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?

OP can you explain the job a bit more?

So if you gave her absolutely no tasks, what would she do all day?

Some posters are under the impression that it’s a job that she can mainly do by herself and that you are micromanaging by keeping on about dates and what she needs to do etc.

But others (like myself) are under the impression that it’s a job where a large part of it is you giving her tasks and deadlines and if she wasn’t told about them, then there’d not be a lot for her to actually do.

This

@calmama I work in entertainment- I could do that in a day .

I understand totally why you do this if it's not being done in a timely way. I'm not keen on Color coding etc but I don't think you are being unreasonable

This is bonkers. How old is this woman? Does your company performance manage? Do you have appraisals etc?

To answer your question on how long those tasks would take - c20 minutes to do the social media feed with fact-checking, photo selection etc. Then wording sent to a second pair of eyes to spot typos / ambiguity, then out.

Then call the venue and after confirming, ask which caterers they recommend. Email all of those and ask about availability / prices / menus. Then put the kettle on. It is now 1030.

You need to go down the performance management route. I think you've done all you can and yet she is not producing the work you need of her and putting a burden on the rest of the team that they will not appreciate. Meet with HR and get some advice on your company's policy on this and how it is carried out so you can move this forwards.

Her frequent explosions are a tactic to make you back off and not give her any work. I've seen this type of behaviour before. Also, once you start performance managing her, expect her to get signed off sick with stress. It is a classic response to under performance.

Good luck.

You haven’t answered the length of service question which is important.

Either way you need to make sure your boss understands the position (with him/her escalating up as necessary) and start conversations with HR. Honestly if she is under 2 years I would start discussing exiting her. If above I would discuss plans with HR particularly before you make big changes to how the team operates or how you give her work - you want them to be onboard this is an appropriate step and if she doesn’t respond it is off to formal performance management. If you have policies on intranet read them now. What I’ve seen before is a manager struggles on for too long, gets to breaking point and only then engages HR who insist on various informal steps which could have been done earlier.

beware though there is a decent chance that when you formalise things she will start with bullying grievances. So you need to engage with Hr first.

also do you not have any year end appraisal system? Or objectives?

Say I set her three tasks for the day: 1. Do an urgent social media post about x (no research or anything required, just a simple but timely post), 2. Contact a venue re potentially holding an event there next year, and 3. Look into caterers at said venue for a quote. Does this seem like something you could get done in a week

That sounds like a couple of hours work at most and that's even if you fall down a rabbit hole of looking at the menus and social media accounts of every possible caterer that would serve the venue.

The problem with events is that you have to meet deadlines because if you don't, you find that venues/caterers are booked by someone else or potential attendees aren't available. So you can't let things drift on for days/weeks on end.

It really doesn’t sound like you’ve tried some fairly obvious avenues for addressing her behaviour, OP. If you’re a seasoned manager, then you should know what to do when a member of your team consistently fails to deliver on their KPIs and has a poor attitude.

My instinct is she works from home and she’s prioritising something else over working. She’s either got a good side hustle on the go, she’s off to the gym, she’s focusing on family life or she’s depressed and sleeping the day away. What she’s not doing is working and that’s the problem.

We as a race are screwed.

Yes your approach is very much micro management. If she is underperforming then you give her that feedback, meet with HR and put her on a performance improvement plan. You seem to have a bit of a power trip controlling nature and add that to micro management and most people will hate it. I would guess most on your team aren’t happy with your style. If her performance is an issue - deal with it properly.

I had a member of staff like this - it might be micromanaging but it was the only way to get her to do stuff! If I just left it up to her - it would never get done!

She was awful and lazy, also resented me for being her manager as I was younger than her.

She ended up leaving in the end but everyone that ever managed her in the organisation said the same - some people are just lazy.

@honeylulu she sounds EXACTLY like my lady. Maybe they’re the same person 🤔

Just sack her, life is too short

If she's been there for less than 2 years, it's a relatively simple process

Jesus Christ what is it about MN that people will try their hardest to excuse shit behaviour and criticise the OP when they are being perfectly reasonable? Perhaps OP is micromanaging her but she isn't doing her job and is using OP management style as an excuse. I actually think she is bullying OP. How old is she out of curiosity? She sounds fucking awful - some jobs just require daily task lists and perhaps she isn't suited to this industry.

Daily tasks are micromanaging.

Agree tasks for the week or month ideally. Let her manage her own workload.

You should only be doing daily tasks in a performance management situation. I'd suggest weekly is still in the micromanagement sphere.

Saying exactly this on a memo could be more effective. Colours, daily priorities would send me into meltdown but she obviously needs the essential things bullet pointed. It might be too much information. You might find this style helpful but for others it's too much processing. Try a list in black and white of bullet points for the week and tell her to inform you when 3 are finished. Then you can assess how many she copes with a day, week etc. If it's not improved get HR to take over and advise. Try easing up on the information processing stress first.

I used to work in local government. The tasks you specify should take half an hour at most. So how IS she occupying her time?

if you're her manager get her on a PIP (performance improvement plan) in association with HR as per your companies processes with a goal of her improving her performance or her employment will cease.

If you're not her manager, escalating your issues to her manager with documented evidence of your issues and the impact of her inaction. If you are not her manager; stop managing her; let her direct her own time, do her own activities her own way; if she is as bad as you've encountered and she isn't your direct report then its not your issue to solve if she crashes and burns, you just need to collate the evidence where she is directly impacting your ability to fulfil your role by her inaction.

Bloody hell, she'd never survive in IT, it's literally ever changing deadlines.
If people think you are micro managing its because you have to. I would try to find a task that isn't going to have consequences, give her a deadline, explain impact of not meeting it then let her crack on.
Be interesting to know what reasons she gives for not completing work. The 5 why's technique may be useful

This is an excellent way forward as you are at the point where you must keep written evidence of your interactions. I suspect her behaviour will not change in which case she needs to be managed out of the business ASAP.

I agree with @Morred 's plan, give her the chance to flourish independently or the rope to hang herself. HR where I work use a phrase 'unconditional positive regard' with respect to how you should treat a member of staff. This basically translates to always giving them yhe opportunity to succeed, even if you expect them to fail, but be there to fix the problems if required. So I would give her every chance, be positive and kind but very clear about what's expected nonetheless- at least some top level objectives so she can't say she didn't know what she was supposed to do. Also prompt feedback on any issues caused (Hi Sally, just wanted to let you know Daniel hasn't been able to progress X because you haven't done Y yet, could you please get it done as soon as possible. Could you please also let Daniel know in future if you're behind so he can prioritise other work whilst waiting.' Etc.

What level of seniority is this woman? Heavier management is always required at very junior levels so what you're describing sounds like being a good supportive manager if she's junior.

If she’s very junior and she has demonstrated she can’t manage her time and complete basic tasks without being chased, OP isn’t micromanaging.

And I can’t believe the number of people “triggered” by a fucking RAG chart. You aren’t supposed to like the red. It’s supposed to look like a great big ticking time bomb so that it gets attention until it goes away. If you want everything green and soothing, you need to get it fucking under control, don’t you. FFS.

I think sending daily priorities is a bit much and I’d get annoyed if my boss did that.

Is she actually underperforming or just difficult to work with? Maybe put a meeting in to discuss ways of working that work for you both.

She's literally doing nothing at work? Is she wfh? What's she doing all day?