Employee feels micromanaged if I give her tasks with deadlines

[calmama]

I manage a person who is generally difficult. She objects to… well everything and undermines me at every chance she gets.

When she first started working for me we sat down together and established a work plan to get our job done and keep us on track to meet deadlines. We agreed I would assign daily tasks and we would meet weekly to discuss progress on projects along with anything new we had to take on, along with any business changes, leave, etc.

Weeks down the line she exploded at me for colour coding priorities, saying the urgent (red) tasks were ‘very unfriendly and freaking her out’. I took the red out.

A few weeks later she exploded at me for ‘micromanaging and bullying her’ by sending her daily priorities, despite this being agreed upon from the very start. I asked for an alternative way of progressing projects. She had none.

Today she exploded at me for setting deadlines because they ‘stress her out’. Again, I asked her for an alternative way of doing things and she had none.

I’m at a loss. She’s doing honestly the bare minimum and can’t seem to cope. I’m having to pick up her slack because otherwise my team looks bad, yet I’m still copping the brunt of her rage and there’s no end in sight.

AIBU to throw my hands in the air and take a long vacation?

It doesn't seem like bullying but yes it is managing. (because you are asigning the tasks as is your job) You don't seem to be micromanaging because you are leaving her to complete the tasks. The fact that she is not completing tasks requested must be very frustrating and adding pressure for the whole team.
Have you tried working together with the employee on one of the tasks to share some of your experience and to see where her strengths and weaknesses lie. There is no need for her to reinvent the colour green (metaphorically speaking) if you can show her some hints.
Can you try having a list of tasks that all can see with the most urgent or priority job on top and the least urgent on the bottom?
List beside each task an expected date for completion.
List the team member asigned to each task.
Everyone listed the same and no one singled out..

Maybe this person is not suitable for the position.
You would have to discuss the process to help her improve or how to dismiss her with HR and highter management.
Is she past her time of probation?

Does she actually do any work?

I haven't read the whole thread but I have read all the OP's posts. She sounds like a nightmare. At least she's been there under 2 years. I'd go to your own manager, OP, and HR too, and start the process of getting rid of her. She is receiving a salary and not earning it. She's making you and the rest of your team look bad. You could replace her with someone who actually wants to work. No brainer, surely?

On another point, whenever I read threads like this, it's clear many posters assume every job and every workplace is like theirs. We have no idea what the OP does and what level of seniority and experience she and her team members have, but the instances she's given make the job sound like a pretty junior one where surely it's appropriate for a team leader/manager to be assigning tasks and spelling out deadlines. I don't get the impression the OP is a senior partner in a Magic Circle law firm micromanaging a junior partner on how to manage her caseload. She's trying to get a nightmare colleague to send a simple email which most of us here could knock up in two minutes flat. For whatever reason, the colleague is simply not bothering or not able to do it.

I have family members who resemble this colleague although only in the non-work context.

Strategic incompetence and procrastination (but decades, not days or weeks) coupled with profound resentment of any attempt to follow up on standard activities (insurance renewal), household tasks etc. Same inability/disinclination silence when asked to suggest what might work for them.

When I say 'she' in the second sentence, I mean the colleague! Not the OP. Apols.

I wonder if she has another job.
We had someone never turn up on time, Manager turned a blind eye.
She had a learning difficulty she said, so they were wary of upsetting her.
Then she asked to start hours later, and finish hours later, which they greed to, but still did no work, as nothing was done.

Quality were assigned to see if they could help her, she ddint want to show them what work she did.

She eventually admitted having another on line job, but left and managed to secure another job in a different division of the company. I think she was very convincing, when she spoke, but then did little to nothing work wise

If she isn't progressing why can't you sack her ?

If the tasks required are coming in on a daily basisfrom clients then of course there will be new tasks to be completed every day, so maybe it isn't micromanaging. As the manager the OP is delegating the workload among her staff. If the explosive employee doesn't like this way of working she is in the wrong job.

Having just realised that she's been there less than two years. I'd just recognise that she's toxic to the team and a chronic underperformer and dismiss her.

To those who disagreed with me about managing out being illegal. I think we may have differing views on what managing out means. I'm not HR, but my solicitor defined it as being effectively forced out of your job by means of your manager making your working life so difficult that it becomes impossible to stay - essentially constructive dismissal for those employees who have been there more than two years. I wouldn't consider disciplinary processes and Performance Improvement Plans as ways to manage someone out, they are tools to improve performance, in my eyes.

