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?

I think this is almost a textbook difficult employee. I would be very clear that reasonable deadlines are an expectation. When I set them I would always consult and agree. There may be other priorities you are not aware of. However, when agreed these should be stuck to. Not achieving these would in the first instance require a sit down and quite formal discussion with the staff member. A poor response and future failure would require performance management.

Most of the time staff would get the message at the first discussion and would realise they had no real option but to comply with a reasonable deadline. If not ultimately you can place them on performance management and they will exit the organisation.

You are micromanaging her though and I can tell you, having just escaped from a forensic micromanager, it ruins your confidence and kills any motivation. Have you had any feedback on this woman's performance before you became her manager?

I wouldn't be tolerating the "explosions". Either she learns to control herself or faces consequences. Unless of course you have driven her to a point of desperation, which could be understandable. I've been driven to tears several times in the past and that's not me.

TG I have a new manager who trusts her staff, and gives us autonomy. I feel 100% better - more confident, more new ideas, happier, more productive.

Maybe try that approach with your lady, then deal appropriately with her failings.

I would really hate for a manager to send me daily tasks, daily priorities and colour coding things.

That is the essence of micro management.

I don't agree at her exploding at you, that seems unprofessional.

This.

This sounds like deflection. I think you need to tackle it formally with HR.

When management do nothing about someone who doesn't deliver it affects the rest of the team. You are at risk of your high deliverers not delivering, going off sick or leaving.

From my experience people who do not want to work will throw everything and blame everyone. I would be prepared to manage her out

Any member of staff whose job it is to organise events but claims they can't find a phone number of a venue deserves to be sacked, let alone micromanaged! I can't believe what a hard time you're getting, @calmama, and I presume those PP who are having a pop have never managed themselves. Assigning tasks – i.e. delegating – is part of the job. She should be able to tick them off over the course of a week and the fact she's not even when you're chivvying her shows she's incompetent and unsuitable for the role. I'd go to HR to get the ball rolling on a warning/dismissal, so you can offset any allegations of bullying. Hopefully you've kept a record of all the conversations where she's blown up at you.

The OP’s situation is very different to yours though isn’t it ? You were clearly capable of managing your own workload and doing your job. This employee is clearly not. If you read OP’s original and subsequent posts it’s clear that this employee is incompetent. You can’t come at someone from a position of trust if you already know they can’t be trusted and it seems she has proved this over and over again. And she’s exploding at the OP when approached about anything as far as I can see, and everything the OP does triggers her !! She’s clearly trying to cover up her incompetence and exploding at OP then going off sick and asking for a clean slate on return is just batshit. She needs performance management and if she can’t cope she needs to be managed out.

The need to manage her is because she is doing nothing,
she is lying, stalling, & generally rubbish. You need to get her moved sideways, or preferably out

I think that people's opinions on this are going to be very much based on the type of work they do and their own experience, skills and qualifications. I would hate to be given daily deadlines and charts with colouring. I have worked with a few project managers from other companies who seem to waste loads of time having meetings, making charts, constantly emailing and think things would work better in that company without them. I'm happy and always do meet deadlines but expect to be left alone to get on with it.

So how would you advise the OP to proceed, given that this employee doesn’t meet deadlines and can’t be left to get on with it ?

Can you go back to her role profile or objectives to check that the tasks line up to these? Working to deadlines is requirement of most jobs so the fact she struggles with this is very concerning.
I think you need to flip things round to push ownership back to her to get away from the micromanaging.
set the objectives and share with her to ensure she is clear of expectations e.g. publish social media posts by required deadlines or as instructed by me/ head of.
Then when that doesn’t happen you can use as proof she is not meeting her role requirements.
Get her to outline all tasks she completes in an average week so you can see what she’s spending her time on. Make her provide weekly update via email on tasks to you and in team meetings (good idea to get her to talk through what she has been doing). Make sure you ask her to disclose any barriers or support she needs to complete tasks so she doesn’t throw you a grenade last minute where she discloses a health issue.
If she fails to do this, then performance management is the route.

