How to deal with employee who always assumes malicious intent?

[ToClimb]

Looking for some advice. I have an employee who is very good at their job, can be relied upon and could go far in her career, however, she is becoming more and more unmanageable. She has always had a habit of being extremely detailed about things and becoming over involved. We manage contracts and sometimes it feels like she actually tries to manage the delivery of the contract. This means that she spends far too long doing simple tasks, so does half the workload of anyone else. But complains she has too much work and can't do any more.

When I try to work with her to talk about this, she gets defensive and has started to become more and more passive aggressive. It is starting to impact others. She rolls her eyes and huffs in meetings and I'm at the end of my tether with her.

Any ideas how to approach this. I am starting to dread working with her.

Honestly, if she's not responding to supportive chats, then you need to relay what you've written in the last two paragraphs to her. If her behaviour is impacting other members of a small team, you risk the chance one or more of these employees will get fed up and start looking for other jobs.

Ultimately, a company can't be paying an employee to do unnecessary work, which they have been asked to not do and aren't qualified for, just because they've decided they fancy having a go at it!

Her behaviour is escalating and it's making life tough for everyone.

and given you are her line manager, it’s your responsibility to deal with it

you say the company is “tiny”… how many? Surely the owner is aware?

Often employees are very aware when their managers don't like them. You dread meetings with her, have suggested she move to another role and take a paycut. I bet she knows you don't like her and is terrified that you will try to manage an exit (like many here are suggesting). That is putting her in a position where she can't afford any mistakes to happen on her watch, and probably entrenching this behaviour.

She won't do any work outside of her job description as she doesn't have the time. And when it comes down to it if you want to get rid of her she needs to be able to demonstrate she is fulfilling her job description.

The relationship sounds like it's broken down on both sides here. And as her manager it's up to you to reframe it. You dread meetings with her, but she will dread meetings with you too. You need to try and make her feel secure and then you will get better work out of her.

redoing work already done by others is not a strength, it makes her job longer and is not needed. These other people are registered experts and she is not. She has been given no reason to do this. They are all competent.

I think you need to challenge her and put her on the spot by explicitly asking her why she is redoing work that’s complete. She’ll either point out a valid reason or not have one, either way you can then address it.

@ToClimb

"Each team member adds there specialism and she needs to use this info to manage the contract as well as her own in put. She will go back and recheck everyone else's jobs. This is not needed."

You say she wont do tasks outside of her job description - this is an example of her doing just that.

Flag it to her and tell her to buck her fucking ideas up and either work collaboratively as the company expects - and if not - then start disciplinary proceedings on her for failing to adhere to reasonable management requests.

A job description is not written in stone like the 10 Commandments and allows for flexibility - everyone knows that.

If she is pissing away valuable time checking tasks that are not hers to check, its no wonder shes not getting any work done and that this is also impacting the wider team.

High time to stop molly coddling to her and time to put your foot down. You are her manager.

So manage her.

You say that she is very good at her job, but it doesn't sound as though she is. She cannot or will not obey direct instructions from you, her manager, and continues to check the work of other people that she is not qualified to do. This means that she is getting through half the workload that other people in the same role are achieving.

Her attitude and response to your concerns are unacceptable. She is basically refusing to be managed. You need to initiate performance management procedures and set her daily targets. Honestly, she sounds like a complete pain in the arse who knows better than her own manager and other experts on the team.

No one has suggested this to her. It's just a reality. She has applied for roles equal with her seniority now, she doesn't get them as she is inexperienced.

I gave tried lots of different approaches, she is just passive aggressive and sees everything as attacking.

She never finds things wrong. It's like she just wants to!

She has worked there 5 years and me 18 months. She started very junior and was promoted swiftly. I think she regrets now being stuck, but it's this attitude that is sticking her.

But she is getting through half the work that other members of staff in the same role are doing because she is checking other people's work that isn't part of her job. OP can set daily targets as part of a PIP.

I have an employee like this - it’s almost like paranoid narcicism: they seem incapable of working as part of a team and can’t see things from other people’s perspectives. It’s really tough as often the behaviours aren’t quite bad enough for a PIP but bad enough to cause unhappiness in the workplace. We are now going down the PIP route and she is trying to fight it.

How long has she been there?

If under 2 years, do some googling/research on PIPs, follow a short pip which includes informing her of the issues in writing exit her from the business.

Over 2 years... you'll need a specialist HR support hired in if the company doesnt have one. Do a pip. She's doing half the work and doing it with a shitty attitude so should be straightforward.

