Your worst trainee ever?

[junkyarddog]

Mine:

Training an S/O (B?) for 22-06 Mobile Patrol. We'll call him "Mike". First thing Mike says when meeting me is that he has another 40 hour a week job that starts at 7:00am and he can't be late. He makes allot of money at that job (he says) and this job is just to pay for his "toys". He likes his toys (his truck, his PDA, his motorcycle etc etc). I inform him that security often requires having to unexpectedly stand a post after the regularly scheduled shift and that if he leaves a post before he is relieved by another S/O he will be immediately terminated for abandoning post.

At this time I wonder to myself how this guy even got past his orientation, much less his first three days of training (I was training him on his final 2 days).

Anyways, Mike seemed very enthusiastic and self-confident about the job. Aside from the "can't be late" thing, he keeps trying to finish my sentences for me with what he thinks I am going to say. As in, "I know this monkey-brained stuff so well I don't even need to be trained". He doesn't SAY that, but he acts it. I tell him he would be better served by keeping his ears open and his mouth shut unless he has a question. He seems nervous, hell bent on making a strong impression.

These issues aside, he is observant, efficient in his thinking and movements, and takes the initiative to check into things beyond what is obvious (ie. PULLING on that door to ensure it is locked instead of just looking at it from twenty feet away). I am of the mind that the rough edges can be smoothed off of him and with some guidance he can be a pretty solid S/O.

Then mid shift hits and the stuff hits the fan. Half way through the run as I am driving and verbally giving instructions with him in the passenger seat, I notice he is no longer responding to anything I say. I look over and see the top of his head about six inches from my face. He is limp in the seat, sound asleep pretty, his body following the motion of the truck.

"You sleeping?!" I say as loud and perturbed as I can without actually screaming. He immediately stiffens in the seat, bolt straight..."No, no, just resting a little, I heard everything you said." I said, "Listen, I am sure you are a competent person and are doing your best, but this particular job is not for everyone, and I am sure it is not for you."

Mike went on with a million excuses, saying how he had NEVER fallen asleep on a job before, he had just worked a full shift at his other job prior to this etc. I just repeated that this job is not for him and he would be better off somewhere else. Seriously somewhere else, "Your gonna get killed out here".

That is no joke. We have had S/Os die on that same shift due to lack of awareness on their part. I told him that.

He stayed awake the rest of the night, but then decided to get a little argumentative with me on a few procedures I was training him in. I was getting pretty frustrated with this guy. "I am telling you your job, you can either absorb, understand and execute these procedures or find another job".

Morning comes and the captain arrives at 0600 as usual. After Mike leaves for his other job, I brief the boss on Mikes performance that night. My thinking is the guy is terminated. I was wrong. Apparently we need Mike because we don't have anyone else to fill the shift.

Double edged sword about complaining to recruiting about the quality of people they send us: They take longer sending you someone else because now they are vetting them out more. Which means you have to put up with the low quality guy until recruiting sends someone else.

In our case, this took two weeks. I trained Mikes replacement, and was very pleased with him. "Jon" is a graduate of the police academy and wants to work this job full time and his municipal pd job part time until he gets a full time pd job. He thinks it will take about a year. Jon is cross trained at every position we have, a process that takes about a month. We put up with Mike in this time span.

The final day of training Jon informs us that he just got hired full time at a local police department and no longer needs the job. %$*&$

Meanwhile Mike gets worse and worse. He is observant and efficient, pretty effective in the "deter, observe" departments. But he scribbles reports. Literally it is scribble. Illegible. Also, he has to dominate any conversation that is going on around him. He'll hang out around the door to the briefing room and jump in to answer questions that were not directed at him while one supervisor is trying to brief another supervisor during shift change. He knows everything and there is no debating him despite the fact he is almost always wrong and almost always speaking out of turn every time he opens his mouth. I turn around and tell him what we are saying is of no concern to him and as he continues to lean in the doorway I shut the door in his face. The other supervisors laugh when I do that but I don't think it is funny.

I've dealt with allot of incompetent people, rude people, rough characters etc. but no one irritates me like this guy.

