Tricky employee

[SingingGoldfinch]

Hi - I'm just after some different perspectives/advice. I work in local government and manage a small team. One of the team members has a track record of poor performance and a general attitude problem. The biggest issue is his attendance/working hours. It's a regular office setting and flexible working is welcomed but this employee seems to think it's perfectly acceptable to turn up to work at 11am most days and to be completely vague about his working patterns. I took over management of the team about 3 months ago and confronted him with this issue then and made it clear that I was on to him in terms of working contracted hours, being visible during core office hours and also discussed general performance. He was in the office by 10 the next few days (miraculous for him) but it gradually started slipping back. A few weeks ago his wife had a new baby, their first, and he took a week's annual leave and a week's paternity leave - all fine. Since returning to work his working hours have been even more random than before. Now, I know how tricky things are with a newborn so did try to encourage him to take longer off and but he insisted he was ready to return - except he's not worked a full day in the 4 weeks he's been back. The situation is further complicated by the fact the baby has been in and out of hospital for tests/treatment. It's obviously been a really stressful time and I do feel for him but he has been 'playing it by ear' on the work front for weeks now which basically means being generally AWOL, turning up when he feels like it, if at all, "working from home" but not actually being contactable etc. Ive suggested he takes annual leave or parental leave and have offered to support him with a request for 'special leave' - he's ignored all this. I've had to keep a log of all the ad hoc time he's taken off and will have to ask him to book it off and I can't imagine that's going to go down well. I've been really patient and not put any pressure on him during this time - I can imagine how worrying it all is - but I feel that he's really taking the Micky now. I'm also getting pressure from my boss to sort it out. I'd be really interested to hear people's views on how to handle this one - should I keep up the "softly, softly" approach until things with the baby are a bit more settled or do I start getting firmer with him? Thanks for reading!

You have my sympathies. Our HR are good, but they would never support me in a 1:1 with a staff member unless it's a formal meeting.
It will do no harm to make expectations clear to the whole team re working hours, the options and policies when people need support (special leave, applying for reduced hours etc), the kind of info you expect in calendars, and about how to ensure anyone not at their desk is contactable - unless they have prior permission from you. Assuming it's Outlook you are using for the calendar, specify the acceptable level of access - eg make the 'subject' open to all, for example (but not necessarily the details). Follow up with it all in writing to all your team. If you are feeling brave, you could ask team members (in a group setting) what they think is reasonable and formulate a policy for the team.

My guess is that your organisation has some pretty generous and supportive measures in place for staff and he needs to buck up. Let us know how it goes.

Do you have regular (say, monthly) 1:1 meetings with him? To review progress towards his objectives (he does have objectives, surely...?) and identify any problems?

I think I understand the type of work. (I have experience of local government.) I can picture the situation. So frustrating! He has to become a fully functioning member of the team, with measurable objectives and proper accountability. Maybe one of the elected members needs to start asking a few questions...

(Questions about how things are run - not about individual members of staff, I mean.)

I think a Back To Work interview is a good idea (it's a requirement in my bit of the public sector, where someone has been off other than planned annual leave).

I would have weekly - or at least fortnightly - 1:1s with him. I would also ask him to consider if he wants to drop to part time working formally. You would need to decide if he could continue in the role in a PT basis or if he would need to move to another role, but if he is basically only working PT hours (I know there are other issues to address also), perhaps this could help him balance his work and home commitments?

Thanks again. All really helpful advice. We do have weekly 1-2-1s but they've not happened for a few weeks due to his random attendance. He's been impossible to tie down and I can't just drop everything to have those meetings with him when he happens to be there as I have a huge amount going on myself. As I've said, he's a very tricky character so our 1-2-1s tend to end up with me explaining expectations and chatting through his objectives and the work he's currently doing - and then him telling me why we shouldn't be doing x or y and how I need to do z instead. It's a difficult area of work because objectives are daily fluid. We don't work in 'measurable' roles so it's not as black and white as a lot of roles. We are in an incredibly high profile part of the organisation though and work directly to the most senior officers and elected members. He doesn't respect that position at all and actually shies away from direct contact with them. It's very complicated and as I've said, the working hours are just part of a wider range of issues - I just know I need to tackle it a step at a time.

