Trainee is being dishonest on her first day

Question

Yesterday a new trainee started at our company (software developer). She is a trainee ("Auszubildende") under the German apprenticeship system, and thus covered by special rules and regulations. Because her instructor is still on vacation I was told to look after her and help her with her first tasks.

She told me she was allowed to leave early on Friday to visit someone, if she stays longer the first two days.
Seemed fine with me.

This morning I asked her what she accomplished when I was gone yesterday and she told me she stayed till 7PM. I was a little shocked because her work seemed rushed and not really satisfactory. I helped her a little and went for a smoke break with other colleagues. I asked them for advice how to help her with her start, because she stayed so long, and I didn't want her to get demotivated.

One of them told me: "Long? she left at 5:30!"^*
Which is only 15 minutes after me.

Problem: I don't care that she left at 5:30, starting at 8 with a 1h break she stayed longer than she had to. I care about that she lied to me on her first day. For no apparent reason.

Question: How should I explain to her, that being honest is very important when working with us? I don't want to run over and tell her "I know you lied to me Bob saw you leave!" I also want to protect her from what would have happenend if her actual instructor would have seen that. Since she is still in her probabtion period, it might have been enough to let her go.

She is still very young and naive, and probably didn't have bad intentions.

Additional Information: She is over the age of 18 and a legal adult, she did finish school (Realschule), she did a small internship before, so it is only her first day of her apprenticeship, not her first day over all. She is allowed to work up to 10h a day, but only 40h a week. We don't have time keeping, we just trust each other. She can start between 7AM and 10AM and leave basically when she wants to, as long as she is doing 40h a week.

UPDATE: I did exactly what Joe recommended: She told me she must have misread the clock, and told me she called someone when she went to the trains station. Looked up the time in her phone and said: "Oh 17:36, I must have misread the time". I hope she won't be this sloppy again. I am not sure I believe her entirely, but it doesn't matter, she came clean the moment she had the chance to.

^{* He is sure, I asked him if he saw her pack her laptop, and he told me that she packed everything and asked Bob2 if she could leave, and he said yes.}

Answer 1

Question: How should I explain to her, that being honest is very important when working with us? I don't want to run over and tell her "I know you lied to me Bob saw you leave!" I also want to protect her from what would have happenend if her actual instructor would have seen that. Since she is still in her probabtion period, it might have been enough to let her go.

She is still very young and naive, and probably didn't have bad intentions.

If you view your role as a temporary mentor, then you need to sit down in a quiet place with her now. You need to make it clear that lying is a poor way to start a career.

Emphasize how important being honest is in your shop. Tell her that her opinion and feedback will be asked and that it's important to be truthful. Make sure she understands that her coworkers will be depending on the things she says. Tell her that coworkers need to be able to trust each other.

If it were me, I'd probably conclude with something like: "Now this won't go any farther than here. So I'll ask you once again. Did you really leave late yesterday?" And I'd hope that she would be honest at that point. If she came clean, I'd thank her for that and finish with "Great! Now let's carry on." then I'd let it go.

If she still claimed that she left late, I'd say "Okay" and end the conversation there.

Answer 2

Since she sought permission from one of your team members to pack up leave at 5:30, it might be an idea to raise this directly

Sorry for raising this again, but Bob said that you asked to leave at 5:30; could you clarify what happened at 7 pm, maybe I misunderstood what you told me this morning.

Offering her the opportunity to clear up your misunderstanding allows her to explain without you coming across as accusational.

This should lead you to privately check up on the "yes, you can leave early claim" when that manager is back from vacation. The amount of work actually achieved seems to be an issue here, so some pair programming or closer mentoring might be the solution here; it seems like she's going to need some level of supervision to ensure there are adequate performance levels.

Be aware that trainees are often overwhelmed by the practice of actually working, so extra hand-holding and reassurance is needed.

There's a balancing act to be played here between motivating a trainee and not letting them get away with slacking or otherwise getting out of work. Supervision should guide them in the right way of thinking and behaviour.

