Working with a recent graduate

[YoungDino]

I feel very silly starting this thread, but hoping for a bit of advice and guidance from someone more experienced than me.

I work in a team of 40 - decent m/f split skewed more towards men and a wide range of ages including a lovely man who should have retired a long time ago! We're all working from home for obvious reasons.

I have limited experience line managing people. I have line managed a couple of interns and someone twice my age for 3 months on an interim basis. All was fine, they were nice and compliant.

Earlier this year we took on a grad - the lad seemed great in the interview and super keen at the start. But now it's getting tricky for a number of reasons which I'm getting suspicious over. I was very open to him being new and needing to learn but now I'm not sure and I wonder if he's taking the piss. Working from home isn't helping matters. I am on the verge of scheduling meetings at the start and end of the day but I loathe micromanagement with a passion so I'd rather avoid this if possible.

He has appalling attention to detail. I will give him feedback only for him to only partially address what I said, or repeat the same mistakes in other pieces of work. Entry level stuff like punctuation as well as some more complicated stuff. The last piece of work he did I gave so much feedback on that it got embarrassing and I ended up finishing it myself to ensure we met the deadline.

He does not ask for help. E.g. I asked him to format a document and he didn't do it. When I pressed him as to why, he admitted that he didn't know what I meant and couldn't answer why he didn't ask me, any of the rest of the team or just bloody Google it, although I held my tongue on this point. In general we'll discuss what needs doing at weekly 121s and he will go yep yep yep all clear and fine no worries, understand... Only for basic mistakes to re-occur.

The suspicious part of me is wondering whether he's slacking off and being a bit useless on purpose?

He also has a very loosey-goosey approach to being at work. He started logging off earlier and earlier, when I pulled him up on it he said "well Bob logs off early" — Bob is a psychopath who works through lunch and eats one meal a day and is irrelevant here. He now logs off on the dot but I notice that he will be "away" or "inactive" on Skype for 5-15 minutes many times a day and takes a while to respond to messages. This is always because he was "reading" something

I should say that the person he is replacing flounced because they did not get a promotion they felt they deserved, so I feel under pressure to make this "work". The end of his probation period is coming up as well and I don't want to face another failure.

Gosh sorry this is so long! I promise that I'm much more succinct and competent at work

Are you me? I line manage this chappie, also. I've had to go the micromanaging route with significant HR support. Cracking down on the laziness and reframing expectations ie he had a nice chill ride through school and uni but the world of work does not permit it. There's a reason the snowflake stereotype came to be! A performance improvement plan might be the way to go here, but be prepared for whinging and make sure you keep a detailed but purely factual log of all of this.

Is he in his probation period??

If so you should to speak to your line manager and say that you have serious concerns and you need to follow procedures that he isn't going to pass probation.

Then tell newbie. Give him a kick up the backside.

Get him to do Microsoft training on line. Schedule in those meetings, get him to tell you his work plan for the day. Get him to do a timesheet so you can assess where he needs training and support.

Nip it in the bud else you will carry him for YEARS!

Sounds like it would be best to just let him go at the end of his probationary period. It’s not your failure if he can’t be bothered.
And if he’s this bad in his probation period, imagine how he’ll be after.

When he repeats the same mistake, don't explain again - refer him back to his notes from the last time and make him address it himself. Don't give him the easy out.

You're making it easy for him not to follow through because there are no consequences. Think about it - he can either put effort into thinking for himself and looking up how to do things and checking his work, or he can have the easy ride of not bothering because he knows you'll identify all the problems for him and either spoonfeed him the directions again or do it for him!

Humans as a rule do take the path of least resistance. So you need to make the lazy path the more difficult one by pushing back!

I get why you fixed that piece of work for him but by doing so you rewarded him for not doing it properly and reinforced that it doesn't matter how poor his work is.

If he doesn't improve after you revise your style then I'd be considering whether he is right for the role.

Nip it in the bud else you will carry him for YEARS!

Very true.

Hasn't everyone had one knobhead in the team that makes work load harder and has the opposite of a "can do" attitude?? He shapes up or ships out...

I have limited experience line managing people ... I feel under pressure to make this "work".
He does not ask for help.
Do you need to take your own advice? Do you need to ask for training and support in managing?
Be proactive and flag this to your manager. I'm hoping that they will come to the conclusion that "it's not you, it's him".

I had one who actually started hiding work she'd been given and denying its existence when asked about it. That was fun.

What is the work? I don't expect graduates would necessarily be able to work unsupervised for hours on end in a new job.

senua

I have flagged it with my line manager today, I reached the end of my tether. We're going to have a chat on Monday so we'll see how it goes but I'm feeling pretty deflated.

i'm in a bit of an awkward situation because I asked for more responsibility because I want to apply for "proper" management positions with higher salaries, pension contributions etc and you need to demonstrate that you have experience and can handle it. As I said, the initial people I managed were fine, but they were temporary. This guy would be permanent if he passes probation. The company isn't known for sacking people - one lady was on probation for 9 months! I'm probably outing myself here

topcat2014

What is the work?

Reluctant to say in case someone recognises me but the work isn't difficult per se. It's research, data gathering, translating complex things into digestible information to put into MI packs. You need to engage your brain but it's not rocket science.

I don't expect graduates would necessarily be able to work unsupervised for hours on end in a new job.

In the first couple of months I had a lot of intense contact with him, numerous calls per day to teach, give feedback, go through things. I was exhausted and didn't have any time to do my actual job.