Next up is a marine MP fresh from gitmo with an honorable discharge. This will be the second night training him. He is talking about re-enlisting. I am trying to keep him away from Mike.

Patience......

[LPAjh9558]

Kinda sounds like you've got your hands full there. I hate to hear that since no one wants to go through and/or put up with that. It's unfortunate because from what you say he did, at least have "some" possibility in working out. I've seen this happen so many times where someone is brought in, looks serious about the job and then flops!

Hopefully you'll have better luck with the upcoming "trainee" but if not the search must go on In any case good luck and hang in there.

[Mr. Security]

Yikes!! I worked with a "Mike" sometime ago that sounds just like this guy and his name was Mike!

[Black Caesar]

I've never had a trainee that bad although I've worked with enough people like you describe.

One guy who I used to partner with (but who now works at anothe campus, I was never his FTO, I got promoted after he joined) is areally a good guy and very competant, made the transition from long time street cop to campus cop more easily than many I've dealt with. But Dear god he won't shut up, he knows everything and he keeps "reaching above his paygrade". I had to remind him once that "these stripes on my shoulders mean something", he loved to "confiscate" a call even if you got there 1st. A couple times he's been counseled about the fact that he is not a supervisor in THIS department (retired a Sgt at his old PD).

The sad thing is, he's so good at the job he'd be atleast a Sgt by now if he'd ever learn to STFU.

-----

There was one guy (also a nice guy, but he had personal off the job problems and was fired a few months after I left the campus we both were working) who I did train that was kind of like that, but just in minor ways. Former long term Deputy Shriff, last assignment was as a district Court Bailiff and he wasn't much of a problem.

But one day I'm training him on how WE do reports (ie how the Lt. wants it done" and he says "I know how to write a report". Sensing a fine oppurtunity for training, I allow him to do his thing, and watched him place the report in the Supervisors box then we went back in service. 20 miuntes later, right in the middle of a minor disturbance call we get called back to the office.

The Lt. looks at me sideways and hands my trainee his report back. The Lt. LOVES his red pen, and my trainees report looked a lot like my 1st report did...ie It look like the Lt. BLEd TO DEATH all over the paper LOL. I sent my trainee back to re-do the whole thing then quietly let the Lt. know why i'd let that report through (basically as a small corrective measure).

I never had that problem from that trainee again LOL.

[HotelSecurity]

Being a very small department I am some times in a really bad situation, I have to hire the first person who applies when someone suddenly quits. I hired one this past summer. His first day of training he is explained the free food policy. He is told he can order ANYTHING off of the breakfast menu except steak & eggs. Guess what he orderes? He then gets into an arguement with the restaurant manager who is the sister of the restaurant owner!

I was still short a man & had to give him another chance. I sent him to work at one of the airport hotels. 2 days later the regular Officer comes on duty from his 2 days off. He calls me laughing reading what the new Officer wrote in the FRONT DESK logbook. (He had no right to write in this logbook). He wrote "the new Security Guard is doing a great job". I fired him!

[junkyarddog]

Those are some crazy stories. It aways amazes me when former/pre LE has a hard time hacking security work. So many good people pass through the door, the main problem seems so few are willing to take direction. Weird but it seems easier to turn a lump of coal into a diamond than turning a near-diamond into a diamond. Someone who entirely lacks confidence but is otherwise well organized, good communicator and intelligent seems easily molded into a good S/O while someone who already has a boatload of confidence and even some solid relevant experience is really hard to guide into being a really good S/O.

In my case, I just hope upper management remains committed to sending us quality guys. I urge the Capt and he urges recruiting. And these guys keep turning over. Hopefully they don't give up. I think this former marine will work out.

[Black Caesar]

Those are some crazy stories. It aways amazes me when former/pre LE has a hard time hacking security work. So many good people pass through the door, the main problem seems so few are willing to take direction. Weird but it seems easier to turn a lump of coal into a diamond than turning a near-diamond into a diamond. Someone who entirely lacks confidence but is otherwise well organized, good communicator and intelligent seems easily molded into a good S/O while someone who already has a boatload of confidence and even some solid relevant experience is really hard to guide into being a really good S/O.

