Employees with no childcare not performing

[CoffeeCheeseandCupcakes]

I have a team of 9 which report into me. A few are having the (very understandable) issue of juggling childcare and work. I'm lucky in that my DS is still going to nursery, but he was home with us the whole first lockdown - so I am very sympathetic to the situation.

While there is zero issue with most of the team - they are managing to still get everything they need to done by taking time out during the day for homeschooling and logging on to finish any work in the evenings. But there is one woman who is really struggling to keep everything moving and it's falling on me to pick up half her work. And she's making no effort to "make up" the missed worked and deferring it to me.

I feel like I'm at the point I need to say something, but really hate this part of being a manager. I'm much more of the gentle mentor type. Any advice on how to approach this?

Talk to her and ask if there is anything you can do to help? As a manager you have responsibility for her well-being at work as well as her productivity. Come at it from the constructive point of view of finding a solution together rather than from the destructive point of view of discipline.

Well, you need to ask her. Perhaps she has developed mental health issues, or she’s trying to cope with elderly parents, or her friend died, etc etc. People with children are not the only ones having problems. Do not come at it from a discipline point of view.

I actually think it's unfair to expect people to be "making up" missed work under the circumstances. It's down to management in this situation to re-asses priorities and determine what can be done and what can't be. You have no idea how your employee is coping and can't compare her situation to others because you don't know the finer details.

Oh, sorry, you said no childcare when I thought you meant no children.

Have a chat from a well-being perspective first. It wouldn’t sit right with me to potentially discipline someone based on their struggling to balance childcare/homeschooling and work during a pandemic - it should be about working together to adjust support based on what’s working and what’s not

Thanks both for replying. I guess I didn't necessarily think about it needing to be disciplinary...but perhaps I just need to be more direct in saying I've noticed the drop in productivity and what can we do to help.

My concern is that no one has capacity to pick up more work to cover at the moment, so don't actually know what the solution would be.

@lavendervay

I actually think it's unfair to expect people to be "making up" missed work under the circumstances. It's down to management in this situation to re-asses priorities and determine what can be done and what can't be. You have no idea how your employee is coping and can't compare her situation to others because you don't know the finer details.

I do tend to agree. But this is the management direction from above me.

Unfortunately we're down on our usual headcount so everyone is very busy and putting in extra hours. So there's not any easy/logical place to move work to

I was in that woman's position and I've just had to take unpaid leave. Nobody is happy about it, but I can't get an acceptable amount of work done until schools reopen. That is the reality.

Offer her your childcare space for your child?

@MichelleScarn

Offer her your childcare space for your child?

Her child's pre-school has closed. Other nursery's in the area are open and have space, if she wanted.

I think I am currently that person in your team. I've been working from home now for a year, homeschooling kids both times, trying to move house, and now have found out in the last week that my dad had advanced prostate cancer. I'm not performing, I know I'm not, I'm just trying my best to keep everything moving forward as much as I can. I know this isn't enough really, but it's the best I can do at the moment. If you can I'd ask her how she is, and see if there's anything you can do to help. If she genuinely can't be arsed that's a different thing, but she might just be really struggling with everything.

@lavendervay

I actually think it's unfair to expect people to be "making up" missed work under the circumstances. It's down to management in this situation to re-asses priorities and determine what can be done and what can't be. You have no idea how your employee is coping and can't compare her situation to others because you don't know the finer details.

I have some sympathy but also think that we have to be realistic, it's now a year into this and if work needs to be done, there's a limit to how flexible employers can be - otherwise they risk either burning out other employees by making them take on the extra, or going under because they can't do the work.

I would talk to HR first, because you are on delicate ground if she discloses a reason like mental health. The first discussion can be gentle and supportive and not a disciplinary, but you should still take notes afterwards on the content of what was discussed.

As others said, one option might be part furlough or using annual leave or unpaid leave but keeping her job. Or she may be one of the many people we see on here with an unsupportive partner and a call out from work will help her to ask him(/her) to step up at home. Or maybe she is having other health difficulties and that needs to be discussed too. But you need to be brave and kind and have the conversation. Otherwise it's not fair to the rest of the team, who will 100% be noticing that they are slogging at night to get things done but she's not delivering.

On that - if the rest of the team have kids at home and are logging in late etc, make sure you've had good conversations with them too, I'd strongly suspect they're burning out as well.

You don’t move the work. You prioritise and leave the lowest priority work to be done at a later point.

Be firm and explain to your bosses that your team are working at full capacity and some are really struggling due to the pandemic and childcare issues/mental health issues etc.
Explain any support that you have put in place for the employee in question and let bosses know that you have had 121s.

Mention that you may have employees go off sick with stress if workload isn’t reduced and you’re already down on your usual headcount.

Working your team and yourself into the ground will not increase productivity long term and will cause future issues.

Ah @CoffeeCheeseandCupcakes I was being a bit facetious, so she does have the option for childcare? I think you will have to have a difficult conversation with her unfortunately.

It's very difficult but while you can (and should) be flexible, presumably you need to get to a point where you offer employees the ability to cut their hours/days for a while or take a sabbatical. That's tough too but it isn't fair on everyone else either if they are picking up the slack.

@KizzyKat91 I do 100% agree with that...perhaps I'm just cynical as our leadership team has proven they don't actually care. And being a marketing company they don't have the option of leaving work to be done later - we either do it or the client doesn't pay us.

Though I think you're right that it's more I need to be firm in managing upwards

Have a meeting with her to ask what her long term plans are. Obviously if her child's nursery has closed then she needs to at least look at other arrangements.