I eased off with time and things were going okay, we had normal weekly 121s like everyone else and then at some point he was just giving me the runaround and I'm not entirely clear on how I ended up like this. I was off sick for a couple of weeks which probably didn't help not Covid

He is young and inexperienced and probably feels confused and unsure of himself. He may not have had a proper job before and feels out of his depth. I know I felt like that when I was a recent graduate. What may be obvious to someone who has a lot of experience may not be to him, and he may feel embarrassed or worried about looking stupid. I’m sure it’s not deliberate

the work isn't difficult per se. It's research, data gathering, translating complex things into digestible information to put into MI packs. You need to engage your brain but it's not rocket science.

If he did essay writing subjects at school and university, he should be well used to doing all those things independently. Part of the purpose of a degree is to learn skills like that; it's not just about studying your subject.

It's unfortunate that he's started during lockdown and is working from home. It takes a LOT of self-discipline to work independently, and he's pretty young. Definitely speak to your manager- it does sound like he's slacking.

@user128472578267 Humans as a rule do take the path of least resistance

that made me chuckle, do we really do that? lol

New grads are hard work remotely, especially if they have had zero work experience.

If they were in the office people would probably be chatting to them every ten minutes.

What is his home/office set up? He might be stuck in a bedsit with a laptop on a lap! Is there scope to get him in the office once a week? Can you take it in turns for people to be with him?

Does he have a "buddy" in the company? Not a line manager, but somebody of similar age or interests to have a friendly chat with every day? That would help.

I used to work with a team in a research role (usually remotely). We'd have a weekly "show and tell" team meeting (usually a conference call) when we all talked about what we were doing and how it linked together (or not) and give each other hints and tips (you can get automatic transcribing tools for meetings these days). Action points could come out of these. You could also give your newbie a better idea of who his peers and superiors are.

That said, I really think you need to communicate with your newbie more regularly. Not necessarily by phone (as it sounds as if he will get distracted). Try web chats (not least because it is easy to spot when somebody isn't working!). Ask open questions like, "when I asked you to re-format X, how are you going to do it?".

If a student has been getting good marks for essay content, rather than presentation, they might be clueless about the quality of output a professional company requires/expects.

All may not be lost, but it probably will be the time for you to reflection on "what you would do differently" and start the HR process.

Try not to worry about how this looks in you getting good line manager experience, performance management is a key part. If you just manage easy people it is much harder to demonstrate your competence at interview. So here either you’ll end up with a tricky employee who you turned around, or you end up managing them out - both of these are valuable experiences to have.

DP had one of these, exactly as the description in your first post. He turned out to have terrible ADHD, untreated, couldn't learn the ropes due to inattention and would take all day to do nothing of any use at all. He was trying, but his brain wouldn't let him. He left in the end after failing his probation three times, apparently hoping to do something about it all with the GP but I don't know how it went.

Or yours might be a pisstaking bellend.

I am dreading tomorrow morning and now I can't sleep. I can't remember the last time I was so stressed about a situation.

I'm lying here thinking that I was too friendly, too casual, too trusting, too lazy to do my job properly... I admit that I didn't pull him up on being "away" as often as I might have done.

GAH.

I think my strategy will be to ask him tomorrow morning how long this piece of work took him and go from there.

Maybe I don't want the added responsibility after all. Be careful what you wish for, and all that.

OP as a more experienced manager now myself.. i'd say to escalate this with HR support, and deal with via performance management (as another poster said, you're simply offering him an easy way out if you fix the issues yourself all the time - either he bucks up with specific improvements, and that does mean being micromanaged by you, or he's out).

Two things spring to mind, since you seem to be of a similiar mindset to me in my first management job:

1. He's taking up the place of someone who WILL show attention to detail, and care about the work.The longer he stays, the longer he's distracting you from your actual work and taking up space for an employee who wants to/can do a good job.

2. He's there to solve problems, not introduce new ones.

A good manager builds a team she/he can trust. He's shown with this trajctory that his isn't a comptency issue (which I have all the time in the world to support), it's an attitude problem.

I went through years of trying to do the whole supportive-manager thing with every single one of my staff, and in many cases, i wish i hadn't bothered - i wish i'd poured that energy into other hard working staff, done a bit more active mentoring, and really gone over and above for a couple that i could (should) have done more for.. than trying to fix and support everyone.

Sometimes, staff like him aren't worth it.

This is a huge step to learn in man management.

Sometimes, performance improvement plans are simply the method by which you get rid of energy-sucking poorly-performing staff members legally.

I'm sure this is going to be torn apart by a more fluffy HR-type person after i hit submit, but the 1 thing i would advise is knowing the underperforming staff that need more support who can become that support structure in your own work.. vs the ones who are just taking up more headspace than they are entitled to, for too long a period of time.

(I am in a high pressured, high risk job myself, and the quality of our grads has been shocking on occasion, including one whom we had to escort off site after he started acting totally inappropriately in front of clients... after doing a stellar interview where even my boss was wow'd... you CANNOT blame yourself for hiring a dud, everyone's on their best behaviour and the reality is that it's a tiny snapshot of if they're any good... that's why we have probations. USE that mechinism as one of your manager levers to pull. Pull it!)

I have managed this sort of person before. It doesn't tend to get better quickly. If you stick with him you'll be carrying him for years.

I appreciate a PP comment that if he was in the office he might have had more support from colleagues - but that doesn't cover the knocking off early attitude, disappearances during the day and repeating mistakes.

You should act to extend his probationary period if in doubt, but for me, I would make the choice to let him go.

If you do extend the probation period and keep him, it's frank conversation time, you should be letting him know that his work isn't hitting the standard required and you are heading toward performance management where he will be judged on the standard which will either improve, or he will have to go.

Being a good manager is also about spotting the flaws and encouraging the company not to waste time with employees who don't make the cut.

He's now asking questions every 10 minutes. Give me strength.

Ask him to write up a plan including estimated time for the work he has to do. Broken down into each section. Then schedule regular 10-15 minute meetings where he asks whatever questions he needs to ask.