Problematic employee

[somenonsense]

I am a manager of 10 people.

One employee takes up most of my time. She is emotionally immature and very entitled, despite being in her late 30s.

She was in charge of choosing her own workload, but ended up working extra hours and complained until HR agreed to extend her contract to full time pay over 4 long days. She is meant to work 8-6:30 every day.

She is meant to work 60% in the office, she comes in maybe once a month- always some excuse why she can't come in. "Headache" "repairman coming" "period pain" "child sick". She is 90% WFH.

She does however love to travel for conferences and events. She is the first to put her hand up for that and argues fiercely when it comes to say it's someone else's turn.

I could go on.

Anyway, my issue. I've managed her for three years. Every Ramadan she WFH, of course. But she gets fuck all done. She logs off by mid afternoon to start cooking a feast for her extended family. She is unproductive when she is online. She spends meetings complaining about how hungry she is, and throws a sulk if the team goes to lunch. She is always invited, but sits there with a face like a slapped arse and complains about how hungry she is.

She is not devout in any other way that I can see, beyond observing Ramadan. She drinks a lot etc.

This year I want to get ahead of it, and ask her to adjust her hours or take leave over Ramadan. I think she is taking the absolute piss getting paid full time pay while producing a few hours worth of work.

AIBU? Or racist? Do I need to accommodate this?

I feel like if she was less of a pain in the arse in general I would let it slide more, but I've had it and she needs some boundaries.

In fact I would bet that your team are thoroughly pissed off, have watched this go on for three years, and are either leaving or looking to.

Unfairness is the worst thing you can bring into a team. She sounds horribly selfish, and you sound scared of her.

I'd be out of there like a shot. Letting her go to conferences while she can't get to the office because of period pain? C'mon mate.

As a manager who has had a couple of challenging staff over the years including a couple of managers who I put on this (and believe me I am pretty easy going compared to some but people do take the Michael) I would look at the following.

I would definitely avoid like the plague doing anything about religious holidays and allowing reasonable adjustments. You are heading for a big grievance there and possibly even bigger issues. This has been allowed to happen previously and suddenly turning it around now would be see as discriminatory especially if other staff in the business get allowances for Ramadan.

If you are unhappy with the performance of the individual kick off with an informal performance plan with targets and make them SMART targets you can measure. This should be fairly easy by the sounds of it as it can be sickness, timekeeping, productivity etc.
Have regular review over the period its running say 1-2 months i.e. weekly.
If performance does not improve and agreed targets are not being hit then you can move onto an official performance plan with penalties for not improving such as staged warnings.
Generally either then people buck up (generally the best outcome) or it goes to then either leaving/ getting dismissed.

Its not fun to do and you have to stay the course if you want improvement. The alternative is to let it continue to the slide but this is awfully corrosive to the rest of the team generally if they see someone essentially getting away with stuff and either go the same way or lose confidence in you as a manager.

Exactly this. You are the manager and if she's not doing her job or putting in the hours then you put her on a performance improvement plan. There's too many poor managers around. My colleague barely puts in any hours, takes a 1.5 hour lunchbreak every when it's meant to be half an hour, does nothing to learn new skills or keep updated etc yet my manager does nothing, even passed her for probation when she was like this form the start. It's beyond belief what some employees get away with.

I think you can implement a number of things that will allow you to at least monitor the situation better and to build up a file that you can bring to HR in case still needed.
Make sure that her tasks are clear and give them in writing with a deadline. This way you can follow up easier if she does not achieve her targets.
Tell (where appropriate) all your staff that you will monitor the WFH situation a bit better - in many firms there is a push to have people return to the office more as productivity can be far better monitored and it is also much better for staff engagement. A very easy rule is that if ppl use an excuse to stay at home one day, they'll have to make up by coming to the office another day that week. If you bring this as a general rule, she won't feel singled out and it is clear that it is of general application.
For the Ramadan period - i would also not make a larger issue of this. If she's not performing the assigned work for this period, make sure that she herself is forced to admit it and leave a paper trail. For instance, send her an email near the end of her working day asking whether she was able to complete task a/b/c.