Answer 3

Note: This answer is written under the assumption that the person is an apprentice ("Auszubildender") in the German dual apprenticeship system. Any of the German words in quotes and italics in this answer are terms from German emplyoment law in general or the law for vocational training ("Berufsbildungsgesetz") in particular you might want to look up for further information.

I am an apprentice instructor ("Ausbilder") in a large-is German IT company. In our company we got a guideline how to deal with allegations of misbehaviour of dual-students and apprentices:

1. [optional] If you are unsure how to handle the situation, consult HR for advise regarding if and how to sanction the misbehaviour. _{(Our HR department actually got a sub-department which only deals with the matters of dual-students and apprentices. But in yours they might get handled by the normal HR department)}
2. Invite the apprentice to a private conversation.
3. Explain what misconduct you observed. Do not jump to conclusions. Just explain what you know.
4. Let them explain their version of the story. Do not interrupt them.
5. Explain the immediate consequences of their behavior.
6. Explain what the future consequences will be if they repeat the behavior.

So confront her. You should do this as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the less learning effect there will be. Also note that she is very new in the world of employment. She is just out of school, which is an environment where the consequence for most infractions is a figurative slap on the wrist and the only thing which matters in the long term are your grades. She might not yet have a good feeling for what behavior is and is not appropriate in a work environment and that it can have serious long-term consequences for her career when she makes a bad impression on people. This makes it even more important to tell her as soon as possible. Otherwise you reinforce bad habits which might plague her for the rest of her career.

But do not start with assuming guilt. There might be an explanation. Maybe she just took a small break or went to a different building to run an errant. Bob saw her leave but didn't notice that she came back. So instead of saying:

"Bob said you left, why did you lie to me?"

phrase it in a way which leaves her room to explain the situation:

"Didn't you say you left at 7PM? Bob said you left at 5:30."

Wait for her to explain the situation. Then explain the consequences.

Possible consequences for misbehavior could be:

• None for now, just a verbal reprimand
• A note in the personal file
• An official written reprimand ("Abmahnung")
• Termination of the apprenticeship
• In extreme cases where they violated a law, reporting them to the authorities

However, because you are not the official instructor ("Ausbilder") but just a temporary instructor ("Ausbildungsbeauftragter") you will likely not be authorized to actually order any of these measures. So all you can do is tell her that you will tell her instructor and that he will very likely take one of these measures when he is back.

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Personally I try to see misbehaving apprenticeships not as bad apples which need to be discarded but as rough diamons which need to be polished. The primary goal of any disciplinary measure should be to help the apprentice to recognize their faults and improve on them. But unfortunately there are a few people who are just beyond help. When you do not see any improvement at all despite several attempts at pointing them out, then letting them go is unfortunately the only thing you can do.

Answer 4

Just ask her.

The biggest problem you can have when managing someone is letting issues fester. You'll sit there thinking "oh gosh, so-and-so lied to me and now I have to be like Batman, ever vigilant to spot their next attack!" which is exhausting and will drive you over the edge.

Soon you'll be tying hairs to doors to see if they were opened later, and hiring a trained Beagle to work undercover in the office to spy for you. It only gets worse, you'll descend into madness when you realise the Beagle could be an inside job. Soon you'll be reading The Workspace over people's shoulders in the local library (until Musk replaces all the libraries, anyway, he's obviously part of it).

The worst thing is anybody can lie to you on the first day. Your partner, the "democratically" elected leader of your country, that god-damned Beagle - I mean its the first time you've met them, they don't have a lot vested in the relationship at this stage.

ahem.

Anyway, it's much better to bring this up now, just tell her you heard from Bob that she left at 5:30pm, and ask again if she worked until 7 or not? She might not realise how companies work given she is a trainee, or there might be mitigating circumstances, or she might feel she has to somehow lie to get out of it.

Tell her you don't really mind, but that she has to make sure she observes how her brand - how she appears in the workspace - can be impacted by these things, and to be aware of this in future. Then just go over the work with her and help out.

It's hard to be a mentor to someone when a problem burns at the back of your mind.

