Difficult contractor at work & on fence whether to terminate as they have personal issues

[roses2]

I have a contractor that reports into me at work and I am getting to the end of my tether with them. They have been here 3 months and are absolutely useless. Turns up to meetings but does nothing inbetween and mostly showing as offline during working hours (but claiming they are there working, the system is wrong). I have LOTS of people come to me because they have had zero comms from this person and important tasks need completing with deadlines. I've tried to discuss with him but he just doesn't engage and every time we speak and he feels the conversation is becoming challenging (remote role) he claims he has another call come in and quickly hangs up.

The contractor is having a very hard time at home with an elderly parent and whilst I empathise with him, they are absolutely not delivering at work, making errors, people are complaining and they are billing us a very high day rate which is comparable to what my boss's boss is on. We pay by the day for this person and I estimate they are doing max 2 hours per day of work.

They are here until Christmas but are on 2 weeks notice at any point. My boss previously said to leave them be but my boss left a few weeks ago and now I am left with this person who is not performing and people are complaining to me as they have to pick up the tasks this person has messed up on.

What should I do, am I a horrible person for letting them go? :(

It's way past time to get rid of this person.

Why are you putting up with this?! I am sorry but if you are a day rate contractor then you either book time off to deal with your personal issues or you hand in your notice. The whole point of a contractor being on a day rate is so you don't have to deal with the ins and outs of sickness etc. And they are supposedly very experienced and good at their job. You pay more for this flexibility and they also then use that extra to put away for when they are not employed.
I'd have gotten rid ages ago. Sorry to sound harsh but that is essentially what thw deal is ... hence the high day rates

Give him two weeks notice . His personal problems are not your responsibility. His co-workers also have personal lives and the stress of him not working can affect them too.

Honestly, woman up. His personal situation isn’t your concern when he’s a contractor. He’s not even fulfilling his side of the contract. He’s not working! If you don’t terminate it, the lack of productivity and missed deadlines will become further escalated to you. Termination isn’t nice to do, no one enjoys it. But it’s a necessary part of your role to manage this.

Get rid!! Jesus not a dilemma. I once worked with a contractor who was similarly terrible, turned out they were writing a novel on company time, on the company laptop. It was godawful and we had a good laugh at the contents after they’d been fired.

You've already tried speaking to him to give him a chance to improve. He hasn't. It's a lot longer than 2 weeks notice will be.

His personnel problems are not yours. What is your problem is that he is not doing the job he is being paid to do, and your team is picking up the pieces.

He is a contractor rather than staff so you have zero obligation to try & make it work. You have tried but he has refused to discuss.

You really only have one option here.

Or can he he required to work in the office / on site?

Put him on two weeks notice on monday and give him a list of tasks to finish in the two weeks. Dont give him a reference or have him back.

Give two weeks notice on Monday. Now your boss who hesitated has gone, don't let this awful situation continue any longer.

If I were a member of staff having to pick up what this person isn't doing, when they are are getting shed load more than me, I would be extremely unhappy, and probably looking for another job.

Give 2 weeks notice, he’s taking the pee big time.

Wonder why your ex boss was so useless and wouldn’t do anything about the slacker.

@roses2 if he still isn’t doing what he’s being paid to do after you’ve brought it to his attention then yes, he should be given his 2 weeks notice.

He's probably working multiple jobs.

Far more common than you'd think.

He's taking the piss

There is an increasing amount of polygamous working (where someone has two or more full-time jobs), especially where remote working is part of the role, the elderly parent story may be a smokescreen

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6lykzwjkj1eo

What is he contracted to do?

Is he doing it?

If no then what's the point?

God I wish I could find a job like this.

Please don’t waste anymore headspace in this. Serve the 2 week notice and move on. They aren’t performing and issues in their personal life are not your issues.

Get rid of him, you have been more than fair to him so far. Do you even know that he actually has an elderly parent and caring responsibilities? If he is lying about his work presence and what he is doing for you, then he could easily be lying about that as well.

YABU to have kept him this long. Wasting the organisation’s money, and other people’s time.

Work on your management skills!