Tell her that due to her allegations of bullying and your discomfort with the tone she takes with you you’re going to invite your manager to the next progress meeting for your own reassurance and so they can assess if your expectations of her work load is unreasonable. Speak with your manager about this plan before speaking to her so she doesn’t go running to them with further accusations.

“Get her to outline all tasks she completes in an average week so you can see what she’s spending her time on. Make her provide weekly update via email on tasks to you and in team meetings (good idea to get her to talk through what she has been doing). Make sure you ask her to disclose any barriers or support she needs to complete tasks so she doesn’t throw you a grenade last minute where she discloses a health issue.“

If I did this she would go nuclear.

You've still not said how long she's worked there. It's kind of crucial.

@Nicole1111 great plan. Thank you!

The OP trying working with her without micromanaging - it didn't work & things weren't getting done.

She then tried micro management to see if it got better results - it didn't work.

In summary-

1. She doesn't achieve the tasks she is supposed to do
2. She lies about things she hasn't done
3. She has verbally abusive interactions with her manager
4. She objects to all proposed solutions but offers no suggestions of her own
5. She continually deflects or blames others
6. She takes sick leave after every blow up (she may genuinely require sick leave but if all interact leads to sick leave she isn't able for the role)
7. She can't account for her time and confirm what she is doing
8. A day's worth of work is taking a week

Go to HR and cover yourself as she is a highly volatile employee and will most like take a bullying claim against you.

Get everything documented and agreed with HR, PIP and exit if no improvement.

So, what did you do? Verbal warning? Written warning? Meeting with HR? Or…nothing. A clean slate and hoping for the best?

You’re doing this to yourself, at this point.

How long has she worked there and did she have a previous manager before you or did she join under you? It sounds like it's the wrong type of work for her - is she doing anything at all? The 3 examples you gave (social media post etc) sounds like they should have barely taken an hour in total let alone a day/week!

We had an assistant and we realised after a while (she was telling each of us that the others had given her loads of work) that she was basically doing nothing all day. I think she just needed more of a sociable, immediate tasks type job rather than a list of work she had to quietly churn through.

I don't understand all the flack you are getting about micro managing OP.

I have various tasks, some of which need to be completed on a daily/weekly basis or there would be serious consequences and if I am off then I arrange for someone else to cover.

If I didn't do them then I would not be doing my job and my line manager would be rightfully pissed off.

What does it look like when she "explodes".

Sounds like they are workshy, incompetent and defensive. Best have a word with HR.

@SuperSange Sorry. Definitely under two years.

For the other questions in the thread, I don’t know what she’s doing otherwise. Sometimes she does work from home. Others she claims to be busy doing things I haven’t assigned her to do but she sees as important. Other times she “lost track of time talking to Paula”. Other times “Jack asked me to help fix his phone”. “Can’t get through to xx on the phone.” “Emailed a million times and no response.” Yadayadayada.

But, what’s been suggested is actually managing her. Which isn’t what you’re currently doing.

If I did this she would go nuclear.

Are you afraid of this person? Is that what the issue is?

Based on your responses to other questions i would be involving HR and looking at a PIP. So if she thinks you are micromanaging now wait until that happens. When i was in this situation i used to make notes for every conversation and every agreement and get the employee to sign that they agreed with the notes and the task agreement. Good luck OP as you can see from a lot of the responses you are going to have your hands full.

She has no right to go nuclear. If she’s not able to deliver, you need to know how she’s spending her time.

You need to get ahead of this and push it up the command chain.

I just sack her. Honestly, less than 2 years, it’s not worth the aggro.

I think this sounds like a toxic mix of a very difficult employee in combination with a manager with a terrible nag for micromanaging? sending colour coded spread sheets? Seriously.