AIBU to formally tell HR I think new employee is too slow and potentially a liar?

[simbale]

I work closely with a new employee. They joined from another company and it was known that they didn’t really have the right experience for the job, but hoping they can learn fast.

This employee is a nice person, but they are just so slow. We have tight deadlines and she never wants to tell me an exact time she will finish something if I ask “when will X be done?”. She just says “hopefully by tomorrow” rather than “by 11am tomorrow”.

Recently I had to work really late to finish a work product because my boss was chasing me for it, but the new employee had sat on it because she didn’t know how to do it and was “busy”.

I recently found out that she has been telling another manager of my level that she couldn’t take on more work for him because she is super busy with my work. She told me the exact same thing the same day, that she couldn’t take on more work for me because she was super busy with his work.

I don’t know it, but it sounds like she is playing one off against the other to avoid work. AIBU to put this in formal feedback with HR?

I obviously don’t know for sure, and she seems very eager to learn when I have time to train her.

If she’s due a probation review, then maybe have a discreet word with her line manager. Explain to them that she’s telling you she’s busy with other managers work, and telling him she’s busy with your work. Also that you have to repeatedly advise her on aspects of rework, chase her when work is overdue etc. Add in that you’ve given her lots of training, assistance etc (ie cover your back) when asked and when needed.

(Speaking from bitter experience when lies were told at my appraisal, complaining that work colleague was doing all the work. )

This, I have no idea why this would be assumed to be dishonesty. Let’s say you have one piece of work for Manager A and one piece of work for Manager B and this is all you have capacity for currently. If either manager asks you to take on something else, you can quite honestly say “I can’t, as I’m also completing work for [other Manager]”.

Also, you can’t simultaneously complain that someone is too slow and not accurate enough with their current work but also criticise them for not committing to take on more, which would inevitably compromise them even further.

What? No it isn't 🤨

If someone asks you to do something and you don't have capacity, do you expect them to just do it anyway?

Again, I work in HR and I'm constantly trying to coach employees to be assertive enough to flag they're at capacity, and to re prioritise accordingly. Saying to someone more senior than you yes, I can absolutely do this piece of work but if I do I will have to drop X other piece of work is a fucking valuable skill!

l do realise you are in tricky situation, speak with you colleague about what she has said to you about him/her and then speak to her. She is probably finding she is in to deep & doesn't know how to handle the workload. She needs to be open and honest, her actions, or lack of actions in this situation can cause friction where there wasn't any. Nip it in the bud...

Not reasonable at all if the person in question has disabilities and requires reasonable adjustments.

the thing that stuck out in your OP was ‘when I have time to train her’

so you have an inexperienced member of staff that is not being trained but having all these expectations put on her. I feel for this employee.

as for your micromanaging - must respond to my emails in an hr

no you shouldn’t be going to HR, its sounds like its you who is failing at their job not the new employee

Nip what in the bud? She hasn't done anything wrong except be a new starter in an organisation with a completely inadequate onboarding and training structure. All the "friction" here is caused by OP not being an appropriate person to train a new starter as she doesn't have the time or the skills or the patience, and as a result the newbie is left floundering (and apparently doesn't even have a line manager she can talk to about it).

Telling.someone to be faster doesnt make them faster, it just makes them stressed.
You need to be specific

That's only a reasonable timescale if

a) the work is low skill and there's not that much to learn

or

b) it's a job where employees arrive already fully trained and all they have to get used to is the new environment (such as a healthcare role where you're hiring already qualified nurses, for example)

It sounds like OP's workplace is neither of these.

Am wondering as OP referenced the employees saying she had workplace adjustments so may take longer, whether there isnt some disability discrimination here - and failure of the entire company to provide the appropriate training and support. That OP tells her that she needs to be faster and her work isn’t good enough may be discriminatory.

The more of your posts I read, the more I see what a bully you are being to her.

are you her line manager or responsible for her training? If yes, then you need to ask for training yourself on how to manage/train people. If no, then you need to back off & leave the poor woman alone.

