Career Clinic: My trainee is impossible to manage!

Yes, you are being too precious. You are the supervisor and you need to talk to your trainee about it, instead of relying on the partner to sort it out. By failing to pull your trainee up on their attitude, you risk bringing the reputation of the firm and the profession down.

Anon. -16 Feb 2009 | 07:00

Surely the solution is a simple one. The trainee isn't ready to qualify based on the information in your question, so logically the training principal should refuse to sign off on the trainee until he/she has met the required standard. The trainee will then either buck their ideas up and come up to the required standard or they will ultimately choose to walk away from the law.

Tom -16 Feb 2009 | 08:51

Unfortuntely there is probably no point in you taking the responsibility and dealing with the trainee's shortcomings; arguably you don't even have the standing to do so, given you are not a partner and the training principal. I am assuming you've already tried gentle persuasion and that the message is not getting through. It is then the training principal's responsibility to sign off on the trainee, and if he chooses to do so for a quiet life, you have a clean conscience. If you are asked to provide a written appraisal of the trainee's performance, no doubt you will be reasonable but candid about the trainee. Finally, while in your eyes, the trainee has shortcomings, do you think she has other qualities that are of value to your firm? Technical excellence is not always the only important criteria for a business in deciding to employ a person. M

May -16 Feb 2009 | 10:59

Has the trainee had problems in other seats? Is it just that they (shock horror) hate your area of law? Maybe you are being too demanding (or more demanding than other supervisors) and they simply withdraw from the work rather than make an effort? Have you spoken to the trainee yourself about their performance? And maybe they think it's not worth it as they won't get a job anyway in this climate? Maybe they have domestic problems that you don't know about? Before you come on here, I would do some digging-in work. There could be 101 reasons why this trainee is not meeting your expectations.

Helen -16 Feb 2009 | 11:37

I had a supervisor who was rubbish. She didn't understand what she was doing herself, made simple things incredibly difficult and kept getting confused about various aspects of law and practice. She had difficulty with spelling. The supervisor-trainee relationship deteriorated. Ultimately, she stopped giving me work and I was fine with that. Based simply on my experience - and admittedly that might not be representative - I would think it might be worthwhile considering your own competence.

X -16 Feb 2009 | 12:10

May - that is rubbish. Of course, as the supervisor, you have the standing to discuss a trainee's shortcomings with them. They are put into your care and it is up to you to encourage their development. The training principal has overall responsibility for all the trainees, but not day-to-day supervision of each trainee individually.

Anon. -16 Feb 2009 | 13:51

Anon, there's a limit to what an associate supervisor can do. As I said, I have assumed that the poster has already tried gentle persuasion. Beyond that, it seems to me that the problem is just not worth making a fuss over, if the partners can't be bothered to do anything about it. At worst, the poster can kick up a fuss and then find he is in the embarassing situation of having no support for his actions from the partners. In the present climate, many partners will have other worries than worrying about the odd trainee with attitude but without the intelligence or sense to make a half-decent effort at each seat.

May -16 Feb 2009 | 15:36

May, I don't know what you mean by "gentle persuasion". In my view, if the supervisor is not sitting the trainee down and telling them their attitude stinks and their work is lousy, then the supervisor is not doing what is expected of them. It is part of the job. It is not good enough not to tell the trainee anything, expecting the partner to get involved, and then give the trainee a bad written appraisal at the end of the seat out of the blue. I'm sure you are right in that partners have more to worry about then the occasional bad trainee, so they probably expect the supervisor to take the matter in hand.

Anon. -16 Feb 2009 | 15:54

So because you couldn't deal with the trainee's shortcomings you simply stopped giving him or her work. That is pretty p*ss poor to be honest and woefully weak. If one of my reports took that attitude I'd be less than impressed.

red robbo -16 Feb 2009 | 16:13

I would suggest that you need to engage with a people management course. To actually put your hand up to not providing a trainee with work should mean you are reported to the Office of Supervision of Solicitors for retraining. The trainee probably needs counselling, as the stress of receiving no work when not being informed of the reason would or could materially affect the wellbeing of the trainee and all others involved in the traineeship program - people talk. As a supervisor, your conduct itself is serious, regardless of the trainee's attitude.

ANON -16 Feb 2009 | 16:53

I'm a trainee - hopefully a good one - and cannot understand why you would hold back from a full-on ear-bashing. Firstly, it must be right that a direct line manager can (even if only an associate) tell juniors when their attitude/performance is unacceptable. Secondly, are supervisors at your firm not consulted about whether their trainees warrant an NQ position? Unless she has no desire to remain at the firm, I imagine that a few choice words explaining that your review of her will be damning if she doesn't pull her finger out will have the desired effect.

HTG -16 Feb 2009 | 17:07

In my defence, it is only recently that I ceased providing work to the trainee. Initially I did discuss at length my expectations with her, tried to improve her performance and went through with her (at length) how work could be improved on. It wasn't just performance but also attitude (constantly half an hour late for work yet still leaving at 5pm on the dot, for example). I do think I was fair, but if someone is just not interested I can't force them to be! I set high expectations for myself, so why should they fall by the wayside for someone who is not particularly interested in her career? Surely the onus is on the trainee to show interest and commitment. I have too much work on to bother with an unmotivated/ disinterested individual, so why should I put my efforts into a lost cause. She knows the training principal is a pushover and she took advantage of that. For the record, it's not me that's the pushover!!

poster -16 Feb 2009 | 17:40

I know the type... sigh... it sounds like the trainee either isn't interested in your departmentt or quite possibly in the law. I've seen this before with more than one trainee pretty much doing a TC as two years of finishing school before they pick up their trust fund! Suggest sitting them down, and asking if they are intending to seek a qualification position, which area, explain you're a little concerned that they don't seem interested, give examples, e.g. the arrive late leave on dot, etc. Maybe take them out to lunch to do this. But ask if there's anything they'd like you to be doing differently too.

