The Whole Thing Is A Game To Him

(I have an apprentice starting today; there have been at least a dozen applicants, so he is lucky to be here.)

Me: “…and so if you press this button, you can…”

(I turn to catch him yawning.)

Me: *jokingly* “Not keeping you up am I?”

Apprentice: “Oh, no, sorry, late night last night.”

(Teaching him is actually causing me more work, so I am a little annoyed, but I let him off as it’s his first day. The next day…)

Apprentice: *yawns loudly* “Oh, man, I’m sooo tired.”

Me: “Another late night?”

Apprentice: “Yeah.” *slumps in his chair*

Me: “You won’t get the best out of this experience if you can barely stay awake. Why don’t you go get some coffee and perhaps an early night tonight?”

(Everyday that week, the same story: too tired to listen; couldn’t do the work because he hadn’t listened. At the end of the week…)

Me: “Look, this is a waste of your time and mine. Every morning you can barely keep awake. Every morning you tell me you have been up late playing video games. Every morning I tell you to get an early night.”

Apprentice: “Whatever. This isn’t important, anyway.”

(I give up, and tell my boss to put him somewhere else. At the end of the three weeks:)

Apprentice: “Here, can you fill this out.”

Me: “What is it?”

Apprentice: “My apprentice form.”

(I read it; he has already ticked the answers I was supposed to fill in.)

Me: “Nope.”

(He leaves. I forget about it until I get a call:)

Teacher: “Is this [My Name]?”

Me: “Yes.”

Teacher: *aggressively* “[Apprentice] tells me you had him doing all sorts of tasks then refused to sign his form because you didn’t like him! Why?”

(I explained the situation. The teacher was actually pretty decent afterwards. I later had a hand-written note from the apprentice apologizing!)