Please help me line manage this member of staff

[Pleeby]

I’ve recently taken over a new team, I was forewarned about one member of staff. Not so much about her work but her attitude and behaviours. Since I started one member of staff has handed in their notice as they can no longer work with her and another one indicated they are looking for another post due to her.

Examples of her behaviour:

Arguing about everything with me. If I send out a “team actions” email, she will return it to me with red font reasons about why she shouldn’t have to do/can’t do something. Each point followed by a stream of !!!!!!!!!!

Constant loud huffing and sighing, banging desk drawers closed and files down on her desk

Eye rolling and sighing during meetings

I called a quick huddle and she sat at her desk not turning around. I asked her to get involved and she slammed her paperwork down, turned around and said “I’m busy”

Work rate is half what everyone else’s is. This is because she says the work is unfairly distributed. I asked everyone to give me a list of all of their responsibilities, it isn’t correct that she has more to do than other people at her level.

Gossiping and bitching about who ever is working from home that day (they are on a rota)

Refuses to sign into teams every morning when working from home. I have to call her and tell her to sign in each day.

It is ruining the office to be honest. My 1-1s are just people complaining about her. Her 1-1 she has cancelled the last 3 times.

Please give me some advice

[Useruseruserusee]

You need to go to your manager and HR about this. There must be a company policy about employee performance, you also need to read this and ensure you are following it to the letter.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

[quote Pleeby]@UhtredRagnarson, I’m not going to escalate staff issues to my manager at this stage[/quote]
Oh yes you are!

You have quickly recognised an issue within the team.

Some of her actions could be described as 'gross insubordination' - or whatever the more modern, PC version of that is.

If you do not identify this early and then fail to deal with it, going to your manager at a later date, they will wonder why you failed to manage her from day one. Protect yourself. She is no reflection on you, she was fully formed like this when you got there - chances are she is the reason you now have the job, why did your predecessor leave?

Discuss it with your line manager and agree a management programme going forward, probably leading to formal disciplinary procedures. Basically, take a deep breath and do your job.

Good luck.

[UhtredRagnarson]

And tell your manager. If you worked for me and didn't tell me that we were losing good staff because of a rogue employee, you wouldn't be a manager for very long!

This!

Why are there so many managers on MN who haven’t a clue about their own company’s protocols? Serious lack of managerial training around!

[cricketmum84]

@beingsunny

I've had one of these,
Go to HR and work with them on a performance plan. When they fail to meet expectations issue the required warnings.

AKA manage them out

Yep totally this. Formal meeting with a performance improvement plan and clear key objectives she must begin to meet. Advise that not meeting these objectives will result in more formal action I.e disciplinary and earnings.

You review it every 4 weeks and issue the warnings of the objectives aren't met. Then when she doesn't meet them POOF!! She disappears and you can recruit for someone with a better attitude!!

[Pleeby]

My manager is well aware of her, she was the one who forewarned me about her. They’ve been sitting on it for a year hoping she will just decide to leave (she has a number of short term posts on her CV).

Advice when I started was that it’s up to me what I do with her. I decided to go in with no preconceived ideas and judge on the way I witnessed her behaving. She absolutely needs performance managing - but there is no silver “you didn’t do this piece of work” bullet. It’s all low level behaviour issues but constantly

[eurochick]

I agree with using HR. They are there to protect the business and this woman is a risk to it. They can guide you through the options.

[MRex]

Talk to HR and arrange a meeting to address her performance issues. Include her attitude to you, her attitude to the team and the amount of work she's doing; clear objectives with twice weekly reviews. Manage her out using the HR process by logging every failure of hers to comply.

You're the manager, this is your job. Do it.

[NewjobOldme]

She hasn't left because she's allowed to get away with her dreadful behaviour. She wont just leave.

[DonLewis]

Aren't there any behaviour standards linked to some kind of performance review?

In the first instance, I'd get her into her 1 2 1. Tell her that her behaviours don't mat h the organisational behaviours expected and that from this point in she's expected to..... And list those behaviours. Like log onto teams, participate in staff meetings in a positive way etc.

Then you keep a log. If she replies to emails with shirty reasons for refusing to do something, email back and remind her of the expectations.

If all this fails, get her on performance management.

Either way, she needs direction and clear targets.

[BarbaraofSeville]

You need to start managing her. Make clear your expectations and pull her up on it if she doesn't engage and do her work at a decent rate and to a decent standard, while acting like a professional employee, not a petulant toddler with a side order of high school bitchiness.

Make sure she knows that if she doesn't improve then you will engage formal capability procedures, then you need to get HR and your manager involved.

Part of your job is being a manager and your manager needs you to be doing this without them needing to hold your hand.

[OverTheRubicon]

[quote Pleeby]@UhtredRagnarson, I’m not going to escalate staff issues to my manager at this stage[/quote]
You're going to look like a much worse manager if you don't raise them immediately.

