Me...a control freak? really?

Recently, we hired a new person at work. Since in the current structure of the place there is nobody directly in charge of our particular division, the instruction of this person has fallen to sort of an ad-hoc thing.

No big deal...I happen to greatly respect the other guy in my division, consider him a friend not just at work but outside of work, and respect his talents for the job. He is quite knowledgeable.

At the same time, I also think I am pretty top-shelf myself. When I was working in another division, over a year after that step I still had people asking specifically for me. Several people have told me they actually purchase from our competition when I am not available.

Furthermore, my statistics are off the charts. I receive more inbound calls than anyone else in our location by anywhere from 10-20% in any given day. Simultaneously, I also have written more invoices than anyone not just in our branch but our region for several consecutive months.

I also have an extra time-consuming, headache inducing job that often has me involved in borderline contentious conversations with people within the organization who tend to...how do I say this politely...tend to spitball things and assume they will work out, an approach that I do not like when dealing with deals worth double my yearly salary that take place in a week or two. But I do it because I can do it well while still managing my other responsibilities.

In short, at the risk of sounding outlandishly arrogant...I am smurfing good at what I do.

It is no accident I have such a high volume of loyal customers. I listen, know what they want, go the extra mile to ensure they are satisfied at the conclusion, and make excellent use of my time and resources.

As such, I admit I want to have a heavier influence on the training of the new person. I want them to pick up MY habits and ways of doing things...

I want to show Newbie how to ensure they do not miss orders, how to efficiently enter orders, how to maximize time on the phone...

And numerous of my little time-saving steps and numerous of my little steps that represent that little extra something that makes it easier for our clients to deal with us instead of our competitors are things my friend teaches her not to do because they are too new and too technology dependent.

This is not a complaint against him. As I said before...he is good at what he does, too, and has depths of knowledge I cannot approach.

But it surprises me to discover it upsets me...

Like, today, I wanted to introduce a new project to Newt. We have been exceptionally busy the last couple of weeks, Newbie has specifically asked for more work...and this would have A) kept Newbie busy for a while and B) taught Newbie a time-consuming, but not time-sensitive, task that would alleviate a disproportionately large amount of pressure on we who are more experienced.

And my cohort elected to not have Newt do it because he did not think Newbie was ready.

No problem, I took it back, dashed it out in about 2 minutes and moved on.

But I noticed it, along with several other things, bothered me. Because I sit furthest from Newbies desk, I spend less time helping Newt and so Newt is picking up more of his habits than mine...

Now, in the great scheme of things, it really does not matter. By the time Newt is up to speed, we will be in fall and winter and not really have enough work for all of us to do. By next summer, Newt will be established and doing things that work best.

But I find it really bothers me because, secretly, I believe I taught Newt a better way and have now seen my work undone. I discover that I think my ways are enough better than Veterans that Newt should be listening to the foundation I tried to build.

And realizing I am pretty insistent on things that have no corporate policy in force lets me know...I am a control freak.

Weird.