To sack someone due to 'bad cultural fit'

[aveleila]

So I work in a field that is notoriously difficult to recruit. So I was delighted to find someone who seemed perfect for the job and had excellent qualifications.
All started well, she settled into the team with effortless ease. Within a month or two she started gossiping that the team had too much work and that she had been given too much work. She struggled with the pace of the job ( lots of concrete examples).

She seemed to work it out after about 4 months but her presence has simply disrupted what has always been a friendly, professional team who work well with each other.

On the same floor she has made friends with people from a different department and seems to have fitted in great with them.

She never speaks to me, not even to say hello or goodbye. If she wants authorisation for something it is always through email. She makes all decisions without speaking to me and if she needs advice it's always the medical team not me she goes to.

I have had to bring up with her errors she has made on a pretty much daily basis. To begin with I put it down to her being new. However now I know she is competent and capable but just lazy and doesn't feel the need for very high standards of work.

I overheard her gossiping about me to colleagues saying 'I literally come in each day wondering what I will get told off for today. If she does not stop I am leaving and good job trying to recruit for my position when I have gone'.

She is passing me off as a bully when all I have done is challenge lazy behaviour.

The final straw is now she is lying about completing tasks she hasn't done. Claiming she has checked equipment she couldn't have as they were locked in a different building.

She has depression and I am worried about being accused of being heartless but she is disrupting the office environment. A few team members have complained about her work ethic and I don't feel like I can trust her due to previous false claims from her.

I'm now at the stage where I can't even stand to give her a friendly smile and I really don't want to end up accused of bullying.

Sorry for ranting on, but this is the first time I have ever been in this situation. Would the things I have mentioned here be enough for her to fail her 6 months probation?

Her 5 month review is coming up and I know I have to give her a chance to improve but I really just want her out of the company at this point.

Our company was advised that probation period is nonsense if legally challenged, so we didn't set one.
I think you now have an issue - it's got personal - you can't even smile at her? You need to be more professional, you need to coach her to be a better employee - have a conversation with her about why she is so unhappy with you/the job, address her concerns and share yours, come up with a plan and work through it - you have to be a better manager than this!

Involve HR and get rid before her probation ends - otherwise you won't be able to get her out the door without a lot of hassle!

Her probation is being managed by both myself and a consultant who also supervises her work.
The problem is the consultant thinks she's wonderful and says in her opinion her work is of a good standard. Her last review at 3 months was done entirely by this consultant as I was off and it is glowing.

This does sound worrying to me. I find it very difficult to believe if she was as awful as you say she is, another person would think she was marvellous.

It does sound like you are acting because you just plain don’t like her. I know you say she has made mistakes etc, but an awful lot of what you are saying does sound an awful lot like the sort of micromanaging which amounts to bullying. I’ve had a boss like that before, poring over a 90 page report and finding one missed full stop and behaving like it is Armageddon.

It’s really difficult, because we just have your side of it, for us to tell if she is really useless or if YABU. But I do think as a more senior consultant is happy with her work, you will struggle to fail her.

I also get this feeling from your posts, the way you seem resistant to any solution other than her leaving, that there really is a strong possibility YABU.

'
Everyone else seems happy here. The team seem to like me.'

This attitude is your problem. They aren't your mates. There will be times when they don't like you but they pretend to because they are professional. Maybe start doing that with the staff member in question for a start.

You don’t sound like a skilled or experienced manager. You sound like you’re being quite petty and unkind. Be careful you don’t end up in a tribunal!
There should be a planned probationary period with one line manager not two of you both managing her. The probation should be used to build skills and behaviours. Meetings should be face to face and allow both parties to listen to each other, point out strengths and look at areas for development. There should be clear, achievable objectives that grow with the staff members experience.
You absolutely should discuss values and behaviour as well as performance. Do you have a code of conduct, a behaviour framework or organisational values? If not, what are you judging her against?
If you identify shortcomings, you should address these by providing support and opportunities to learn and improve. Maybe identify a buddy who isn’t a line manager.
Your attitude feels close to bullying.