These issues pre-date you and are having a massive impact on your team. They're not teething issues or a reflection on your own skills. However allowing this to fester while you lose good people is the kind of thing that will end up with you looking poor at your job right alongside her.

Manager, HR, performance plan.

If you can help her turn it around, so much the better. If not and she goes, then the rest of the team will be grateful and you can find someone more suited.

[UhtredRagnarson]

My manager is well aware of her, she was the one who forewarned me about her. They’ve been sitting on it for a year hoping she will just decide to leave (she has a number of short term posts on her CV).

You’re in a shit company then. This explains why you have no idea what to do. You’ll get no support from them and she won’t leave. They’ve dumped her on you. I wouldn’t expect to enjoy your time as manager in this company.

[MyGorramShip]

She was probably fired from those short term roles! She’s likely been with your company for so long because nobody had disciplined her yet. Ffs.

[BarbaraofSeville]

Oh, and avoiding 1 to 1s, whether on Teams or in person, is a performance issue in itself, so this needs to be included in the expectations you have of her.

Unless she has a good reason like appointments with clients, she needs to consider having a meeting with you as part of the job that she has to do.

[Iggly]

It can be incredibly difficult to deal with staff like this. Incredibly difficult.

OP, first of all get the 121 in the diary and don’t accept a cancellation without good reason. She’s avoiding you.

Second of all, absolutely speak to hr to clarify the process for capability procedures.

Third, set her objectives. Take no nonsense about workload.

And speak to her about her manners. I’ve done it a few times, and that alone can make a difference. A member of staff was rude to me once about a request I made. I told them clearly that I found it rude and I would prefer they didn’t speak to me that way. Several years later, they reminded me of it, they were still apologetic and massively respected me for it.

[Nancylovesthecock]

@beingsunny

I've had one of these,
Go to HR and work with them on a performance plan. When they fail to meet expectations issue the required warnings.

AKA manage them out

Agreed. Hard ball time. She either tows the line or fucks off.

[CrumpetsForAll]

Your manager sounds shit. I’d get your manager and HR on board and then start pulling her up on stuff under the guise of ‘concern’

Ie: I noticed you seemed quite stressed when I invited you to huddle- you seem more stressed than the others on same work, is there anything I need to know, anything at home. We have a duty of care to make sure we don’t give you any work that’s too stretching or have ppl in the wrong roles...

And as pp have said, take this approach with everything

‘Noticed you didn’t have time for our 121, are you coping with scheduling your work?

Noticed you didn’t log onto teams for 3rd day without prompting, Di you need an IT refresher?

Then you can evidence she’s refused support before you crack on with a performance plan.

[bonfireheart]

We had a member of staff like this. Really affected everyone on the team. She was on a short term contract, previous line manager kept extending it. Her awful behaviour soon rubbed off on everyone because they saw her getting away with it, morale was awful. New line manager came in, gave her some performance reviews, nothing changed so he didn't extend her contract. And that's really changed how the team now works- we no longer have her dragging us down and we've seen the new manager is far more sensible.

[LeibnizQueen]

[quote Pleeby]@UhtredRagnarson, I’m not going to escalate staff issues to my manager at this stage[/quote]

You absolutely need to as you are not currently handling it. !!

You'd be in trouble if this was identified. The thread about the office CF who didn't pay for her share of lunch order springs to mind....


I wouldn't hesitate to seek counsel from my boss initially and for their action secondly if no improvement.

[topcat2014]

To a PP, I think you will find not many people get 'trained' as managers.

One often ends up as one having first got all the experience in the 'technical' aspects of the role.

Managing poor staff really sucks the life out of you. The money doesn't really make up for it, tbh.

If people hate jobs they should have the guts to leave them.

Mind you - I enjoyed the thread the other day about people honestly saying they have hated every job they have ever done.

Beats the ones who seem to live for work.

[bonfireheart]

@CrumpetsForAll advice is great.

[HeartsAndClubs]

OP is a manager. She needs to manage. It's not the domain of HR to pick up the slack with tricky employees. the problem is that if this person goes to HR before the OP does then it is the OP who will be made to look in the wrong.

And the OP won’t be able to performance manage her without the input of HR.

My DP works with a woman like this. She takes off sick every time something tricky comes up. They were in fact forced to take her on after the department she worked in was closing and they couldn’t make her redundant because she was on long-term sick at the time. And she still goes off sick at every opportunity, and when she is there she does very little.

But she has HR on her side and her manager is powerless to do anything about her.

So I would say get HR involved before she does.

[UhtredRagnarson]

To a PP, I think you will find not many people get 'trained' as managers.

I didn’t suggest anyone got “trained” as a manager. I said there was a lack of managerial training, which most managers experience informally in their role. Some happens formally.

[LeibnizQueen]

She'd last approximately 2mins the place I'm employed behaving like that!!!

Huge organisation very very high standards for conduct and performance.

Your company have basically passed the buck.

[LeibnizQueen]

On the flip side, sort it out and this kind of story is great interview fodder for you in the future.

"Describe a difficult situation and how you handled it"....