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?

@JackGrealishsCalves 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

Thank you. This is a good idea. Because I have found myself scrambling at the last minute too many times to get things she assured me she would do so our team doesn’t fail. I’ll also look into the 5 whys.

She's not doing the work. She doesn't seem well suited to the role IMO. You've made changes to your style and it hasn't really helped. Is she on probation?

Managing her out is illegal. Do not do this.

Daily tasks sounds like micromanagement. The problem with micromanagement is it is really dis-empowering and performance is likely to drop when people don't feel trusted and respected by their manager.

Everyone needs to feel they have autonomy in a role. A good manager will set goals, and ensure that the employee is getting the information they need to manage their own work. For example if a social media post needs to be done, that should be communicated directly to her rather than going via you (perhaps with you copied in to the request).

Look up some information about how to take an empowering rather than a micromanaging approach, for example . Accept that this is a relationship issue and there are two parties involved in this conflict, i.e. you bear some of the responsibility here.

Have an honest conversation with her, where you are in listening mode, rather than managing poor behaviour mode. Ask her what management style works for her. Ask her what she wants from you. Say that you are willing to change. Ask her how she was managed previously and what worked well with that approach. Try something different.

Honestly, she sounds like she's just not doing the job. I would tell the relevant person, see if she can do an improvement plan and if she's unable to meet targets, get her out. Her exploding at you is completely inappropriate.

She's crap then. HR need to support you in putting in measures, if she's not meeting the T&C's of her role then she needs to train or move on.

She's accusing you of this because she can't cope with the job. Get onto HR set up a meeting to find out what's wrong with her.

Have you got this in writing from her?

I would take advice from HR. You need to be able to show her under performance and be able to have proof that you have not been bullying but been expecting her to do her job.

For the emails she has sent, you should ask to be in cc for all these emails so you know it's gone out.

You can't start form a position of trust - the trust has to be earned. So far she hasn't.

I think people are confused about what bullying is. @calmama is not bullying someone by politely asking them to do their job and making sure urgent tasks are prioritised. She has adapted her management style to try to suit the person she is managing.

The employee is responding by verbally ‘exploding’ at her manager to cover the fact that she is completely incompetent at her job. This definitely needs to go to HR to sort out as she sounds the type to take you to a tribunal. Hopefully, the shouty, lazy cow will be put on a performance management or moved to a different team with someone who can deal with her.

Thanks, @akkakk . I agree and you’ve put in words the rant I had in my head.

I have had to performance manage team members before who weren’t doing their job. It is not fun at all, so you have my sympathies.

I have a few questions which I think would help us advise you how to proceed.

Are you her line manager and have you always been?

Do you manage other team members and is this person’s performance out of step with the rest of the team at a similar grade ? (So you have a comparison)

What sort of organisation are you in? A large one with HR and robust processes for performance management , including formal appraisals, or a tiny company with no policies on these type of issues?

Have you raised this with your own line manager and what did they say? Do you feel supported?

I’m afraid as others have said, you may have to leave things to fall down due to her lack of action, so that this becomes about the tangible consequences of her actions (complaints from other parts of your organisation or clients, loss of business). You would have to make sure you have it in writing from her that she agreed to do certain tasks.

You need to flip this. You are anticipating her failure and taking pre-emptive action.

At the moment you have a trail of emails with you micromanaging her. What you want is a trail of (understanding, calm , reasoned) emails where you are pulling her up on her failure to complete tasks or to comply with reasonable management expectations. Asking if anything is wrong, and what can you do to support her to deliver? Every time. Nicely. If she continues to provide a string of excuses, you have all this in writing. If she is stressed does she need/want (depending on your company policy) a referral to occ health?

Finally, if by explode, you mean emotional outbursts, including shouting at you…This is absolutely unacceptable. In my opinion it is a separate issue to her performance. Do not let a single one of these events slide.
Any witnesses? If not get that in writing immediately after the event to your line manager, including how this impacts you. What happened over the very serious accusation of bullying? Don’t let that hang over you.