Stupot -16 Feb 2009 | 18:53

As a supervisor (associate...whatever?) you don't have true managerial responsibility unless this is delegated to you. It sounds like you have been expected to do a task without having been delegated authority to supervise this twerp. Bit of a dilemma really, you don't want to be associated with training a rubbish solicitor, but your options are probably pretty limited.

Emma -16 Feb 2009 | 20:01

When I was training, the seat supervisor had to sign off appraisal forms at the end of the seat confirming whether or not I had reached the required standards in the various areas the Law Society requires - surely if you have tried to get the trainee to improve and done everything you can but she has not improved, then your answer is to indicate on the appraisal form that she has not met the required standards and leave it up to the training principal to decide whether to sign off the training contract given that the trainee has not met the standards in at least one of her seats. Also, have you spoken to any of her previous supervisors to see if they had similar problems?

Anonymous -17 Feb 2009 | 09:59

If the trainee wants to stay on, then you have some leverage. However, with an attitude like that, perhaps she doesn't, in which case there really isn't anything you can do. Regardless, I would raise the prospect of the firm not signing off on the trainee having reached the necessary competence to qualify. What I cannot understand is, if the trainee has sufficient financial security that her job means nothing to her, why does she waste everyone's time by continuing the training contract? And if she doesn't, is she so dense that she doesn't realise she is jeopardising her qualification prospects in the most difficult market in years?

HTG -17 Feb 2009 | 14:24

A trainee is a trainee. No amount of presumptive attitude will change that, only hard work over the time through to qualification. If the relationship has broken down due to the trainee's attitude (as I suspect may have happened to a previous poster) then one of the points of being a solicitor has been lost - teamwork is essential, or you find yourself high and dry when you really need it. A lesson learnt all too late. Speak to her by all means, you may have to do so forcefully as she seems to be the type who will only react to that. Ensure the training principal is fully aware and keep a record, but if it impacts on your own work to a great extent then I would suggest a lost cause is exactly that.

Anonymous -17 Feb 2009 | 16:16

It depends of course on your firm and how training and supervision is provided. It sounds like your firm fudges the issue and the principal won't do anything about it, in which case she will probably be passed and will qualify. That is not how it should be done. I'm a trainee supervisor and it is my responsibility in my firm to gather feedback and to ensure at the halfway stage of the seat that everything is covered and they are good enough, and if not to ensure that by the end of the seat they have achieved what they need to sign them off. Given that I am a litigator, my trainees cannot qualify without the litigation seat being signed off. Fortunately I have always had (scarily) excellent trainees, but in your situation I would have to talk to my partner and to the trainee and training principal, but ultimately if they weren't satisfactory I would not be able to sign them off and they wouldn't qualify - they would have to do the seat again.

Associate top 25 firm -18 Feb 2009 | 10:09

If the trainee is as useless as you say, check her CV, and references. You might find that they contain inaccuracies if not outright lies. Could be a justification to not offer her a qualifying position.

Anonymous -18 Feb 2009 | 10:09

Check her out on Facebook!

Percy -18 Feb 2009 | 11:15

Have to speak up for trainees in general - I am a NQ+1 but still remember in my first seat, when the 2 partners were extremely lazy, and they would dump everything on the trainees, without giving any instruction/thought to the task, then blamed all the trainees for not being able to do the job. Quite often trainees are just treated as whipping boys and a convenient excuse when things go wrong.One of my fellow trainees spent all her time feeling depressed and confidence undermined, needless to say ended up frustrated and demotivated. I am not suggesting that's the case here but certainly need to investigate more. I doubt anybody would have spent all that effort to get a TC and then threw it out of the window like that.If you think you are too busy to be too concerned about coaching, then you should talk to your training principal to make sure your effort and time are properly recognised. Also remember trainees are your pension, so you have a vested interest to do the job well.

Anonymous -18 Feb 2009 | 23:37

Suggest you speak to her and explain why her work is not of an acceptable standard in a constructive way. Provided that you give sensible feedback there is no reason why you shouldn't see an improvement - unless she is genuinely cr*p!

Anonymous -23 Feb 2009 | 16:42

I sympathise. I find that it's difficult to correct anyone because everyone is so defensive. Your trainee is probably young and immature and thinks she is a cut above the rest because she managed to secure a training contract. I think you should talk to her as you are probably closer than the training principal. The way to do it is to continue giving her work and rely on specific examples to show her where she is going wrong. If you point to something she's done wrong, she can't argue, can she? (apart from to whine that your instructions were not clear). That is, in my view, better than saying 'you always do this' or 'you always do that'. Point out every mistake to her (the way you wouldn't with a trainee who is generally good) and make her do work again where necessary. She'll hopefully get the message and will have less to complain about when you appraise her training performance. Good luck!

Tracy, Associate -24 Feb 2009 | 14:10

Better still, sack her and give me the training contract. I am easy to manage, a very hard worker and care about my work. CV available upon request.

Wannabe trainee -24 Feb 2009 | 18:50

I agree with the first Anon. I'm afraid that you need to show some bottle. Are you not her supervisor? Deal with her insubordination. Discuss her performance and its consequences with her instead of withholding work or complaining to your boss. Your partner has more important matters to tend to. Otherwise, you would not be the trainee's supervisor.As for your comment about contributing to the lowering of standards, yes, you are being somewhat precious. If you have done all you can, then why should you lose any sleep over this? It's her career which is at stake here, not yours.

Frank -09 Mar 2009 | 22:30