4hrs training regardless of training videos is so beyond insufficient its unreal & then you are there whipping her like a horse telling her to go faster. You can see by how she has withdrawn how utterly insufferable you are being to her.

this is genuinely awful, you are being genuinely awful to this person for what seems like no reason at all

I agree with this. What a horrible place to work.

op won't be back and will probably continue bullying the poor girl rather than admit she's in the wrong

This, I think OP needs to be aware of legal ramifications here if nothing else - If the newbie leaves and decides to sue for constructive dismissal, if she's had reasonable adjustments ignored and/or can prove she wasn't adequately trained or supported, OP might find her company is quite happy to throw her under the bus.

Ok, calm down...

That is a ridiculously high expectation. Are you senior to this person. I'm afraid you sound pretty awful.

Hi @simbale
Has your colleague got any disability? I hate to pull out this card (because it's so often used inappropriately on here) but is she Neuro Divergent? Autism or ADHD? A someone who lives with ADHD some of your observations suggest this may be the case for her. In which case, reasonable adjustments absolutely should be explored and put in place if necessary.

It also sounds like the current delivery of her (subpar) performance is either falling on deaf ears, being misunderstood, or genuinely doesn't make sense to her. Does she have clear and conscise written instructions? Has she been taken, step-by-step to complete every task she is expected to do? And more than once, where errors are shared and corrected there and then. If not you may need to explore this sort of option with her.

I understand that it can be frustrating and time consuming having to essentially spoon feed someone. But she can't improve unless the work is put in. And that work isn't a one-size-fits-all job. It does sound like she's really struggling, poor girl.

Edited to add: Is anything she does do well also commented on? Everyone needs praise!

Give her some more time to settle. You sound like a bit judgemental

One hour?! How is she expected to get any work done/focus on her project if she's having to keep stopping to check her emails every so often so she can reply to you??! That's unreasonable and stressful and after reading, digesting and replying to you she then has to try to get on the zone again with her own work....it just totally unreasonable. No wonder she's 'slow".... she's being pulled in all directions and not allowed time to focus. YABU

The "no line managers" thing is bizarre.

Who has oversight of your colleague's workload and takes responsibility for balancing priorities from competing managers?
In the event of her absence, who is responsible for ensuring that her workload is reassigned or rescheduled?

Or are you all just failing about panicking in a totally reactive state?

You've just drip fed that she's asked for reasonable adjustments? So this presumably means she has a disability or chronic health issue or learning difficulties? What extra training and adjustments will she have to help her improve her work?

Your post makes me feel uncomfortable OP. I feel bad for your colleague - it doesn’t sound like she has been trained properly or given the time of day. She has no direct line manager but has colleagues (you) telling her what to do and telling her she needs to “be faster”. A few hours of training isn’t good enough. It sounds like she needs guidance, support and encouragement.

Given the way you have worded your posts I’d bet money on you being unapproachable so she feels like she can’t ask for help or embarrassed to ask a question as it’s been asked before. When someone is new they may need to be shown the same thing several times before it sinks in.

I think you need take a good hard look at yourself and think have you really done everything you can to help her, train her and give her the support and training that she needs? Not just “correcting her mistakes” and moving on. You need to take her through the corrections and explain where she can improve so that she learns.

High pressure environments would be mad to employ anyone who needed this.

Who needed what?

I’d hate to be three months in a job and be stuck working with someone like you.
That says as much about me as you, but if I was three months in a job, struggling but doing my best, I’d be far more likely to thrive and become actually good at the job, with a kind, supportive colleague who had my back, than a mean, good at her job, experienced colleague who was looking to grass me up for lack of speed at my work and general incompetence.
What is more if you didn’t succeed in getting rid of me, I’d never forget how you treated me, tried to make me lose my job and sooner or later I’d have had my day.
Conversely, If you were kind to me I’d have been a loyal colleague who would never forget how kind you were when I was struggling back in the beginning!