I had just came to the realisation that being a mentor was not just teaching the trainee the process and such but also being able to communicate with them and to try to protect them to a certain extend. Leaving someone who'd just learnt swimming to try swimming back to shore was a suicide, having half inflate buoys was deemed useless. That was just an example anyway.

Two weeks of training on just one product was definitely more than enough, but imagine having to be independent just less than a week and that one product's process was complicated. Many times I wished to take note of questions she'd always ask, repeated questions she couldn't answer when being asked, check on her process flow, the procedure, the steps she'd take to check. Many times when it was arranged (though it took a long time due to the busy period and my managers are kind enough to take time to schedule), something crops up and I'm needed somewhere, duties awaiting to be fulfilled.

Today comes the time when my trainee did a combo on me.. Which are not not-serious. Sigh. My manager did pose a very good question, which I wondered myself, why did I not supervise her? Why did I not help her make that call? Fine, if I wanted her to be indepenent and to try to make that call, why not stay beside her should she need help?

Some of my colleagues did feedback to me and I did notice something which I should take note of. Perhaps I should sit down with her and have a good talk.

Somehow "The Devil Wears Prada's Dez Moines" managed to cheer me up a little.

Am I suited to be a mentor?
Well I did have the "don't care" attitude.
Did I let her fly too fast?
Did I not observe her enough?
Did I teach her with the correct info?

*sigh*
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld