Which would you rather work with...

[Aramis Night]

I don't know why people are so against No. 2.

It isn't the job of some random employee to train you unless they are specifically asked to do so. In today's job market, you've probably got enough of your own work that you can't start babying your co-workers. If they've been hired, it is assumed they have the skills to do the job, or else they shouldn't have been hired in the first place.

Whilst you need the skills to be hired you may be doing a specific task you havent done before so you ask someone who has. If they downright refuse to spare 1 minute to give you a few pointers they are a dick. Its not good for the company either. Yes their work gets done but everyone else grinds to a halt.

if said employee makes it so they are the only one who can do something it wont get them a raise (not in my work anyway) they will just be the one who has to do it all the time. Its also a bad business mentality because when that employee is on sick or leave that specific task cannot be done

I have a lack of trust for people like this. When your job is safety critical and you cant have a basic level of trust with a fellow employee to give you some advice on a task then yes they are a dick. If your job isnt safety critical eg and office or retail then I could see why no.2 would be better but when someone doesnt tell you how to do something that if done wrong could potentially kill someone and the only reason they wont tell is so they look good in front of management they are a dick to the highest order

The problem with this is that it is not the responsibility of the co-worker to train you. Making sure you know how to do your job is the responsibility of the supervisor in charge. That is why the supervisor makes more money. If they are unable to learn how the job they are overseeing is done to be able to train others, then that is an issue with the company and not the responsibility of the co-worker. Expecting the competent employee to drop what they are doing with their own workload to train another worker is only adding more to their workload. Unless they are being compensated for taking on that responsibility, it is unreasonable to expect them to work extra on top of accepting the liability that would come with your screwing something up as a result of their training you.

If they train you and you screw up anyway, they will be held responsible and the negative consequences will fall on them. This despite that training others is not part of their job because they are not supervisor's. It's fine and well to accuse them of being jerk's but they do not owe you anything and sadly most workplaces are all about CYA. Unfortunately with the job market being what it is and companies being run in a manner that encourages everyone to limit their liability even if it is at the expense of competency, this behavior is the logical outcome. It is easier to keep your job even if incompetent, then it is to keep your job while accepting liability when things go wrong. Hate the game, not the player.