly to his boss might work in some company's - but others have a strict hierarchical structure and in those you would effectively be talking yourself out of a job.
You could though offer to talk to some of these other managers to take tasks - but again with his permission.

SunnyDub1

The Op was assigned a mentor for a reason.

While some people think it's ok not to approach him, he was assigned to you for a reason, and that reason was to give the op work and help him/her.
I think by not approaching him and doing your own thing might come across to others in the office as a bit rude but then again it could been seen as using your own initiative. Depends on the people and the company really.

Going off doing your own thing is just a free ride for him - not having to worry about you and more time to watch golf :rolleyes:
Speak to him.

Merkin

Quiet Girl wrote: »

However in the last few weeks iv just been kinda left on my own, not really sure what to do with myself, I am onyl an intern so I dont want to do anything without the go ahead.

Based on work and tasks you have completed for him previously, does any of this work need to be replicated or done on a regular basis? If so, send him on a list of tasks that you perceive need to be done/you are able for and ask him to sign off on you going ahead with them.

Taltos

Mod Note: OP we have a work problems forum - if you want the mods here can move your thread there for you

Taltos

LegacyUser

I wouldn't confront him to be honest.

Do you think it might be a "test" of sorts?
I mean as in he is testing your ability to work independently without having to hold your hand. If so "confronting" him will look bad on you as it might show that you are not great at working independently.

What I would do in this situation, is continue with your work in the way you think the company would want it done and just give him a gentle, non-confrontational reminder about your scheduled meeting.

My gut tells me it is this sort of "seeing how you handle yourself when left to your own devices" type tests.

LegacyUser

Oh and another thing - I wouldn't go going over his head to his supervisor. Management generally don't want to be listening to these types of things that should be sorted between the employees themselves.
This would just look bad on your book again as you will come across to your boss as a moaner or a complainer.

IrishEyes19

It's pretty poor that someone is assigned a mentor and your left with nothing to do. After all your not being paid for this I assume? I can see where the OP stands perfectly, you are assigned something, you do it and your left standing idly wondering where to go next. How is that a test by the way? What are they supposed to do. Go do someone else's job. Its awful that as a society we are almost inclined to say, dont ask him, dont go to him. it'll look bad, it'll irk him. The guy was assigned to the intern. The least the company could do for unpaid work is have a proper rota where the intern is not looking over their shoulder after every job completed.

OP, I would approach them, but play it neatly. Rather than going down the negative route, perhaps say something like, you are completing your tasks faster than expected and you know how busy he is, and would it be possible to have a rota or jobs laid out for the day, so you arent interupting him. Its sad but sometimes you have be sugary sweet with some employers so as not to step on toes. I dont personally like it. But some people come with great egos. best of luck.

esprimo

I imagine the issue here is that your mentor might simply be burned out thinking of jobs/tasks for you to complete on a regular basis. I know in an ideal world there would be a list of jobs for you every day to do so your not bothering anyone as such. I know it can be quite taxing on someone to have an intern who you have to think of jobs for them to do which isn't your fault obviously.
I would suggest sharing your concern about the amount of work available to do and if there is realistically isnt that much going on, you should amicably leave for another internship which will give you better experience or more of a challenge. Theres nothing worse I think than someone just giving you meaningless jobs for the sake of keeping you busy which is the case sometimes in places. Basically if theres not much work going on, leave for another place or get work from another person/department as others have suggested, dont be twidling your thumbs, you'll regret it later on.

mtjm

I'm going to give you some infomation, I work in a big well known company I operate in facilities section and security is important here, while I don't have an issue mentoring people or show them around to what is done in my department only problem I have is the following:

security, in some cases we can't show them everything

lifting, the person would have to do a manual lifting course and ahear to guidlines of health and safety,

Another thing would be working on your own initiative, you know what has to be done rather than being told what to do you been there long enough to do task without being asked


I wouldn't bring it up unless you've been asked by senior managmennt about your experience you may raise it up, like I said in earlier post there are things that temps can and can't be shown

wallycharlo

Is he just a mentor or do you also report directly into him, i.e. he is also your primary supervisor?

In the case that he is not also your direct supervisor then you could try to take the initiative yourself to work on something for a week or so, and then present it to your actual supervisor. Even if he is not your direct supervisor you could adopt the same approach, your pro-active approach will certainly be noticed by your peers (and also his) and should stand to you in the future.

kjl

When I started my job I was given a mentor, the company could literally not have pick a worse person to be my mentor. He was flaky, temperamental and completely over the top about everything. I am a quick learner and I felt he was so slow. they type of person who would spent 20 min explaining something that took 1 min to explain.

He wasn't even a specialist in my area, Im IT and he is a business consultant. The worst part is we were working on a project together and he gave me a really hard time. There was one time he made a mistake and tried to pin it on me. I firstly spoke to him about it and when I said that it was him who made the mistake he said that's not true, when I showed him email proof he turned around and I am not talking about this anymore. When it came to appraisal time, he had made a formal complaint about me regarding this issue.

I 100% did not give in, I went straight to my manager and showed him everything and told them they had selected the wrong mentor for me. I made sure they knew about everything and said point blank that I did not want to work with this man anymore.

I am not saying that you should march in and do the same thing, but this story was more to highlight that companies don't always get it right, and it sounds to me like this guy is not suited to be a mentor.

I would give it two more week, but in the two weeks, I would be doing exactly what one of the above posters said. Use outlook or whatever your office uses to organize mentor sessions. If he is refusing the meetings, then you need to consult your manager and explain that there is no point in you coming into to work if you have no work to do. Show them the meeting requests and tell them that you are making an effort, but are not getting what you want out of the experience.

My company responded to me being firm, and it worked out well. I can't promise the same for you, but what I can promise is that the day passes very slow if you have nothing to do.