Am I Rusty? Part 2 (Working for a 1 Man show-EDIT)

I had a job like that once. My supervisor was awesome; the girl training me was NOT. She was totally intimidated by me and went out of her way to do a half @ss job training me, so I looked like the idiot. She complained about me constantly... and then would take no blame for not teaching me what I was supposed to be doing!! I finally went straight to my manager, apologized that something wasn't clicking, and that I would appreciate any effort on his part to help close this communication gap. Not only did it take only 4 hours to reach a very full, complete understanding of my job duties, the girl who was training me was terminated, I took on HER responsibilities, and got a raise almost double what I was making.

I'm telling this because THIS is why you should just talk to him :)

Best wishes!!

just ask questions!! If you are not sure what he wants - state it back to him how you understand it and ask him if that is what he wants. After doing this a few times, I am sure that you will start to figure him out.

Request a meeting with him and ask your questions. Take good notes and assure him that you are taking this time to meet with him so that you don't have to ask these questions again. Explain to him that your strength is your ability to see the "details within the big picture" and that you will be more efficient if you know what the end-product should be before starting. Ask him how he would prefer to "hear" from you and go from there.

I'm a Type A employer and when I hired a new assistant, SHE requested a meeting with me and asked the following questions:
1. How do you want your phone answered?
2. How do you want me to relay the messages to you?
3. Which items can I handle without having to come to you?
4. Do you handle your own calendar or can I make minor adjustments as needed?
5. For travel arrangements, what hotels do you stay in and what accommodations need to be made ahead of time?
6. Do you have a protocol for copying/disseminating presentation materials or do you want me to develop one?
7. Where do you keep your budget information and would you like me to take that over now?
8. What are the relevant passwords so that I can handle minor issues that come up without bothering you?
9. Can we keep a list of "on going" tasks that need to be done on a regular basis on our common network drive?

If he's a Type-A person he will appreciate your direct and specific questions. He will also appreciate the fact that you are taking notes and that you won't need to ask the same question over and over again (makes me crazy)!

Good luck.