My company is hopelessly incompetent at onboarding

So I started my new job with my employer Oct. 1.


I like my employer for several reasons, my pay is fair, they treat their employees ok, I have a lot of independence on the job, and I like my colleagues.


That being said, I have run into nothing but roadblocks in trying to be set up for the computer access I need. It's been like pulling teeth. I finally got trained and got a user ID for the database software yesterday after I told the person responsible for setting people up that I couldn't do my job if I didn't get access.


I'm running into major problems with being set up for access to the network. I've requested multiple times and the person responsible for setting it up keeps telling me I don't need an ID which is counter intuitive. Everyone else is saying I need an ID. Other users have even told me to continue logging in as the user who is leaving ID but that's a short term solution at best. This is driving me nuts as it gets in the way of my doing my job.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I wonder if your super is using their predecessor's ID?! That is not good security. I know you guys are not HIPAA, but you probably have something similar.

That's nuts and your sys admin should have a unique ID set up for you. Someone is probably just being too lazy to submit a ticket to the proper team.

I don't know if this will make you feel better, but it reminded me of the terrible onboarding of my last job and you might find some humor in how absurd this all was.

1. My new job was part of a contract change at a place I already worked so job offers didn't come through until the last day before transition. The job description was blank with only a salary and title listed and we had to accept on the spot or lose our clearances.
2. Monday morning and my paperwork has the wrong supervisor listed. This was never corrected so I never got any updates on anything because the supervisor listed ignored it and my actual supervisor couldn't figure out how to change it.
3. The first laptop they sent me was dead on arrival and I had to wait an extra week for a new one before I could get even begin work.
4. The onboarding website for this international, world known tech company consisted of a single page with 3 videos of the CEO talking about how great he was. That was it.
5. It took me four months to get a basic list of phone numbers for service techs. At least 50 percent of my job was needing to set up service appointments. I asked every single day.
This was a state data center.

Congratulations on the job, hang in there and keep pushing them. Sometimes tech companies have no idea what they're doing.

@unaluna, Yeah I can't think of the acronym but yes we have our version of HIPPA that we have to be compliant with, and I'm 99.9% sure that using a former employee's ID is not ok.

@Knickerbocker That sounds like a horrible experience. It sometimes baffles my mind as to how messed up some companies can be.

An update: My supervisor's supervisor finally emailed me my user ID and password info, which in itself is bad security, on Friday. But I now have to go into one of two offices each of which were identified only by initials, HI or B2H so that I can log into one of their networks which will allow me to activate my ID after which I should be able to log on to any network in the company from any of the 3 offices I normally work out of. I'm 50/50 on whether or not this will actually work. I sent back an email saying I need the actual office names and addresses

In other stupidity I have 2 more things that baffle me.

Before he left, the guy I'm replacing gave me the passcode for the storage room in our main office. He gave me this because all the program literature, and supporting reference books are stored there. He correctly assumed that I would need access to these things. But horror of horrors I am not allowed access, according to the organization's director because I've been a member and members are categorically not allowed into the storage room. Hmm, guess you can't be both a member and staff in different capacities but I thought the point would be moot since it's been at least a year since I've been an active member. So either staff or I'm not. Make up your minds people. While management is wrapping it's collective head around the problem I pose, I told them to move the materials to the main office I work out of and that I will be unable to assist with the transfer since I'm not allowed to access the materials.

The second item that I can't quite wrap my head around is for some reason other staff at the organization think my hiring is some massive secret that members can't be allowed to know about. I already deal with the organizations obsession about keeping employee info hidden in my original job on the telephone support line. It's supposed to be an anonymous and confidential service, which is pretty standard for help lines. But they take the principles to the extreme. We're not allowed to tell anyone that we work there. They actually told one woman that she couldn't post her resume on Indeed and another guy that he couldn't list the job on his LinkedIn profile because of the confidentiality. We all collectively said F* that stupidity and everyone lists it on their resumes like a normal job. So anyway, when I started the Double Recovery job, I wasn't really expecting an organization wide announcement as they just don't do that. They did tell the rest of the phone team that I was taking on Double Recovery, but that was it. But when I went into the main office to host my first meeting over zoom, I had to tell other staff why I was there, and why I needed access to an office. I said in my normal voice, that I was the new facilitator for Double Recovery, and one staff member freaked, told me that was confidential and that I couldn't talk about it. Hmm, how am I supposed to inform members about the program if I can't talk about it?

I actually think all the issues I'm having are rooted in really discriminatory thinking on the part of the organization. The organization is a clubhouse for people with severe mental illnesses and they do a ton of good things for members. And as I said above they generally treat their staff ok - with one glaring exception. They do not like to hire people with mental illnesses. On out phone lines we have about 20 employees of which 5 of us were or are club members, and historically the phone line is the only place where they'll hire members. Now most other organizations view hiring members who can do the job as a good thing, not mine. I'm literally the only person hired, outside the phone lines, that has any kind of mental illness. The guy I'm replacing even said I'd be better at the job than him since he's never experienced mental illness and the program offers support for concurrent disorders. Now I'm not saying you have to have a concurrent disorder to the job, but it helps since it's a 12 step model, whereby it's people sharing from their own experience. this pisses me off. But I'm not going to call them on it, since that wouldn't help me. But when I get my next job and leave - hopefully in the next 2-3 years I'll be sharing my views publicly.


Sorry this got long. just needed to vent some more.

Well, yes, it's bad security. But I'm guessing that as soon as you log in, you'll be required to choose a new password, so it's a temporary situation. It might be good if you know in advance what the password requirements are and then think of one before you need to change it.

Good luck!