In my case, I just hope upper management remains committed to sending us quality guys. I urge the Capt and he urges recruiting. And these guys keep turning over. Hopefully they don't give up. I think this former marine will work out.

My experiance traiinng Ex-street cops to be campus cops is that they have a hard time adjusting to a situation where they are not almost totally independant. You get used to doing things on your own. I hadn't been a part time town cop for very long and my background is security to I had very little transistion time (despite the dual LE/security nature of the job, i took right to it), but a guy who'se been on his own on the streets and basically in charge of his own destiny for 20 years? He'll have a harder time, especially adjusting to a sitution where he has less actual authority.

One guy was a retired State Trooper, as such he rarely saw a supervisor. Here at the college not only his direct supervisor but the entire Department Command Staff is at best only 5 city blocks away all day long LOL. when you work days you see the Chief himself atleast once a day when he goes walkabout, sometimes he does so with the College President lol

[Aussie Officer]

Worst trainee I had, will call him Bravo. I was volunteered to train Bravo by my S.M as the regular training officer was on A/L. First day of training, would have been mid afternoon, Bravo hops in a that year model ferrari, that the bellmen were going to wash and detail for the guest. Bravo decides he wants to hear it "Purr" and starts it. Bravo does not take it out of gear but just leaves foot on clutch. Foot slips off clutch and new ferrari goes into the loading dock. Physically embedded into the Loading Dock.

During the course of the "OMG" stage, Bravo walks off site, never to be seen again.

[Badge714]

Back in the 1980's when I was the company training officer, I had a to train an officer on post. He was a new officer, and was working a temporary post for about 3 weeks. When that contract was over, he was sent to a permanent account.
When he arrived on post, (10 minutes late) he was wearing a designer running suit! I told him to get changed so we could get to work. He said he didn't have his uniform with him, and that he never wore it at the previous assignment, either. "No way I'm gonna wear that monkey suit!" he said.
I sent him home, and called the post supervisor and told him he had an open shift.

[Andy Taylor]

Worst trainee I had, will call him Bravo. I was volunteered to train Bravo by my S.M as the regular training officer was on A/L. First day of training, would have been mid afternoon, Bravo hops in a that year model ferrari, that the bellmen were going to wash and detail for the guest. Bravo decides he wants to hear it "Purr" and starts it. Bravo does not take it out of gear but just leaves foot on clutch. Foot slips off clutch and new ferrari goes into the loading dock. Physically embedded into the Loading Dock.

During the course of the "OMG" stage, Bravo walks off site, never to be seen again.

WOW! At least he was smart enough to realize that was the end of his job.

[officerchick]

Let me see, there was the guy that told me, while I was training him, all about his experiences as Black Ops during 'Nam...including how close they were to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and "training secrets" they learned...How 'bout the one who told me, also while I was training him, that he used to be a Marine but was almost dishonorably discharged - but wait, it wasn't really his fault. See, he was saving the day by pulling someone out of a dangerous situation, and when he pulled his arm back he hit his Sargeant in the face. Sarge, of course, didn't understand that he was busy being a hero, so he was sent to the brig, then given medical discharge for something.

The hands-down winner, though, was J. Within the first hour of his OJT, J told me that he thought of security as a "team" (sounds good on the surface, no?) and that because of that we could never "rat" on each other, just settle it amongst ourselves. He also said, in that first hour, that he keeps his job security by doing just enough to keep the client happy, but doesn't do everything he can to prevent incidents so the client knows they still need him. When telling him what should have been a warning about a previous officer - who had been going into the deli and taking bags of chips at night - his response was "what did he do wrong? At least he was leaving the money." He really didn't get the problem with this.

He was eventually fired for stalking women at the post - and not subtly.

Even worse than him, though, is the [email protected]*n site manager (at the time) whom I told about all of this, and not only did he not act on it, I found out later he never told any of the upper management. They were stunned when, after I became site manager, I told them all of the things that had happened in training.