Answer 5

I think there are maybe only about three or four vital qualifications:

• Can you do the job?
• Do you tell the truth ... and do we understand each other?
• Do you want to work here ... are you harmless?

Number 2 is important -- one of the things you'd look for in an interview.

Lying tends to contradict all three of the above -- i.e., "do we understand each other?", "are you harmless?", and "do you want to co-operate?"

I'm not sure how to answer the question (i.e. "How should I explain to her, that being honest is very important when working with us?").

Maybe explain why it's important.

I think it's that "working together" means that you identify and solve problems together, accurately characterise a problem, agree on a solution (an agreeable solution) -- sometimes come together again if a previously-agreed plan-of-action didn't work out as expected, or when it does -- something like that. You're not there to be lied to, you're there to help her work (which includes, managing distractions), to help her be happy with her employer/employment, and (hopefully, ultimately) to be able to report well of her, and so on.

For what it's worth, I found this video quite memorable (an example of how to be explicit):

• If you lie [for some reason], if you life just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie because [some reason] ... if you ever, ever lie ... you're finished with me. Do you understand?
• Yes sir.
• Say you understand.
• I understand sir.
• Go back to work.

Incidentally though, "making a prediction about the future, which doesn't work out exactly as predicted", isn't something I'd consider a deliberate lie.

And of course I don't know what actually happened in her case.

I think it's possible that some people (perhaps especially when young) feel a need to lie for some reason, or even just a possible advantage to lying ... in order to 'get their own way' or perhaps because they don't expect you'd cooperate with them otherwise, or to 'protect' someone or something. Hopefully you can train that out of them, prove them wrong.

And I'd like to emphasise this comment:

Telling lies at work is bad. Being late or leaving early happens, but deceiving people who trust you is not.

It's part of your job as manager to set priorities: what's more important and what's less important?

In this case:

• What's more important is being truthful
• What's (much) less important is (falsely) claiming to work long, irregular hours
• "I was a little shocked because her work seemed rushed and not really satisfactory" is important too, but the possibility of there being a lie involved distracts you from addressing that.

Answer 6

Another point from a German perspective.

In small and medium firms it often happens that the behavior of a new person (new colleague, apprentice...) is silently noticed.

If the new person on board does things wrong because it is internal knowledge (not using official channels etc.) or it looks like a misunderstanding/accident, then people will talk to him. But coming too late or going too early, not greeting colleagues, having no time for help and so on...will get no warning in those firms.

The purpose is that you want the new employee to react as naturally as possible to estimate how (s)he fits into the team. If only a few people are present, everybody is very important for the survival of the firm. One bad apple can ruin the firm, so if you could not behave when you are on probation and you know that, how should that work out once (s)he is a permanent employee?

So in your case, you would simply write down what happened and look out for further misbehavior. If there is improvement and it could be seen as one-time accident, she will survive it. If other things happen...well, that was the probation period.

So in the very first days in firms (I think that is even quite universal) it is necessary to act as impeccable as possible to leave a first good impression. It is a golden truth that good first impressions are able to counter later slipups, but it is extremely hard to repair a bad first impression.

Answer 7

I do exactly the things like she had done, "for no reason"...

For my case it is because of social anxiety, it feels much less difficult to just white-lie and possibly have to clean it up later, versus definitely being in a one-on-one situation with another human (debating for permission). I also am king of no-call no-shows because whenever I have a day where I can't tolarate any human interaction whatsoever (about once every 90 days) I do not / can not leave the house nor even use a phone, and the embarassment of not being able to "human" properly makes it impossible to do either on top of being anxious in the first place. And I for sure never told anyone that was my problem, they would assume I'm making more junk up.

Also US healthcare being as it is it would cost me more than I can afford to have any assistance to fix it, there is a strong stigma against "people that need mental help", and I have trouble making money anyway since I networking with other humans makes me highly uncomfortable no matter the context (including the doctors that might help)

Anyway, I feel like she has similar issues and is keeping them hidden using the same techniques. The fact there is no logical reason for lying means there is a very strong illogical reason, probably near inexplicable.