I'm happy to be corrected on this by HR experts.

I agree if you're someone responsible who can use their initiative and get on with tasks. However, there are some people who will sit down and do nothing if you don't supervise them. It's hard to imagine but they exist.

This employee would rather come up with 100 reasons not to do the tasks set, actually refuses to do the tasks because they don't agree with them (it's not up to them to decide what needs to be done) and lies about the fact they haven't done them. This isn't an employee you can leave to get on with things!

But not to the micro level. Telling someone to call a business is not the same as telling them that first, you need to call these people, use the number on the contact card not the website and make sure you speak to Alex in events. Make the call from the conference room not your desk so you don't disturb anyone else, but book the room so you aren't disturbed. Don't use hands free on your call because it sounds echoey and that's unprofessional. Make sure you ask about per head rates and if there is any volume discount. Also get their terms and conditions and follow up with an email copying me in. Come back to your desk to write the email so I can see you have done the call.

Where has this idea that you don't get to take direction at work come from?

How long as she been with you? Who trained her in the role? From OPs update it sounds like the colleague doesn't understand her job priorities, shows no initiative, and I wonder what she's actually doing at her desk all day! Colour coding and checking in is standard way for project management workflow to meet deadlines and enables any manager to see at a glance where extra support is needed to get things done, and presume it works with others in the team.
Outbursts from the colleague are her attempt to deflect you away from her incompetences.

I think your colleague is in the wrong job. Did you check her references before she joined your team?

It sounds like she's lazy and looking for excuses to avoid what she's paid to do, she probably needs close managing.

You are so right! I had the misfortune to manage a guy who put more effort into avoiding work than doing it. He was an absolute effing nightmare. When i pulled him in to discuss it, he said it was because he was getting his kitchen done up 🙄where do you go from there like!

@user1492757084 Any time I have tried to work with her that way she huffs and puffs and I can feel her building up to an explosion. She will never ask for help or accept it.

She takes immense offence if I edit her work (for example). I need to edit her work because a. her writing is terrible and b. anything that goes public needs a second pair of eyes. This is standard and has been standard in every place I have ever worked.

We do the task list with tasks and dates divvied up between us. I have up on colour coding projects months ago because she was triggered.

I am twisting myself into a pretzel trying to find ways to work with her yet according to several posters on the thread I’m a monster.

I think she needs to go. She's a hindrance to you.

You are not. She is the problem. Task lists are reasonable for under performance.

She needs to be managed out and HR need to assist.

OP I’ve got ADHD and sometimes forget things at work and need reminders and I can be a bit disorganised but the difference is I get things done. I’ve got sympathy for people who find work processes difficult for whatever reason but she just sounds like a lazy and useless idiot. You’re not micromanaging, giving someone a list of tasks and expecting them to be done is absolutely reasonable. I’d go down the performance management route personally and get HR involved. Don’t let her emotionally blackmail you with the bullying claims.

I agree with this. Go nuclear? Junior employee to manager? Totally unacceptable.

Why do you refuse to say why you haven't done what any decent manager does and go to HR and performance manage her?

You seem to be in a power struggle with her and neither of you are doing your job well.

It isn't personal. You have an underperforming report. Be sure to keep good documentation of the feedback you have given her about her performance, go to HR, and start a performance improvement plan.

I think it is time for you to record evidence and then go to HR and your line manager with a joint meeting and ask for advice. Clearly she is not doing her job and is incompetent. There should be HR strategy on dealing with this with clear timescales.

@calmama multiple posters have given you the advice to dismiss her as she’s got less than 2 years service.

You are a micro manager - writing a social post, contacting a venue and a caterer aren't complex projects that need to be broken down into daily sub-tasks, with colour coding. Maybe you ought to look into creating a better longterm calendar/plan to map out the work that's coming in, thereby giving your employee a better view of her workload, and therefore an increased feeling of control.

You may also want to consider if you are withholding info from your employee. Why isn't your employee privy to information about a social media post that she herself then needs to post? What's the rationale for not keeping her in the loop and instead providing her with a daily drip-feed of small tasks?

Honestly, unless she is an intern/work experience student you ought to come with a more effective way of letting her manage her own work. If she then doesn't deliver, it's a performance issue and should be deal with that way (support>plan>PIP)

I think the nuclear option is the only option.

Get HR involved - she's totally unprofessional. Not doing job she's paid to do and then explodes when challenged. Totally unfair on rest of team who have to pick up her slack.