[CameraMan]

When I ran an installation crew, we got saddled with some 16 year old retard who wanted a summer job.

He shows up on his first day wearing sandals. To go to a construction site. Okay, whatever- it was hot that day and perhaps he's never been on a construction site before. I sent him home to get some suitable footware. He returns an hour later with sneakers- still not great, but better than sandals. Okay. Then he asks to leave to get lunch. Why he didn't eat when he was home finding his sneakers for an hour (did I mention he lived a 10 minute walk from the site?) I don't know, but I give him permission.

So he asks me for an advance on his pay, for lunch.

I give him $20, as he didn't have change.

He whines that this isn't enough.

He returns from his lunch an hour later. I don't want him on the site in case I take a swing at him, so I have him empty the truck, clean it out, and rearange everything.

At 5:00 pm, he still isn't done.

The next day, he calls me at 10:00, saying he isn't coming back, as the work is "too hard", but would I mind driving to his 'friend' (a well known dealer) and giving him the rest of the pay I owed the kid for the day's work?

After all, I was paying $9.00 an hour and had only given him twenty bucks.

Long story short, I drove to his house and got the twenty dollars back.

[OccamsRazor]

I worked a 2-day EP detail last weekend, and one of the guys on the detail somehow convinced management to hire his (nephew? cousin? grandson?) relative.

Well, the older guy was hands down professional. A retired deputy chief from somewhere back east, Pittsburgh I think. He also earned a 100% cash tip .

His relative was a horse's rear of a different color.

This 25-26 year-old kid was useless. He hung out with me in the CP almost the whole time, telling me 'war stories'.

Seems that, though he's a part-time officer for some little burg in Kansas, he's been EVERYWHERE, and done EVERYTHING.

He told me about all the gunfights he's been in...All the pursuits...How he once made a traffic stop and ended up finding not only several tons of cocaine, but several terrorists.

How he'd been in the army and gone through Ranger School, and been given the 'nod' to join Delta, but decided not to since he was nearing the end of his hitch and didn't want to re-up. He couldn't remember what battalion he was in, since he was 'all over the place, doing covert stuff'.

How he'd been on the Presidential detail...As a private contractor

If I mentioned something, he's done it, only better. A place? He's been there. Any celebrity? He's protected them. Apparently, though this isn't common knowledge, there are a LOT of gun battles at the Academy Awards that don't make it on the news.

I could go on, but I think I'd need blood-pressure medication.

[N. A. Corbier]

I worked a 2-day EP detail last weekend, and one of the guys on the detail somehow convinced management to hire his (nephew? cousin? grandson?) relative.

Well, the older guy was hands down professional. A retired deputy chief from somewhere back east, Pittsburgh I think. He also earned a 100% cash tip .

His relative was a horse's rear of a different color.

This 25-26 year-old kid was useless. He hung out with me in the CP almost the whole time, telling me 'war stories'.

Seems that, though he's a part-time officer for some little burg in Kansas, he's been EVERYWHERE, and done ANYTHING.

He told me about all the gunfights he's been in...All the pursuits...How he once made a traffic stop and ended up finding not only several tons of cocaine, but several terrorists.

How he'd been in the army and gone through Ranger School, and been given the 'nod' to join Delta, but decided not to since he was nearing the end of his hitch and didn't want to re-up. He couldn't remember what battalion he was in, since he was 'all over the place, doing covert stuff'.

How he'd been on the Presidential detail...As a private contractor

If I mentioned something, he's done it, only better. A place? He's been there. Any celebrity? He's protected them. Apparently, though this isn't common knowledge, there are a LOT of gun battles at the Academy Awards that don't make it on the news.

I could go on, but I think I'd need blood-pressure medication.

I used to smile and nod. Now I tell people to STFU. Is this because I'm getting older, or because I've become less tolerant of the stupidity around me?

[LPAjh9558]

I used to smile and nod. Now I tell people to STFU. Is this because I'm getting older, or because I've become less tolerant of the stupidity around me?

Could be because of the age thing However, I'd like to think that it's more likely because you deserve the respect