A few months ago my company got acquired and I was moved over to a sister company. We knew it was happening ahead of time, so I spent about 3 months training my replacement before I left.
I didn’t just show her things once and leave. I made step-by-step how-to guides with screenshots for the harder tasks, walked her through processes multiple times, and told her she could reach out if she had questions after I moved on.
It’s now been almost 6 months.
She is still emailing me constantly with questions. And I mean constantly. A lot of the time it’s things that are in the guides or things we went over more than once. Stuff that, honestly, feels like she could figure out if she tried.
The part that really gets me is that if I don’t answer right away, I often get another email from her saying “never mind, I figured it out.” So she clearly can figure it out. She just seems to ask me first instead of trying.
My old boss has also told me multiple times that he wishes I was still there because she hasn’t really gotten the hang of the role, which makes this feel even more awkward.
What’s messing with my head is that when I started in that job, I replaced someone who had been fired. There was no one to train me. I had to learn everything myself, including things I had never done before in my career. I figured it out by reading, trial and error, and just using my brain.
So part of me feels like she’s leaning on me in a way I never had the option to.
I offered to help after I left because I wanted to be kind and professional during the transition, but now I feel like I accidentally became her ongoing support person. I don’t work there anymore. I’m not being paid to train her. And every time another email comes in, I feel more and more annoyed.
But at the same time, I did say she could reach out with questions, so I feel guilty suddenly wanting to stop answering.
AITA if I set a boundary and stop responding because I feel like at this point she needs to start thinking things through herself instead of defaulting to asking me?
NTA: Is this taking time away from your current responsibilities? have you spoken to your current manager? What is their opinion?
6 months? 6 months? Are you for real?
You created a comprehensive training guide, not a 24/7 support hotline. She’s treating your inbox like it’s Siri for her job and you’re not getting paid for the subscription
Dont message her, message her boss saying that she’s still asking the most basic of questions six months later. Clearly the hire was a mistake. NTA.
Less complaining, more ‘I dont have capacity to walk her through her job responsibilities anymore. Please can you explore other training/support/coaching she might benefit from.’
This is what I was thinking. If OP hasn’t straight up told her old boss how much she is reaching out, he may not realize how bad she is. I could totally see her reaching out to OP because she doesn’t want her boss to know how lost she is.
NTA. OP, you need to learn to let emails go unread.
NTA.
You could begin forwarding every email to the old boss with the note, “I’m available for $__/hr for consulting. In lieu of an agreement, I think you should be aware of how much your employee reaches out for help on simple tasks.”
ETA: op says “I don’t work there anymore” which I presume means the company, not just the department. If you still work for the company, go see your former manager to discuss in person because, at the very least, constant emails over 6 months distracts you from your work.
Tell her that her 6 month trial has expired and you will now be charging an hourly rate for your expertise. Bet you stop getting emails in a heartbeat!
I’d probably start being unavailable. Don’t answer for days and hopefully she’ll get the message. Or say you are swamped and will get back next week, or like that.
NTA. Just reply to her with a professionally worded email that you are no longer able to provide her support for her position as it has been 6 months since you left. Wish her the best moving forward and then forget about it. You’ve already been more than accommodating.
As a sidenote, make it a goal for yourself to get better at setting professional boundaries. Right now you’re letting her abuse your kindness to your detriment.
I mean YTA to yourself for letting it go on this long. Just tell her straight you have your own job to take care of and if has issues she needs to talk to her boss, not you.
NTA stop doing free work. It’s the company’s problem, not yours. If your old boss is having a problem with the new employee the boss needs to figure things out without you.
I would not respond for at least 3-4 days. Most of the time she will figure it out. The more you do this, it will teach her to be self reliant.
Eventually, she will stop emailing you because she will realize it would be faster to look it up rather than ask you.
When you do finally respond, direct her to the manual where the question is answered. Don’t actually answer the question. Again reinforcing the notion that she is already in possession of the answer.
Nta