Sarah.. let's review your flexible working agreement.. we have an appointment in person next week with HR to discuss this.

You are contracted to work 9 -18.30.. and 10 days per month in the office. While working from home, while it is OK to schedule household tasks on those days, you are still required to work your hours.

I can see that in the past three months, you have worked only 5 days in the office. For the next three months, I will be reviewing this, and if you are not meeting your contractual requirements, your right to work from home will be reviewed (check with HR how they would like.you to do this and ask for their support).

I have been back over our communications and see that you often have reasons for working from home, in future, you will have to swap your other days to compensate, plan around your office days or take annual or sick leave if you cannot make it in to the office.

I would also like to support you better during your religious observations of Ramadam (again ask HR). We understand that it is difficult to work at full capacity during this time and invite you to propose how we can make reasonable adjustments for you in this time, while respecting your contractual obligations towards your employment.

Ask HR what is reasonable and what can be expected.

Lean on HR, invite them to come up with solutions and to be part of the discussions..

I wouldn’t start on Ramadan but start issuing instructions that she needs to come into the office and follow through with discipline if she doesn’t.

If she is sick or her child is then it needs to be taken as unpaid leave or sick leave.

She’s only taking the piss because you’ve let her.

And don’t back down if she turns on the waterworks or complains about bullying. It is not bullying to speak to a workshy employee about their performance. Woman up OP.

My manager is worse than me. Absolutely hopeless. I can never get even five minutes of his time.

I am at least trying to do a good job.

I recently said no to a conference she wanted to attend- for the first time. She sent me three emails arguing about why she should go, copying my manager in because she thought it would pressure me.

I'll leave Ramadan alone. I suppose it was just a clear example of her deciding her own work pattern, when normally it's an ad hoc decision.

She recently had a back injury (or so she said) and told me she was taking four weeks leave.

She contacted HR and told them she was going to take only half the time as leave- because she would be available for phone calls.

She did not clear it with me, but gave HR the impression it was all settled and approved.

Almost no one called her. There was no need. On one of the days she was 'working a half day' literally everyone was out of the office.

I realised halfway through the third week and HR were like "oh it's nearly the end of the period anyway. Not worth raising it with her"

I emailed her asking for set hours she would be working, and she responded that she wanted to be "available the whole day, so she could help those who needed her" and that sitting at a computer needlessly would harm her back.

HR were useless.

Does your company not do performance management? Or keep a log of poor attendance and timekeeping? Not to mention reviewing productivity and performance of the section? This is partly done to ensure all colleagues are supported and not just one! What does everyone else think? I’m amazed they haven’t complained to you.

Talk to HR immediately. Keep recorded of performance shortcomings and evidence of her contract being broken. You won’t come out of this well. Who does your performance review? Are you public sector workers?

Sounds like the entire company is a mess, and she's certainly found the right place if what she wants is a job where she can take the piss.

No but she came from the public sector and keeps threatening to return to it. I wish she would.

Absolutely. I'm ready to be part of the solution but it's going to be an absolute shitshow getting there

So your manager isn't doing his job.

You're not doing your job.

HR isn't doing its job.

No wonder she's taking the piss. The whole company needs a massive overhaul because you're all dragging each other down.

Put them on a personal improvement plan. Hold them accountable, give written warnings if that’s still a thing.

@somenonsense I wonder what her employment record is before she came to you?

I think you must speak to HR and come up with a plan and not keep accepting excuses and poor productivity. This will involve challenging her and record keeping. You didn’t answer me regarding annual appraisal and performance management. Are you a company actually making money or a charity? Who manages you? Why haven’t you had appropriate training? I’m afraid you will have to toughen up but don’t mention religion. That’s a company wide policy area. You do though need to apply it!