It’s not. Most organisations have a clear HR process for doing it. Provided that process is followed to the letter it’s entirely legal.

Hmm. In 2 minds about this as sometimes it can take varying times to pull stuff together. I wouldn’t like daily deadlines. I have deadlines for pieces of work to be in - usually a few weeks, and I appreciate the autonomy.

I wish people would read my posts. @mantyzer the colour coding was for projects. Not her tasks. But she found that triggering. She also finds me asking her to do tasks triggering. And why she hasn’t done a task triggering. And finds deadlines triggering…

I've put yabu because that's not a resolution. It's time for you to lay down your authority. First of all, I'd be discussing with my own boss and asking for guidance on how to progress. It's absolutely unacceptable that she explodes at her team leader for what is a reasonable expectations and ways of working. Is she working from home?

@calmama what does she actually do all day then? Does she have any productive output at all? Have you asked her what she’s done today? Are you documenting her sick leave and following up with return to work discussions? Is she over the threshold for absence? There’s evidently a pattern to her absence, get HR involved in that side.

If the examples you give are real ones it shouldn’t be difficult to meet with her to discuss her performance -

1. social media post was not your decision on whether to post. This is a disciplinary matter as you were directed to do this and actively chose to ignore that direction.
2. couldn’t find the number - this is a basic task and if you’re not capable of this we need to have a formal meeting where we discuss your performance and look at capability process.
3. “emailed many times” - please show me the emails you sent. What else did you do to try and get in touch with them? etc.

Your guess would be wrong, though.
The working plan would sound absolutely fine if the person in question was given it as part of performance management. The issue is that OP said it was agreed "when she first started working for me" and that is a clear indication that the person has not been even given an opportunity to do the job for which she was presumably qualified and, instead, was treated like a useless time-waster. Is it any wonder that her motivation is in the toilet?
Anyone with management experience can surely see this.

She sounds fucking useless OP. You need to get onto HR and get her onto some sort of performance improvement plan, and if she doesn't improve, go through the steps to get her out the door.

I hope you have documented all the incidents of her blowing up, when they happened, why they happened, what was said.

It is not illegal. Most companies will have a process for those who are not performing in their role.

I thought so. I've seen a few peope like this. They behave like this to cause enough of an issue so they hope you will leave them alone to do practically nothing while still getting paid.

How long has she worked there?

This is now a formal Performance Review and you need to involve HR. From what you have said, what you set up initially is common practice and when you realised that work was not being delivered you were forced to manage more closely (rather than micro-manage). Get your notes up to date and get HR to start the process... but I suspect you will have sick leave coming down the track, too.

Have you got a Gantt chart for these projects?

I had a manager like this and it was fucking horrendous, she was such a lovely person but had no idea how to manage, I was also in my 30's so not at all my first job. I'd been used to managing my own work load and she was would chase me on everything and ask me to copy her into EVERYTHING! It was draining. I was never allowed to do anything without checking with her and couldn't form any relationships with people/places we dealt with as she said she had to be cc'd into everything so they would go to her.
You do sound very similar I'm sorry to say,

@HereForTheFreeLunch Did exactly this (ask to be CCd) and it caused a blowup.

Asked her to CC me in something and she didn’t. Asked her why she didn’t CC me, she said not to worry because it was done. I asked again why she didn’t CC me as I’d asked, she said I didn’t need to be CCd. I said it was fine but to please forward me the email so I could escalate things with a supplier she claimed was dragging their feet. She refused, I insisted, she exploded and accused me of being a bully and a micromanager.

Turns out, she didn’t email the supplier. She forgot.

Managing an employee out isn’t illegal and if you have HR, they are usually involved in the process. As long as the company has clear processes for employees who are under performing, and you stick to them, it’s fine.