Work has been very busy the last 2-3 weeks, more so than usual. We have recently hired a new guy, D, to be based in our Beijing office and due to a variety of reasons, I have been asked to handhold from our Shanghai office.

I normally love assignments like that as I enjoy teaching and mentoring. Being physically in different offices is not that big a challenge normally, since our entire team works virtually based out of different offices anyway. But this time around, it is proving to be harder.

Not just becuase he's a guy, or that he's about a decade older - but D basically put himself in a very difficult position with his attitude and the things that he says. The team up in Beijing comprises entirely of females as well. And they are really lovely people to work with and talk to. They are chatty and helpful. I've experieced that first hand.

Well, D was smart enough to piss some of the women there by commenting over lunch that some assignments should be left for females to do. Errr...hello ??? Knock knock...did he actually LOOK around to see who he was talking too?
Needless to say, that got under the skin of half the team up there.

It was also wierd as I was given feedback that D would ask for help on the most simple task like how to insert an extra sheet into an excel file. And he would ask this not once, not twice but three times on different occassions. He also commented that he's not "suitable to do research and analytical work" when they post we had advertised was Research Analyst. Irony. I had asked him to do something and had suggested that he refer to the Telephone directory on Lotus Notes to which he asked "What's that?"...this was about 6-7 weeks after he started work. I am just glad that I wasn't speaking to him face to face cos I was so frustrated I had to walk out of the office for a breather.

I actually went back to see what his background was in order to try to understand him and his capabilities:
- Investor Group in Canada as a financial consultant
- Global Telecom Company as a business analyst
- Securities firm in BJ
- Actuarial and systems analyst for the largest insurance company in China
- MBA and 2 Degrees
plus he passed a 3 hour rigorious writing exam. So how come har?

So now, I've been asked to make a trip up to Beijing to sort D out, on top of providing further mentoring to another staff. And to make the trip worthwhile, probably do more team training up there.

Really need to pray for wisdom. Its not an easy challenge this time.