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Duer 157099

(17,742 posts)
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 06:12 PM Feb 2012

Refuse to train your replacement

When someone has valuable skills that they have acquired over a lifetime, shouldn't those skills be treated like an asset, same as money in the bank, and protected the same way? Why is it that we, as a culture, believe that it is honorable or noble to give those skills away to the same people who would replace us in the workplace?

Let's say you are American, working for an American company in America. And your company decides to send you to China (for example) to train people to do your job.

What should you do? Refuse? What if enough of us refused to do that, to essentially send our jobs away, would it make a difference?

What if, instead of skills, you have accumulated capital. When you invest that capital, you actually get a return on it. When you "invest" your experience, you most often get a boot out the door, especially if you have trained your replacement well.

Discuss.

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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brewens

(13,615 posts)
1. I did a real crappy job training my replacement one time.
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 06:19 PM
Feb 2012

I was pissed off and taking a job I really didn't want. I would much rather my company had treated me fairly so I could stay. It mostly involved them piling more work on me and refusing to increase my salary.

I took advantage of the extra help and just used the guy as grunt labor to get out of there early every night. I showed him the bare minimum. It was no time at all after I left that they had an extra guy in the warehouse. My "replacement" didn't exactly replace me.

 

izquierdista

(11,689 posts)
2. After I was 'outsourced',
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 06:56 PM
Feb 2012

There was some problem finding a whole bunch of files I had organized. Could I come back for a day and transfer everything onto my boss's hard drive? Oh sure, I'll do it. But by the time I was able to make it back to work and help them out, wouldn't ya know it, IT had wiped the hard drive at my workstation.

 

saras

(6,670 posts)
3. If you're sharp at your job, "train" them as to "why" to do things
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 09:21 PM
Feb 2012

This is much harder to untrain than mere ignorance.

 

Zalatix

(8,994 posts)
4. Usually the company promises you a severance package if you comply
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 09:24 PM
Feb 2012

then they find a way to deny you that severance after you leave.

Refusing to train your replacement is one way to fight back - since you won't get your severance anyway.

The other way is to push for tariffs. Big ones.

niyad

(113,513 posts)
5. there is a very old joke about a very experienced man who was "retired" from his company,
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 09:36 PM
Feb 2012

a highly technical one.

some months after he "retired", the company called him, because a very important piece of equipment was not functioning. he went in, studied the problem, walked over, put a quarter on the piece of equipment and it began to function again. he presented them with a bill in the amount of $50,000.

appalled, the company wanted a detailed explanation of the bill, which he produced:

putting quarter on machine-- 5.00
knowing where to put quarter--49,995.00

total 50,000.00

Sirveri

(4,517 posts)
6. And what am I supposed to do while I am being trained?
Sun Feb 5, 2012, 11:25 PM
Feb 2012

I guess I don't deserve a job, I should just go live on the street. I'm sure nobody will ever get old or quit working so I'm totally superfluous.

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