Everything Cherry said. Using email as your primary performance management tool is dreadful practice. Management is a relationship. You have to invest your time in it and have face to face discussions about problems, followed up in writing if needed.

She says I have repeatedly called her out on minor issues and apparently I should have discussed these 1-1 with her and not as they occurred so that she doesn't feel she is constantly being criticised.

Can you clarify this? If you're calling her out on minor issues as they occur, does this mean it's in front of other people? ACAS guidelines on bullying include "deliberately undermining a competent worker by overloading and constant criticism". Telling someone off in front of others rather than 1:1 can also be seen as bullying. You may well not intend this to be the case but she may see it in this light and she may have a good case against you.

I agree with pp - you cannot just hope she will leave. You have to talk to her and manage her. And you have to talk to the consultant more. I've worked with very manipulative people who some people think are marvellous, when they're actually deeply unpleasant. But I can't tell if that's what is going on here or if the problem does lie with your management style. Sorry.

Its your line mangers job to have an opinion. Jesus.

I agree completely with maddiemookins16mum. This level of detail is bizarre, if you're having to challenge this person daily, face to face presumably, such a discussion would have already been held rather than your rambling here??

I've known people fail their probation period for less. Most people are on their best behaviour during that time to make sure they are kept on. I would always be wary of someone who hasn't been in a job for longer than 1 year tbh

Follow the correct routes here. Written warning etc but agree she needs to go before the two year safetly net. Yanbu

You need to put her on performance management fortnightly. Write down facts and how to resolve for her. Then review and say she failed give her 3 chances then say she hasn't performed and get rid of her. But gossiping and talking behind your back is not a valid reason to get rid of someone. You need work records. Record time keeping and absence. Get her to sign her performance goals and sign that she clearly knows what is expected of her. Also ask if anything at home is troubling her you you can't sack her personal issues if she's told you. Hope this helps. You can give her out of reach targets and manage her out on the sly but she needs to sign and say she can meet those targets. When she fails ask her why and sack her.

She's never been in a job longer than a year

That would be a red flag to me and I wouldn't recruit.

If she gets on better with another team is there scope for her to work with them instead?

Need to involve HR to ensure you don't fall foul of company policy or employment law. Does sound as if the problems will go on if not increase. Why did she leave her previous job, were her references up to scratch and you feel honest.

Go through HR, do it all properly and sack her.

She is poison.

If she's only been there 5 months, get rid. You don't need to give a reason.

And ignore all the "you're clearly a terrible manager" crowd who have obviously never had the misfortune to come across someone who is a useless employee and colleague. There are plenty of them around.

Let HR deal with her, I don’t think you can sack her anyway, she’s not actually done anything wrong, she has dared to have an opinion you don’t like, not really a sackable offence without verbal and written warnings.

If she lies about doing a piece of work she hasn't done. Go to Hr and action a disciplinary.
If she does anything else officially wrong, then do the same.
You need to build a clear case of why, when her probation term is up you won't be offering her the job full time.
Or even better, get rid before that even happens.
The job advertised is not the job she is doing, simple as that.
You need to give her the opportunity to do the job.
You need to give her appropriate support to do the job.
But if she still fails on that score then you have stolid reasons to get rid.

If she does start doing the job, but gossips etc then you have to work on that. Forge a positive relationship between you and bring her on-side.

I’m a HR Consultant. While there are no employment rights until 2 years of employment discrimination laws apply from day 1. Depression may qualify under disability discrimination. I won’t comment but I urge you to manage this carefully with your HR team. How you manage this may pose risk to your company so best be guided by them. Good luck!