If you cannot immediately run a pip for some reason you'll need to "starve" them out. No payrise (as in actually 0% not 2% when everyone else gets 5%) and no bonus keep doing it until thry get the message and clear flag the same issues in every performance review and try and revisit pip in a year when they'll accept the reality of their situation a bit more

How long has she been there?

If under 2 years, do some googling/research on PIPs, follow a short pip which includes informing her of the issues in writing exit her from the business.

Over 2 years... you'll need a specialist HR support hired in if the company doesnt have one.

Or you'll need to "starve" them out. No payrise (as in actually 0% not 2% when everyone else gets 5%) and no bonus keep doing it until thry get the message and clear flag the same issues in every performance review and revisit pip in a year when they'll accept the reality of their situation a bit more

You will of course need to get the buy in of whoever owns or is running the business.

If she's been with the company for less than 2 years (ie if her employment could be terminated with pay in lieu of notice and it would be possible for her termination date to fall before she has attained 103 weeks' continuous employment), then her employment could be terminated and she would not be able to bring a claim of unfair dismissal. The company would, however, need to be careful that she does not argue that the company has been discriminatory or that her dismissal is some sort of whistleblowing detriment, or that she does not have another claim for which she does not need any continuity. The company should make it very clear to her why they are terminating her employment.

If she's been employed for more than 2 years, then the time has come to start a formal improvement improvement process. The company really needs advice from someone who knows what they're doing, because this process is generally quite fraught, if the employee does not accept that there is a problem, and she could claim unfair dismissal and/or some other statutory claim.

The company should tee up a performance improvement process, which would lead to termination of her employment with notice if she doesn't make the necessary improvements over a measured period of time, but offer her a settlement agreement as an alternative for a quick, neutral exit. A disgruntled former employee can threaten/bring disruptive claims, even if they have no realistic prospect of success.

Really interested that you describe her as very good at her job but then go on to describe a whole host of behaviours that indicate she isn't. Is it convenient that her obsession with detail is sometimes useful but you want her to turn that off when it becomes a blocker? A good employee is someone who does their job in a way that doesn't impact others negatively. Performance management is exhausting and time consuming but part of a managers job. It's rare for anyone exhibiting this sort of set of behaviours to be magically fixed after one conversation. You have to be consistent.

If you haven't already, you need to start being REALLY clear with her about the issues and then making a note of each conversation and emailing it to her afterwards.

What does the CEO of the company think? Would they consider either starting formal performance management, or paying her off?

Time management plans can work with people who work like this. Timeblocking, clear weekly outcomes and boundaries to help her focus on what she needs to do.
She also wants to work rowarda a rpimotion, so clear bullet points of what she needs to do tk ahceive the next level.
Then its in her hands if she wants to take the advice or not

At this point I would discuss with senior management whether anyone sees this working out. Not even just for promotion but at her job.

It people do think it can be turned around you would need a clear come to Jesus conversation paying out exactly what her role is, what it is not, the feedback that you’ve been having, black and white metrics for delivery and formally document through a PIP. Perhaps there are other senior people she might listen to?

If the answer is no - and I suspect this is where you really are - do you try and grind through performance improvement plans to do a lawful exit which is miserable for everyone if you don’t see she can pass or do you (with professional advice) look to have a protected conversation to agree an exit as an alternative to doing a PIP. Yes it is brutal and costs some money but honestly it pretty common in the private sector. Don’t wing this though, make sure you have specialist HR or legal advice on how to do.

Have you sat down with her and given clear instructions and targets to meet?

"Do not check work done by your colleagues. Check your own work, but not work done by anyone else."

"This task should be completed in X time, if you haven't completed it within that time frame then, whatever the reason, you are not reaching the expected standard".

That's almost like a pre-PIP - verbal instructions that mirror what would appear in writing on a PIP.

TBH, she needs to be performance managed, disciplined and then sacked off.

Paying her off rewards incompetence. Fuck that shit.

Assuming you also manage the other people whose work she is re-doing I would strongly recommend that you need to shift your focus from this one individual to looking at it as a team-wide issue.

You have one individual who is having a negative impact on individuals as well as team cohesiveness. Their work is being checked and undermined by someone who has no experience or qualifications and so far, it seems, this is being allowed.

This is going to have an impact on moral and how valued they feel.

You need to step up and step in immediately when she double-checks someone's work to be very clear that not only is it not necessary but it is not allowed.

Your team need to feel supported by you.

I appreciate this isn't the only issue you have with her but suspect if you don't tackle this specific one head on then you are going to have a lot of other issues to deal with very shortly!

It shouldn’t be a choice for her! Give her the option of coaching and actually doing it properly or she leaves