As a senior within a work place, when you get junior staff, especially graduates, please allow them to learn. What is basic to you could be hugely overwhelming to them. So don't ridicule them when they can't understand what you consider basic.

The first time I ever looked at an actuarial model, hey my mind didn't understand a thing. There were a million formulas there that I didn't get. Everything was just confusing. Now I look at the same model, it's very normal. But that's because my seniors allowed me to learn.

It's not that the grad is dumb or anything, but this is new to them. Being in a workplace, new people etc, they're just trying to find their feet. So allow them to make mistakes, politely correct them and most importantly, applaud them when they do well.

And no it's not baby sitting but every new part of life comes with new challenges. They've been in Varsity for 3-6 years mostly and they're entering a new territory. A territory where they at times don't even know what to expect.

When I started working, it was group life insurance. Everything happened so fast. I knew very little about group life insurance then. But I was allowed to learn, given content to read, asked questions. I was corrected where I was wrong and applauded where I did right.

This gave me a lot of confidence and made me believe the that I could do it. Sooner or later, my seniors were passing work to me, projects and I was able to do it albeit with errors. All this time they were allowing me to learn and never been ridiculed for a mistake but corrected

There is a huge difference between correcting and ridiculing someone. When you ridicule them, especially as a grad, they lose confidence, the desire to learn and they'd be scared to even ask you for help. This affects their growth and that's the worst thing for a grad.

Also at varsity, we learn a whole bunch of stuff. Not everything we learn there is entirely applicable and as a senior, it's your job to help guide them correctly. Some of the stuff we learn would need to be reignited because we may forget it.

I have come across friends who wanted to quit a few months into their first job. They didn't believe they could do it and that was simply because their managers and seniors had destroyed their confidence by ridiculing them and making them feel like they don't belong.