Boss says I'm incompetent

[Ro97bert]

Hi there, I am a 27 year old male who just started an electrician apprenticeship in Brisbane. When I was hired I was told I would be on a 3 month probation period before I was fully accepted to do my apprenticeship. It takes about 4 years to complete and so far I have done 8 weeks now. I have been working hard and trying to be as helpful as I can to the tradesman I work under. Yesterday I stopped into my boss's office to ask him how I was doing and if I needed to improve anything. He told me I was incompetent and that this job is not for me. I felt hurt and disheartened. I dropped out of FIFO work to do a 10 week course in TAFE. I applied to so many apprentice jobs and none got back to me. I then got hired by a company that does electrician and aircon. I worked in the aircon side for about 3 months before chasing up the electrical boss and urging him to give me a chance which is how I've ended up here. I overhead workmates talking that they are firing people at the moment because work is quiet. I plan to work twice as hard for the remainder 3 weeks I have. But cannot help but feel hopeless and defeated. It is my dream career to become an electrician but hearing these words from my boss who is a master electrician has made me feel like it is not possible. What should I do? Thank you.

[white knight]

Hi welcome

I feel for you. With my mental health issues I had 90 jobs and 15 professions so I had at least 130 bosses. I'm 69yo. At 21yo I was a prison officer and was trained correctly how to manage people, if you didn't do that correctly it could danger you and your fellow warders.

So out if 130+ supervisors I had only 2 were good man managers and nearly all didn't have proper training to be tactful, fair, firm and open. This is why I'm very suspicious your boss is unfair or has an ulterior motive eg trimming staff. By claiming a staff trim based on a downturn in work they won't get sued for undue dismissal whereby they have to prove to Govt debts that they were justified putting you off.

Either way I'd like you to accept that sometimes this is what happens in some jobs and doubling your efforts could be in vain. Better to make sense of a situation than be so disappointed in yourself. You also seem to have low self esteem that doesn't help. To counter that try patting yourself on the back for trying so hard. In the workplace no one else will!

It's likely inevitable you'll be dismissed so plan now to seek another apprenticeship and don't give up unless you want another direction.

Life will throw things at you that you'll be unprepared for. Until you retire that's reality. Therefore be prepared by having another part time job like fast food etc where you can increase your hours if a job goes sour.

I hope I've helped. Dwelling on real situations will only cause anxiety and depression,  that won't save the situation,  you did very well convincing this boss to give you a go- you can repeat that salesmanship again hopefully with a more thriving business and a boss that appreciates you effort.

One step back, two steps forward.

https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/staying-well/30-minutes-can-change-your-life/td-p/154525 

TonyWK 

[sbella02]

Ro97bert,

Thank you for posting here, welcome. I'm so sorry to hear that your confidence has been knocked by the horrible words of this person. Good on you for sticking it out for those eight weeks. It takes a lot of inner strength to be able to do that in a new career. 

Props to you also for working hard and asking for a review of your current performance, they're both great skills to have. For your boss to see your effort and retort with an awful, unwarranted comment about your competence, I can see how disheartening this would be for you. Dare I say, if they're firing people anyway, you're likely not the one at fault here - like TonyWK said, it sounds to me like there's an ulterior motive there.

Unfortunately, I also hear that a lot amongst people in trades, that this kind of bullying/degradation culture is fairly normal across the various fields, which is a terrible norm to have. 

I think it may be useful to find yourself a mentor in the field, somebody supportive, rational, and professional. A mentor can do several things for you - firstly, they can tell you when you're in a working environment that is unproductive or toxic. Secondly, they can offer great tips and advice for professional development, and thirdly, they can help you to expand your network. You could have a look on somewhere like Linkedin to see if you find somebody in the field who might be a worthwhile connection to have.

I'm a big believer in chasing your dreams, in a realistic and achievable way that takes into account the resources you have access to. There's no better time than now. You have so much more growing and learning to do in this career path, and it would be a shame for this person to ruin all that potential for you. To be honest, I'm no stranger to unproductive and unwarranted feedback from others at my workplace - if I'd listened to every awful thing that somebody had said about my performance, I wouldn't be in the position I am today. In the part-time job I've just come out of, there was one coworker in particular who had a habit of saying quite nasty things to people under the guise of being "brutally honest". Some of the things he said about my level of competence really got to me. This is why it an help to have a mentor, somebody who can remind you of why you started in the first place, what you're doing well now, and where you're headed in the future.

I hope this advice helps, and please feel free to keep chatting with us if you'd like. We're here for you.

Take care, SB