If her turns up at 11, does he then work a full day or is he off again at 1?
Does he come in everyday or just when he feels like it?
How many years had this been going on before the baby was born.

I'm not sure I agree that objectives in this type of work can't be measurable. I think they have to be. And I totally get the day-to-day changing nature of the work. God local government really can be the last refuge of world-class chancers. (Him, obvs!)

He's been allowed to get away with his version of 'flexi' working since he was appointed 2.5 years ago. He's always been flakey and inconsistent but has generally turned up every day until recently - even if not until 11am. When I confronted him about his working hours he claimed that he would always work on until he'd worked a full day - but I know this isn't reliably the case. There's also the issue of core hours - 11am to 7ish doesn't fit with that. He also has a habit of deciding last minute to 'work from home' and is often then not online or available. It really is a whole catalogue of awful behaviour.

On a day to day basis his objectives are measurable - I.e has a project or task been completed by the agreed deadline etc. It's the longer term ones that are less easy to measure - I.e appraisal objectives. In my experience local government has a lot of incredibly dedicated and hard working people - and then a diminishing (thankfully) numbers of chancers like him who take the piss and don't seem to care about the fact they're basically wasting public money. The thing that really infuriates me is that it's so hard to address issues like this head on. It's really difficult to get HR support and there are so many policies in place to protect the employee but very little in terms of protecting the organisation (and the public purse) from this kind of piss-taking. I know I'm in for a really long and bunny ride with this one and I can see why some managers would just ignore it and let him get away with it.

Does he have to be around for evening meetings? Does that muddle the hours situation?

*bumpy not bunny!

Nope, no evening meetings. Top tier local authority so all business happens during office hours.

I'd document your weekly 1-2-1, and make them happen weekly. I appreciate that means you are juggling your own workload to accommodate his timings but people management is now part of your role. I found a format online that was 10 minutes personal, 10 minutes for them, 10 minutes for you.
So the personal would be you asking how things are with wife and baby, is it getting easier, does he need to book time off etc. His 10 minutes is updating you on progress of tasks/objectives previously set. Your 10 minutes is you updating him on the team, and setting tasks/objectives for the following week. Document it and email precis of the discussion to him.
So this way, you've discussed and documented that core hours are x-y, that last week he came in at z on 4/5 days, that if he needs to start later it must be taken as annual leave (or whatever), that he sees no reason that he can't achieve core hours next week. It's not formal performance management at that stage, but it makes it much easier to go down that route because you and he have records of what has been agreed so far.
All objectives should be measurable. So if he has something that isn't, find a way of wording it so it is. So "improve timekeeping", becomes "work core hours every day". Make them SMART and then it's easier to discuss progress towards them.

I sympathise - I took over a new team earlier this year and am managing a tricky person. I've come down hard and the result is that she bitches to the rest of the team about how mean I am. Management support me, but it's still awful.

Ah okay. When I was an elected member (inc a spell on scrutiny and as a cabinet member) there were lots of evening meetings, and strategy/support staff had to be available for those.

You're talking about attendence but what are his deliverables?

Do you have evidence that his work is not being done?

(This was in a London borough.)

But when he doesn't turn up for meetings don't you challenge him?

Ah, sorry OP just noticed your comments above.

Surely there must be core elements to his job that you can focus on not being delivered?

Good advice from DropZone - you need to lay out your expectations so you can document things clearly if you have to move to a formal disciplinary process. It must be tough with a sick baby, but he need s to be clear about whether he is working or not, not drift in and out at random - he needs to follow the company's policy on compassionate leave/ leave when dependent are sick.

