Manager I manage refusing to manage someone

[MumofCandR]

I line-manage a manager who has raised serious allegations—including refusal to follow instructions—about an employee (A). An investigation concluded with A receiving a written warning rather than dismissal. The manager disagrees with the outcome and emailed me and my manager, stating they don’t want to manage A and believe they will re-offend (they had previously talked to me about this, prior to the hearing) . I'm unhappy that:

1. they bypassed me by copying in my manager, and
2. I suspect my manager may suggest I take over managing A.

How would you approach this situation?

Managers can't pick and chose who they manage.

Tell the manager that as the matter has been dealt with they will just have to get on with it and respect the outcome of the process.

Get HR to support this and advise on next steps if the manager continues to dispute matters.

Well be honest with yourself has she just been dumped with all the crap /problem staff?
It does sound like you just don't want to manage this person yourself, but you are presumably paid more money to reflect better experience and capability and so may be better able to manage this individual.

Agree with this.

On the other side i dismissed someone when personally I felt it was very harsh and i disagreed with the company position on it, but the employee went against a very strict policy and put the business at risk.

Its tough but you just have to crack on with situations like this and if manager is incapable of large parts of their role - which involves dealing with difficult situations and managing people - then maybe they need an improvement plan OP?

Whichever manager wants to keep them in the company should manage them.

I’d prefer not to manage a person in my team but it’s part of the job and I can’t pass them onto someone else. I suspect this person shouldn’t be in a management position and if they can’t move on in a positive manner, I agree with a PP who said this needs to be referred to HR.

You are at least 2 grades up the management structure and think it’s appropriate to lay out an employee dispute , and seek advice on social media. From unqualified randoms

.I hope no one recognizes themselves.

And you are calling people odd?

With the information we have, yes, A should just suck it up and manage B.

But.

I do wonder if HR are in “protect the business” mode, rather than “dismiss someone they should” mode, given the fact that no-one had seen / heard the incident, and that manager A has made allegations about performance that weren’t part of the other, third party, complaint, but hadn’t actually documented how they were dealing with that.

I think you need to have some conversations with A about plans for managing B - whether you expect the outcome to be that B improves, or is eventually dismissed, the approach needs to be the same. You also need to support A as much as you can, and ensure you document that.

Having said that, if the original allegation was of sexual harassment, and there are gender dynamics at play, I do think it could be far more complicated to navigate.

Sorry OP, this sounds like a sticky situation.

If the working relationship has broken down, that would be a reason for management change

If the offensive behaviour would be impossible in some other dept, likewise.

Obviously if the other manager feels threatened or intimidated, that matters.

But otherwise, the gap here seems to be in your disciplinary processes. There should be a plan to support the employee to work to the appropriate standard and ethos following the written warning. His manager should work with him and HR to draw this up, ideally. It's not just a matter of choosing whether or not to manage the person. His manager needs to commit to managing the situation, fairly and constructively, and to leave personalities and private views out of it.

So yes, back to HR to work out a plan for support and monitoring and to help this manager to implement it.