Work Structural Issue- AIBU

[Cheekylittlenumber]

I have worked at my current employer for the past 12 years and are at managerial level. I have an extremely good track record for the projects I’m involved in.

A colleague who is technically below me, and who has worked at the company for around a year and a half, is (in my opinion) underperforming.

We’re at a point where we are losing projects (my role is pitch-performance based) and to me it feels very clear where the issue lies. She’s reactive, has poor strategy, is negative and sloppy.

I’m a huge people pleaser, and my managerial style is to befriend my team and it works really well with everyone else I work with. This person was promoted while I was on maternity leave to a position just below mine, but the structure by our manager was not set out clearly, although my manager has said to me multiple times I am responsible for the whole department.

Around a month ago I spoke to my manager and said I was concerned about colleagues output, and that with the current structure I had no way of inputting on colleagues work. Colleague has not been performing well. My manager put in place a system where we had an open forum to update each other on the status of our projects. We did so, I gave my update, and when colleague gave her update I asked a couple of questions and colleague became very defensive. She can be quite aggressive in general and I hate conflict so I back down. Manager was present, but didn’t say anything.

Fast foreword to yesterday. A junior member of staff alerted me to a presentation that colleague was overseeing, as junior colleague was concerned the presentation was full of spelling mistakes and didn’t make sense. Colleague was out at a client lunch so I offered to take a look at the writing, and started correcting it.

Colleague came back and said the presentation had already been sent to the client and was clearly annoyed I was meddling.

I’m having a meeting with my manager today, as I feel helpless at the moment but because I’m senior I’m feeling pressure for the projects we’re not winning (colleagues projects). My manager is a lovely person, and I think she doesn’t want to upset colleague but I don’t know what to say. It’s very clear that things aren’t working as they are. I don’t want to feel like a snitch but equally the company is in dire straits and I can see clearly how we can improve our workflow.

AIBU to speak to my manager? Really, I feel the only way forward is to let her go, as she’s too senior for me to train and not a personality I can gel with- too volatile for me. But I don’t feel I can be as candid with my manager as that without sounding like a ruthless bitch.

The way I deal with things like this as a manager is I present all the possible solutions to the problem at hand and then speak a little bit about each one, before giving my final opinion at the end. It sounds as though your colleague probably needs a performance improvement plan put into place, but i personally do think that colleague should be given a chance to improve before dismissal.

Really, I feel the only way forward is to let her go, as she’s too senior for me to train and not a personality I can gel with
So the company should sack her because you don't get on with her? That's not exactly in line with best working practices.

Who is her manager? Regardless of team structure, she must report to someone. It's not clear whether you are talking about your "managerial style" in terms of managing projects or people.

If you are her manager, then what you are doing is appropriate as far as it goes but you need to step it up and actually manage her under performance. Feedback and clear targets. If she complains then fine, make sure you can present HR with clear examples of the issues and her unsatisfactory work.

If someone else is her manager, and her work is negatively impacting on yours, then it's not being a snitch and you keep reporting the issues.

1. If you are accountable for the performance of the whole department they all need to report to you. You can’t accept accountability without responsibility

1. I feel a bit sorry for your colleague actually despite her faults. Sounds like nobody has managed her and you’ve shyed away from trying to bring her up to standard because you dislike conflict and greyness on structure. It feels harsh to just sack her because you don’t want to put your big girl pants on and manage her. Has she had appraisals since she started? Has she had targets and is she meeting them? Is she having 1:1s with anyone and if not why?

1. That said at 2 years she gets unfair dismissal protection. So you need to engage with your HR and be clear on her notice period as there may not be time to performance manage properly and run her notice period unless you have a PILON clause.

That you are a people pleaser who avoids conflict despite being a manager is not her problem...so you can't expect her to be got rid of because you can't 'gel'. However you can expect for her to have her performance managed, so it is totally reasonable to go to your boss again and ask for clarification and support. But really, as her boss you are doing a disservice by backing down if she gets defensive.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

No I’m not her official manager, but I am a manager of the department that she works in. The structure is a bit complicated (which I think is the key problem) We both sit under the MD, and the MD doesn’t seem to want to set a clear hierarchy/system in place as we are both senior.

I did have a chat with my MD today which was helpful. She’s going to set up a discussion with us all to try and get us working better together. My colleague is a nice person but is under performing, which MD is aware of.

I have been told our sales aren’t great and are being put under pressure to improve them, but I only have control of the projects I’m directly working on. I was told I would be receiving a salary increase based on sales which would be assessed every 6 months, but as colleague is underperforming the company itself isn’t doing well, and I won’t get any increase (even though individually I’m exceeding my targets- they don’t look at it like that)

I know I sound perhaps not so kind to colleague, but I’m frustrated at the situation and colleague is quite aggressive and very defensive. I wouldn’t be able or want to manage her even if I was formally responsible for doing so.

Be clear with your manager. The issue is not her personality nor how well you work together. The issue is that she is not doing her job at the level which is needed. That is what you need to explain to your manager, including all the evidence that you have to demonstrate it. Presumably the manager is also concerned that your department is losing business and will want to know where the problem lies.

I know I sound perhaps not so kind to colleague, but I’m frustrated at the situation and colleague is quite aggressive and very defensive. I wouldn’t be able or want to manage her even if I was formally responsible for doing so.

I think this is your big problem. You care more about 'sounding kind' and 'not being a ruthless bitch' than actually doing what's needed for the company. Being in a senior role means saying and doing tough things. I think you need to toughen up a bit.

Forget the colleague.

What needs to happen is a formal review of each sale, and what happened and why did that sale not get made. This needs to be done across the board to find out what mistakes are being made continuously, rather than blaming one individual.

Once you can start pinpointing what is happening, then you can take it to your manager and work to address it. Until this is done, and a proper management structure is in place, nothing you do will up your sales.

Bridge I’ve worked in toxic work environments where I’ve been treated badly and with disrespect and I want to ensure I have a warm working relationship with my colleagues. But, I do agree that my fear of confrontation has meant I haven’t addressed some issues with colleague sooner, however because of the current structure I can’t manage this colleague. But MD is too busy to manage her properly.

We’re all having a catch up on Thursday. At the moment colleague and I aren’t communicating with each other, so I’m sure we can definitely improve that. But she works as an island where as everyone else works a lot more collaboratively together.

I’ll update the thread after my meeting if anyone’s interested ha ha.