You don't have to smile at her, you have to manage her. She should be having supervision on a regular basis. She doesn't have to like it.
Look at your disciplinary policy, especially about probation and capability. Have a meeting with hr to plan how you deal with this. She should have a warning, you should have hr with you in the meeting. If she can't improve she has to go, but you have to point out her failings and give opportunity to raise her game

The job of a manager is to get the best out of their staff. So you need to get her onside by addressing her concerns and also make it clear where the boundaries lie.
One possible explanation is that she got off to a bad start because she wasn't properly trained, and the rest of your team are a bit of a clique. Therefore she has developed a dislike of you all. It's unprofessional of her to let this affect the quality of her work, however, it doesn't sound as though it has been very professionally managed up to now.
If you think she needs training you need to tell her it is compulsory not just offer it and let her decline and carry on doing poor work. Similarly if she is complaining of a too high workload then find out why it is taking her so much longer than everyone else. Maybe there is a genuine reason. Perhaps she is inefficient or hasn't got a good way of doing things and needs help/closer supervision.
If these measures don't work and she carries on being lazy, you will have justification to let her go.
Meanwhile you need to carry on being pleasant and professional.

Gossiping- agree it’s not nice and I’d probably feel similar to you. But if she’s on probation and she’s not performing to the standards required I suggest you speak with her about it. HR should be able to advise better. Main thing is that you keep it factual and evidence based. A former colleague told me that if you have concerns about someone during their probationary period then 9 times out of 10 they will cause issues when they are a fully fledged employee.

Also you definitely shouldn't email her every time she makes a mistake - how depressing! Never write anything negative in an email. Get her in for a private meeting to discuss these. Approach in an openminded non judgemental manner and give her a chance to explain or ask for help. If you email her, she is just getting more resentful and defensive and venting to colleagues, whilst probably excusing the mistakes in her own mind. It is backing her into a corner which she can't get out of - how do you expect her to respond to constant critical emails? It would take a very confident person to deal with this in a constructive way.

You can make dated notes after each meeting to fulfil the need for a record.

I've worked in places were people who were basically rubbish have been allowed to get through their probation period despite clearly being unsuitable (and not as bad as your example) because managers wouldn't take charge and actually manage the situation.

This.

I inherited one of these problem people when I took over a team. It was just before his probation review was due and his previous manager had just stuck his head in the sand for the entire preceding 6 months. Then our offshore HR cocked up and told me he'd automatically passed probation because his probation review meeting hadn't happened in time. It turns out this was bullshit (HR got this wrong - they weren't our usual HR person) but it was too late to go back so I was stuck with the guy after 'passing' probation and then had to performance manage him to try and get him out.

I thought he was a bad hire. He was clearly a bullshitter who hadn't been found out during our interview process (don't get me started on this! Bad interviewers make bad hires). It was obvious from his career history that he never lasted more than 1 year anywhere so I think previous employers all saw the light. But trying to performance manage him out was a nightmare. He knew the game all too well and when I caught him out lying (with factual objective evidence) one too many times, he promptly went off sick. He messed us around constantly while he was off sick, refusing to have any contact with his line manager (who reported to me) to the extent that we had to ask HR to call his emergency contact as we literally didn't know if the guy was alive or dead, and we were genuinely concerned. Plus he wasn't providing sick/fit notes. He gave HR a load of bullshit but they were worried that he would say it was (racial) discrimination if we got rid of him while he was off sick. He also made claims that I (as head of department) was bullying him and that the standards I was asking him to meet were my personal standards rather than the company/department standards. He was very convincing. I fell out with one of the other UK management team (who I was previously very close to) about him. The stress affected me as I began to fear for my own job as this guy was talking such a good story about how I was picking on him. It was a horrendous time! I had a few nights when I went to bed in tears.

But OP, you need to keep a cool head and document EVERYTHING. You need as much factual, objective evidence as you can get of the lying, the poor performance, the disruption etc. And you need to make sure you have communicated this to the staff member on a regular basis to give them a fair opportunity to improve / change. I got my guy out in the end but it took me a whole year. You can do it OP! Do it soon so you don't have to go through what I did. Please don't end up in the position I was. People like your troublesome staff member know how to play the game (because it won't be the first time they've underperformed/lied). Don't let them win.

Make the role redundant and then hire someone else under a diffrent role title I know companies that have done this when there is no hard evidence to get rid of someone but there lazy and don't do the job to a high standard. and because she ain't been there long you don't have to pay her redundancy pay :) lol this is the evil way of getting around the law and stuff