@Guest100 All of that should be discussed with HR. Issuing a written warning has a protocol attached. It must be evidence based so how the evidence is collected matters. The OP must follow the employees handbook or policies the firm has in place. Failing that, ACAS advice.

I'm afraid it's just HR sounding useless here.

Why didn't you do something about this as soon as you knew ? Or forced HR to do something during that third week. You're her manager, do your job.

We had someone just like it- she was public sector and even we managed to get her sacked! Sounds like she's come your way OP
You must have a policy re flexible working to back you up? There's a really good response up thread from @ChateauMargaux re how to tackle her. It's so unfair on your existing team if she's getting paid full time for fuck all.

Ramadan isn't the issue here.

She has piss poor performance all the time.
The tail is wagging the dog here.

You need a conversation about performance, attendance and conduct. If you have ant concerns about it ask HR to frame it for you and document.

Why isn't she on a PIP?

I would (and have) let the period pain thing go. I have a team member with PCOS and I know how much she can struggle. She appreciates the flexibility and will always, without me asking, make up the time in the office another day instead.

Too many other staff, however, think that if their "sick but workable" time falls on an office day, oh well, that's handy, I'll just miss that day in the office.

As all the other posters are saying, Ramadan is a red herring in this whole situation.

You need to start managing the employee better, while maintaining consistency across all your team. i.e. if someone else doesn't come in to the office on a day that the repair man is coming, you need to give them the same response as you would the problematic employee.

Send group wide emails to the whole team setting out your expectations (or reminding them of their contracted terms). Blame higher up management if you need to (clear it with them first), saying "BigBoss has asked me to remind all of you that you need to ensure you are in the office X days per week. We of course are flexible where we can be, but if you need to arrange something on a day that you are otherwise due to be in the office, you are expected to make up the office time later."

Also, remind people that they have a statutory right to put in a flexible working request. She can then, if she wants, formally apply to WFH 90% of the time and you can give it due consideration (using HR for support).

I think you have probably fallen into the same trap I did - you don't want to upset anyone and just want to be liked by your team. Unfortunately some people, as you've learned, will abuse that.

I stood firm with one employee, after being nice for too long, and set out my expectations in terms of their attendance and performance. The whole team have now learned that I do have a limit after all and while I am fair and reasonable with them, I won't tolerate having the piss taken as it's not fair on me or the rest of the team that are picking up the slack.

In your case, consider what performance statistics you are able to use. Start gradually implementing results of these in with everyone's feedback.

Slowly, slowly, make it clear that things are going to change and she'll either have the choice to get on board, or find another job. You being consistent with all staff will remove the threat of a constructive dismissal claim if you make life too hard for her alone.

Don’t suggest she gets another job. That’s moving towards constructive dismissal. However make it clear she needs to comply with the terms and conditions of the job and excuse after excuse won’t be accepted. Agree her wfh and work in office timetable,

I totally agree with other posters that Ramadan is a red herring here, it is just a list of things that she is using to get her way.

However, just for the record, I think she can only pull the Ramadan issue because she is, I'm assuming in a minority to observe it in your organisation? I worked for an organisation that had a very strong 'Islamic Ethos'. I'd say two thirds of the staff were Muslim including the MD and senior management team. It was a great place to work but she wouldn't have lasted five minutes in that environment. Her colleagues would have put her straight very quickly.

Whilst reasonable adjustments were made, eg, start/end times flexible if possible, the only changes made in the organisation during Ramadan, were that we didn't organise any 'extra' activities that might take place out of hours or required any exertion. And we closed for Eid holidays in addition to Christmas.

I think you should send an e-mail to all the staff you manage reminding them of the terms and conditions of their employment. Then when she reverts back to her lazy ways then go through disciplinary procedures. But you will need to treat everybody the same

What do I do when she has a tantrum and HR are useless?