As an aside - to avoid any claims that you're victimizing him, it would probably be a good idea to reiterate the rules on flexible working/ leave/ flexible working to all of your team.

Thanks DropZone. That format sounds really helpful - and I know I definitely need to start formally recording our sessions so that we have it recorded - and yes to the SMART measurable objectives. Historically as a team we've only used high level objectives but it would definitely help to make them more immediate so that they can be measured weekly rather than just at appraisal time.

I don't think it helps that I used to be his equal - and that he also went for the promotion opportunity. I don't always feel like he takes me seriously. I do have the support of senior management though, which is reassuring but it's tough.

Could you call a daily 'team huddle' at 9.30 every day? Make it clear that attendance is compulsory - the only exception is pre-scheduled meetings. It only needs to last 10 minutes, but you can use it to talk through the workload of the team /allocation of tasks for the day, plus any domestics. If he fails to turn up on 3 or more occasions you will be able to use this as evidence in your internal performance management process.

If he is working from home he should dial into these short meetings. If ever he fails to answer the phone to you when he is working from home, send him an email Along these lines 'I tried to call you today at 1030 but you did not answer. Can you please call me back as soon as you get this message'. This way you are building up evidence. Can you also tell whether he is 'online'? My work email/messenger system indicates whether someone is signed in and available, is in a meeting (working from calendar invites) or appears to not have touched their computer for over 15 mins. Not being signed in for no good reason would be a cause for concern at my place.

Generally he does deliver - that's what makes it a bit more difficult - but it's often like pulling teeth. I admit that I've not been allocating him certain tasks as it usually leads to problems and on reflection in an effort to protect the team I've actually been protecting him. That's going to stop - time to expose him and let others see the issues I think. Plus, he's been so absent lately that his workload has been a lot smaller. That's going to change too,

I agree with reiterating the rules to everyone - if he genuinely wasn't aware of the rules, then he probably wouldn't be the only one who has never been told, and it won't be a problem to remind people.

I had a friend who was struggling with time-keeping - his manager was great and really supported him. They talked through issues, and for a time, the manager was giving him much shorter goals, because friend was finding the scale of longer term ones overwhelming, and he'd been almost avoiding work because of it. However, there wasn't a history of taking the piss with hours - it was a new thing. And they communicated and both wanted to fix it.

So I think it's good to tell ask him about how he's coping with the baby and so on, but you need to be firm that there does need to be improvement. Give him support to achieve that, but be clear it needs to be him making the effort, and if he can't be arsed, then disciplinary procedures will follow, and you are logging everything to track the improvement to make sure it won't get that far. (Obviously you might need to rephrase it a bit!)

And if it's possible to give home enough rope to hang himself - well, he's not going to be a loss by the sound of it. It sounds like he's not really delivering when he is there, more avoiding it. There's nothing here that sounds like he's in a job which suits him. Has anyone suggested looking at what would suit him better as a career?

Thanks Merlot. The 'daily huddle' is something we've done before. Everybody hates it and reintroducing it would go down like a lead ballon but it's worth considering in this context. Yes - our system allows us to see if someone is logged on and 'available' or 'inactive' that's how I know he's not actually working from home when he says he is - and how I also know he's not always working until 7 when he says he is. He seems to think I'm not clever enough to check that!

Does his missing meetings ever cause problems? I would have a problem with this, particularly if he doesn't tell anyone whether he'said going to bother turning up or not. I don't go to all meetings I'm invited to, but I do let people know when I won't, and I expect people to do the same when I'm organising it, at least if they're a "required" rather than "optional" attendee. What you do with your own time is up to you, but wasting other people's time - by making them wait unnecessarily, or holding a meeting where your input is essential and you always knew you wouldn't be there - I'm not very forgiving of that, if there's no apology. (I have demanded an apology from a manager before.) I am guessing he's the sort who just doesn't turn up and doesn't ever tell anyone.