My Freaky Employee.....................(eek i'm a bit worried about this)

[Jemma7]

Specially for Quack-Meister and Twiggs (And of course anyone else who fancies a laugh)

I am going to be a bit vague incase someone on here knows her...................

She is not of the generally happy variety - has a face that looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp and that has just been hit by a double decker (Bus i mean, not the chocolate bar....)

It started off with her generally taking this very badly i.e. if iasked her to swap what she was doing for a little while she would look as if i had just said i would kidnap her kids - Generally this went on for a few weeks - put it down to her being new and not knowing how to take me.

Had a meeting with her and discovered she doesn't get on particulaly well with a valued member of staff - said it was probably just her so i left her be.

Now she has throw an almighty wobbly about having to fill out a an hourly form so i know what she is doing - now don't get me wrong, she is not the only person who has to do this, every member of my staff has one and i have one to give to my boss too..............but oh no, she doesn't see why she should be monitored and told me infront of several other members of staff that it was ridiculous and she didn't agree with it.

I can hanlde her and she knows it hence why i have just had a grovelling apology from her - however, it is affected other members of my team who are very good at their job and do not complain.

How i've written it, she doesn't actually seem that bad but she is believe me - if you want to find out i can send her to your workplace os u can see for yourself - if i wasn't worried about her seeing this i would post a picture of her so u could all see how miserable she is............oh no that is a bit mean, i didn't mean that, take it back, take it back

I think it makes it worse that i generally don't like her as a person, if it was someone i liked i could just tell them and it would be forgotten but i have to bite my tongue incase i tell her what i really think - That wouldn't be very professional now would it Well i s'pose writting this wasn't but i needed to get it off my chest.

There you go girls - The story of my freaky employee!

If I had to fill in an hourly report of what I was doing at work it would read:

Surfing mumsnet
Surfing mumsnet
Surfing mumsnet.................. !

Hope my boss doesn't implement this chart thingy!

I used to hate those 'justify your hours' forms too and used to make sure I always noted 'Time Spent Filling in Pointless forms like this' on them. Still, I realised it had to be done...no advice, just thought I'd say I know what she means, although I can see that it must be v irritating for you and other employees too. I'd tell her you appreciate her input but doubt that her suggestions will be implemented

That's what mine would consist of too northerner - good job my boss doesn't actually check mine!

Good point WWW - when i was in this position in the past i wasn't particulaly keen on it but because i've been on both sides of it now i understand from all angles.

I'm sure no-one really likes justifying themselves but none of the other employees complain - i think it's the bosses right to know what their staff are up to! Obviously not me or i'd get sacked

Jemma, I used to have 3 of her in my team at work

Jemma - perhaps she's a secret mumsnetter too and that's why she's not too keen on justiftying her time?!

If she had nothing to hids surely she wouldn't object.

Someone leaving the company I worked for was given a spoof one of those forms at her leaving presentation listing a 3 hour lunch, 2 hours of personal calls, 2 hours sending and forwarding joke emails, 1 hour fag break etc. etc. It was accompanied by a spoof phone listing which showed her calls - mum, boyfriend, Toni & Guy, Harvey Nicks, best friend etc etc. There was a real phone call logger but luckily no-one ever analysed it since most of those spoof call details were true...

call loggers can be 'dangerous' and the info should be used wisely.

I have heard of a company that was v impressed by the info that could be extracted. As an example the boss was offered the chance to rattle a phone number off the top of his head and they could see how many calls he'd made to that number. He gave them the number (his home) and all calls made through the company switchboard were listed - both those he'd made and those one of his staff had made to his wife... they were having an affair!

SueW - that would make a great film plot! How awful, how did your boss react?

Gosh Jems, what a how many of those do you get in a pound!!! We have timesheets here on the computer and they account for every 5 mins, fortunately I don't have, I'm exempt so can get away with(so far) hours on Mumsnet!!!!!!!!!! Good job you cna handle it though, hope u got it off your chest!!!

Jemma7, is your main complaint about her that she is an energy sucker - that her attitude, behaviour and general demeanour, bring everyone around her down? If so it is quite possible that she is not seeing the big picture and particularly her impact on others. Perhaps she needs to be told so that she can improve this aspect of her performance. I used to help people write scripts for this kind of discussion, with the outcome being an action plan that could be monitored over time for improvement (and if no improvement then sacking - sometimes having the meeting and writing the plan was all it would take to encourage them to look for other work). Maybe I'm being too serious though and you were just venting (and maybe I am missing doing work that doesn't involve poo, wee and pureed food ).

Timesheets are so pointless though aren't they? Everyone knows want management want on them so just fill them in accordingly.

Exactly AussieSim So some sense did come of what i was writing then!

I do know what you mean about just putting what management what to see Tinker but we have thew ability here to check times against the database - members of staff are unable to change these times so i can see exactly when they were doing their work and when they weren't! Bit like big brother really

ANyway, Hope she's better today - she affecting me doing my job aswell - I have the other work to do apart from managing other people but i never bloody seem to get it done!

"she is an energy sucker - that her attitude, behaviour and general demeanour, bring everyone around her down"

I've worked with her too!!!! I ended up in tears with my line mananger one evening because she was getting away with murder and cutting so many corners that my workload doubled. When asked to fill in a time sheet, she too went ballistic, but did it grudgingly under an official caution. Her dh became involved (goodness knows why!) and threatened legal action because of the stress she was under and it all went a bit pear shaped.

In the end she couldn't actually fill in the time sheets because she was doing bugger all (except writing emails online). She was so daft, she didn't think it would reigister on a phone bill. She left.

Jemma7 - aussieSim is right - your colleague is an energy sucker and her general attitude to work and authority is questionable. Also agree about her impact on others - it brings other people down and affects the way they work when they've got a slacker to deal with too. Morale is important. Good Luck!

Thanks Girlies - excellent points - i was starting to doubt myself and wonder whether i was blowing everything out of proportion.

Everything is just so pathetic - i don't understand why she cannot just come in and do her job instead of bitching behind people's backs and constantyl trying to cause a problem!

ENERGY SUCKER - ENERGY SUCKER - ENERGY SUCKER

This is definitely what she is though - i go home int he evenings absolutely shattered from trying to sort her out every day! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Sorry about your energy sucker...I've worked with, and had employees like that...it's awful.

Just wanted to put in a good word for time sheets. I'm an architect and we fill out time sheets every day (hourly breakdown). It's a small company and the profit margin is very small. It helps our boss figure out how to allocate work, how to charge clients and where our weaknesses and strengths are. If used correctly, time sheets can help a business grow, be profitable and successful.

Jemma7 - I had one of her only she was my immediate boss. We have a four level hierarchy level 1 being bottom 4 being top. I was on level 2 and she was level 3. My hourly report form consisted of reporting to Manager (level 4) because level 3 hadn't done her job properly and passed the buck on to me! She leaves at the end of the month (partytime!)