The Teacher -- Challenges for Women in the Workplace

Maybe you're repeatedly asked to train new hires. Why are you singled out every time? Is it because you are friendly, patient and verbal compared to your other colleagues? Is the responsibility of training only assigned to top performers who uphold the highest standards of work quality? Is training a total pain in the neck, and your boss knows you'll be a pushover? Ask your boss or the person who trained you how the responsibility is assigned. Then you can evaluate how you want to deal with the situation.

Perhaps you don't mind this assignment because you enjoy getting to know the new hires right away, you get a break from your normal workload and you get to expense more meals on the company. Or the training assignments reflect the fact that you're a star at the company. Maybe you actually hate sitting alone in your office all day crunching numbers and you really want to be a teacher at heart, so the opportunity to train new employees is a dream niche for you.

Now for the downsides. Because training is administrative, you may be expected to carry your full load of "real" work on top, meaning that you are working much later nights than everyone else to get everything done. Is training worth compromising your personal time? On the other hand, if your manager does reduce your workload to accommodate your training assignments, over time you might fall behind your colleagues in terms of advancement because you spend your days teaching and mentoring new hires instead of getting more challenging projects and interacting with senior colleagues and clients. Is training worth compromising your professional development?

Want to get out of doing training? Tell your boss you have already conducted the training twice as many times as the last person who did it. Or point out that you have missed client meetings because of training, which is detrimental to both your development and your relationship with your client. Suggest setting up a random system to rotate the responsibility amongst your peers by drawing numbers or assigning it alphabetically by last name. Or suggest that people pair up in teams to conduct training, so it's not as time-consuming for each person.