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Learning a new job can feel overwhelming, especially when someone expects you to master a complicated task after seeing it only once.

This employee recently found herself in that situation after her manager decided to teach her bookkeeping while she waited for her next training class.

At first, she didn’t mind learning something new. After all, picking up new skills comes with any job.

But then, the manager walked her through the entire bookkeeping process and told her she would handle everything by herself the very next time.

To make matters worse, she had to finish the books before the money truck arrived because even a few extra minutes could trigger a call to the police.

So when she asked for more training, she expected a little understanding. Instead, her manager criticized her for not remembering everything after seeing the process only once.

Let’s take a look at her full story.

Boss expects me to do bookeeping alone after showing me one time

I got a new job about one month ago today. It’s a customer service/office job.

Recently, my boss realized there wasn’t much for me to do until my next training course, which is two weeks from now, so she decided that I would learn bookkeeping in the meantime.

Which is fine. I mean, I’m willing to learn new things, of course. But the way management is going about it is kind of concerning, tbh.

As of now, she’s only  learned the entire process one time.

She showed me how to do bookkeeping two separate times, but each time was only half of the process. So, in total, I’ve been shown the entire thing one time.

Which, btw, there’s an entirely separate week-long class you have to take to do bookkeeping alone, usually. She told me I wouldn’t be taking that class and would instead be learning on the job.

Which, okay, cool, I guess. But here’s the thing: after the second half, she told me that next time I’d have to do this completely alone.

But then, there’s other added pressure.

Also, I’d have to finish bookkeeping for the entire branch within the first two to three hours so the money truck can arrive on time. They let me know that if it’s even five minutes late, the truck company will automatically call the police because they’ll assume there’s a robbery.

Totally no extra pressure at all, guys…

Like, idk, to me and my other coworkers it seems a little crazy. Like, why are we giving arguably one of the biggest responsibilities to the new person? And alone at that?

When she asked for more training, the manager got rude.

If there’s an entire week-long course on this topic, how could I know and remember everything after being shown one time?

And then my managers got upset with me when I asked for more training or the ability to take the class. She told me I have to “unlock a certain level of maturity going forward because this job requires a lot of retention of information.”

And okay, cool, I get that, but you cannot expect me to fully absorb everything and do it all alone after one full round of showing me how it works. I’m not a robot.

Now, she feels very overwhelmed.

Also, this wasn’t in the job description when I applied, and only two to four people out of the 15 employees who have my same job title do the books at all. And all of them took the class and didn’t start doing the books until they were fully trained, either.

This is just really frustrating and overwhelming. It seems like a lot of pressure to be putting on the new person, imo.

Again, my coworkers think this as well, but I’m not sure what to do going forward. I’d like to stand up for myself again, but it seems like they aren’t listening, and I can’t get fired in this economy, so… :/

Yikes! That sounds like a nightmare.

Let’s see what thoughts the readers over at Reddit have about it.

If she did want to learn, this is great advice.

That would be kinda funny.

According to this comment, it would be a challenge at this point.

This reader’s dad acts like that.

This manager is out of her mind.

Nobody should hand a brand-new employee responsibility for the bookkeeping after showing them the process one time. That approach almost guarantees mistakes. And then, someone else will have to stop what they’re doing, figure out what went wrong, and fix it.

Hopefully someone higher up steps in because this doesn’t sound like good management at all.

After all, if the company already offers a week-long bookkeeping class, then there has to be a reason for it. What’s the point of having proper training if managers refuse to use it?