To be frank, some people are happy to take the piss and use Covid as an excuse to save on childcare fees. Don't let her.

If her child is preschool age and other nurseries in the area are open then there's no reason she can't use one of those.

You can be incredibly supportive and flexible whilst still expecting that the work needed is done. Tell her you can see her shifts clearly aren't working for her as she's only currently working x hours. Have the wellbeing chat, offer full flexibility. But make it clear that her full hours need to be worked, whether that's the normal shift hours, weekends or evenings.

@FredaFlintstone

Have a meeting with her to ask what her long term plans are. Obviously if her child's nursery has closed then she needs to at least look at other arrangements.

To be frank, some people are happy to take the piss and use Covid as an excuse to save on childcare fees. Don't let her.

If her child is preschool age and other nurseries in the area are open then there's no reason she can't use one of those.

You can be incredibly supportive and flexible whilst still expecting that the work needed is done. Tell her you can see her shifts clearly aren't working for her as she's only currently working x hours. Have the wellbeing chat, offer full flexibility. But make it clear that her full hours need to be worked, whether that's the normal shift hours, weekends or evenings.

I am really sorry but I find this really mean. Sorry.

You have no idea of people's personal circumstances. I have to shield my youngest daughter due to an underlying lung condition so there is a lot of anxiety around Covid for us. My husband is high risk as an overweight ethnic minority. My sister died. My parents live 10k miles away and so we have no family support or bubble. Pre pandemic I used to work 60 plus hours a week managing a team of over 24. Now I also have to homeschool my elder daughter who is old enough to be on google classrooms but still needs help to understand some maths and science comments. My diary is back to back zoom calls and my job is client facing where the client pays only when we deliver the work and it is tax technical work in a regulated industry (financial services). I absolultely cannot afford to fuck up.

I am still grieving for my sister and my mental health was already a shit show even before Covid. I am t-minus 1 second from a complete breakdown but I am trying my absolute best but there are only so many hours in a day and only so much capacity I can have as a human being.

Please please talk to your colleague and seek to understand her position first before saying "well its not fair on the other team members" as that will make her feel even more shit than she no doubt already does.

As for someone said she is avoiding childcare - I can't send my youngest in to an open nursery when her lungs are already damaged in a pandemic that attacks people's lungs.

Please, please try to think the best of people and find out their circumstances first before assuming that they are "using Covid as an excuse". What an awful thing to say with no evidence. That comment has really upset me actually.

And your management sound like insensitive dicks.

And yes, please talk to the other team members as they will also be feeling the strain not only from picking up work but also from the strains of their own personal challenges.

*concepts, not comments

It's a really tricky balance when someone in the team cannot perform as usual - we recently had something similar but with mental health issues - as a manager dh picked up most of the slack...which has had a huge impact on his well being. Dropping client projects just isn't an option if everyone wants to keep their jobs! And getting someone new on board takes time. I don't have any advice other than to have a chat with her to see if you can help to make things better. We are really struggling with workloads at the moment - turning down work is not an option, people need to be paid, but they know they will be rewarded generously so they don't feel unappreciated.

I thought childcare was still there to support key workers who couldn't work from home? You can't just move your child from one nursery to another in the middle of a flipping pandemic!

OP you need to talk to your employee. You need to find out what's going on with her. You also need to be incredibly careful with your other employees who sound like they're doing double shifts which is not sustainable at all - it's been a year now! I am a freelance marketer and at least two of the companies I work for have brought in extra help because they realise that while they still have clients to service, the longer the current situation is going on the more stretched their people are becoming.

At the end of the day, they're being paid for a job that you are doing half of for them. Unpaid.

Which part of that is fair on anyone?

If they are part of your team, you manage it because that is what you are paid to do. I run my own business, and if I tiptoed around every single issue that any of my staff had, I'd be locked up in a padded cell. There is being understanding and supportive; and being taken advantage of.

Under performing will be a thing, no surprises there.
Perhaps ask her to use childcare or her dh to take over.
It's tough but not the employers responsibility, can't do the job there's thousands being made redundant who'd jump at it.

@addicted2spaniels

At the end of the day, they're being paid for a job that you are doing half of for them. Unpaid.

Which part of that is fair on anyone?

If they are part of your team, you manage it because that is what you are paid to do. I run my own business, and if I tiptoed around every single issue that any of my staff had, I'd be locked up in a padded cell. There is being understanding and supportive; and being taken advantage of.

Which part of a global pandemic is fair on anyone @addicted2spaniels?

I mean honestly - please spell it out for me - what do you actually expect her to do when she has no childcare? Not sleep?

@Devlesko it's not the employer's responsibility? So it's the employees? Did anyone ask to be placed in this situation?

Some of you are very very unempathetic in your management style. You are making such sweeping statements without even taking the preliminary step of trying to find out what challenges she is facing before saying "plenty of people would take her job". What a management style.

@addicted2spaniels

At the end of the day, they're being paid for a job that you are doing half of for them. Unpaid.

Which part of that is fair on anyone?

If they are part of your team, you manage it because that is what you are paid to do. I run my own business, and if I tiptoed around every single issue that any of my staff had, I'd be locked up in a padded cell. There is being understanding and supportive; and being taken advantage of.

OP doesn’t understand anything she needs to ask her employee if everything is ok. I’m sure a chat will get to the bottom of things. The poor woman is obviously struggling it’s not rocket science that OP needs to check in with her own staff members.

Moving your child around is not ideal but I have had to do that with DS for play schemes and if he was in nursery I would do it rather than try and struggle on.