I messed up and I think Ive created a monster.

Last summer a new girl was recruited on to my team. She was shy and very young and remembering what it’s like to be new in your first job I trained her and tried to boost her confidence, to never make her feel bad about an error but to appreciate the right way of working and how to avoid snags. At the time we had a poor manager who ruled through intimidation rather than skill (you all know the type). She came down hard on this girl. I did my best to talk to her away from the team and to work in a way that would not invite criticism or attention from our manager, who happily was recognised as a problem by the organisation and moved on.

I’ve always tried to be a team player, recognise people for developing skills and their achievements and work to peoples strengths. But I might have gone too far.

Our friend the new girl now cherry picks the work for tasks that she prefers to do, expects constant praise for doing very little out of the ordinary, and the most recent development is playing on her phone blatantly ignoring the work piling up.

I think I’ve overplayed the considerate colleague, flamed her ego instead of just giving her self confidence and I’m stuck with a moody, petulant colleague who wants heaps of validation for small and insignificant amounts of work. Maybe this is karma, no good deed goes unpunished.

What do you guys think my next steps should be?