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?

You need to first listen to her perspective and then discuss solutions. Two options might be for her to go part time temporarily or to work in the evening after the kid is in bed.

Sorry to be blunt, but you can't just ignore this- it's not the nicest part of the job but it is your job to manage it. Short term, yes, people need flexibility but longer term a solution needs to be found.

If she really can't cope, ultimately you need to reduce her workload or she needs to resign/take unpaid leave. Those are really the only solutions available.

OP - does it make your life (and those of your colleagues) any easier if this woman goes on unpaid leave? Would there be a replacement for her who could take over her workload? Or would it just mean that her work was reassigned to the rest of you?

I am wondering how she performed before the pandemic ? Were there already performance issues and they are highlighted further or was she great then. Not everyone can just adapt to change without the right support. What are her strengths and can you play to those by assigning particular jobs , move things from others to her that she is good at. I assume you've done basic things like check if she even has space to work? Maybe she has a crap relationship and now can't get away by going to work etc etc so many unknowns. I actually really worry about expectations on workers to just carry on regardless, but there are no easy solutions . Regarding nursery maybe there are other issues there too that you need to know about? I think when managers are pressured it is easy for them to slip into a blame culture rather than being creative and taking responsibility themselves. Don't envy you though you are squeezed in the middle as a manager.

What if she went sick? Does she still get paid? Sometimes it is easier when that person just takes a break.

Tricky. Personal work life balance boundaries are an issue; mine are piss-poor, so as a primary school teacher (whose children are in school) I have frequently been answering emails from parents, marking work, planning differentiated provision, liaising with professionals from outside agencies until 2am, and gone to bed in my clothes on a couple of occasions. The job needs to get done. Some things, like actual teaching, making welfare calls, returning parents' calls, zooming with SEN support agencies etc, have to be done in the daytime, and the days aren't long enough, but the rest I have to crack on with after I put my kids to bed.
As it is, there's nobody I can delegate to, but I can see how it might be tempting to 'sign off' at the end of contracted hours if there was someone who could unfeasibly pick up the slack.

This is such a tricky one.

On the one hand, the work doesn't disappear and needs to be done to keep the business going and everyone employed, in the long run.

But on the other hand, this an unprecedented situation and you can't just magic away the childcare issue. It's not entirely realistic to say she staff member needs to change nursery, there could be so many reasons why another nursery isn't suitable.

As an employee with their own childcare issues, what I'd want is someone to have a really good,honest but supportive conversation about the situation and see what can be done on both sides to find a way to make it work.

At the end of the day, in the current climate these issues with school and childcare closures aren't going away overnight and I think, looking at the bigger picture economically and socially, the way forward is to try and find ways that work for everyone, not just making a knee jerk decision that people with childcare (or even mental health) issues during a global pandemic need to be managed out or replaced.

Some really interesting points brought up here, so thanks everyone for that.

I did have a chat on Friday with her and she didn't disclose anything as a reason, per say. Just that it's quite busy with the workload at the moment.

Even prior to covid I've not been impressed with her productivity, really though, so think it's just highlighting it more to me.

I have offered her support in going through her projects to help prioritise. Will keep an eye on it to see. And yes, I've been speaking with all my team to make sure they're alright. But as PP said, my senior management are assholes.

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

@DoItAfraid I'm sorry about your personal circumstances...but I said in my post that the op should first have a wellbeing chat with her employee. If any extenuating circumstances exist then it would be up to the employee to make them known.

When I said some people are using Covid as an excuse, I speak from experience. A member of my department recently (stupidly) announced on a zoom call of 10 people that following her 2 year olds nursery closing she wasn't going to bother looking for a replacement, because due to Covid 'work has to be flexible anyway' and it would save her money.

Someone (not me!) wasn't very pleased with this considering they'd been picking up her slack and reported her. She's now on enforced unpaid leave until she sorts her shit out. She's finding a nursery.

Plenty of people are trying to get away with stuff 'because Covid'. It doesn't wash. Covid is a reason for employers to give some leeway and be as flexible as possible - not a reason for them to bend over and accept poor work from staff who just choose not to send their kids to nursery or key places to which they're entitled.

I agree company has a responsibility for staff welfare but Employee has a contract which she needs to forefil yes we are in unpresidented times but if clients don't pay a company a company can't pay its staff. I think you need a formal meeting to discuss productivity and her reasons as to why its not as expected or that she even realises a problem. Then give her an agreed time frame to improve and have another meeting to see if there has been improvements. If she can't cope consider reducing hours etc. Yes won't help others work loads but if she's officially taking on less work you know before hand what work needs moving to someone else not picking it up when deadlines are approaching

OP when you spoke with her did she have any awareness that you had concerns about her output?

Is there is a chance that she has picked up on the attitude of senior management and is scared to say why/how she is not coping?

What I am angling at here is that would she possibly be more open to discuss her personal circumstances with someone other than you?

Where I am I have my line manager but I also have someone else whose sole role is to support me about things I may not feel comfortable talking to my line manager about eg I cry during meetings sometimes because I miss my sister so prefer not to be on video or my gynae issues etc.

Could you try that?

If you were not happy with the productivity before Covid then I suppose you have no choice but to go down the performance improvement plan route with regular catch ups at the start of the week and another at the end to chart progress.

I think you may be doing her a disservice with your gentle mentor approach, I am the same so I understand, however in this instance you need to get to the bottom of it, you have spoken to her and are no further forward, you need to make her aware of the issue so she can help solve the issue now before it becomes more serious.

I think you need to dig deeper. If her performance is not that great, you need to find out if it is due to the childcare arrangement or just that she is slacking.

Even prior to covid I've not been impressed with her productivity, really though,

Did you actually tell your employee this OP? So it is clear.

In my company we would spend time trying to find out what the issues are and seeing what we we could do to help
Perhaps give her 2 weeks paid leave
But sooner rather than later she would have to either do the work or take unpaid leave
We need the work done to keep the business going or no one will have a job
Also not fair on other staff
I have noticed that while first time round staff without kids were happy to cover,not so much now

I don't think it's reasonable to expect her to move her child to a nursery when preschool will likely open in 3 weeks. Settling into a new environment etc takes time.

Can she do a log of hours worked? Ultimately though, having a preschooler at home will make working very difficult so doing more out of core hours is necessary. Can you see any evidence of this? Emails sent late etc?

I think you need to be work out some options (ask her to help you with this, if she’ll engage) eg unpaid leave, working weekends (if she has a partner who can do childcare then), moving nursery, creating a childcare bubble, partner (if she has one) takes unpaid leave one day a week, using up any holiday she / any partner has etc. Then get her to tell you which is feasible, or least worst. Try that for a week, then review.

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

So is one of the issues that she is unable to work overtime?
If so I think that is purely a manager’s problem, not the employee’s.

Oh how I'm glad I don't work for you or a shit employer. Of course she's underperforming, she's trying to do two things at once. You need to MANAGE the situation, she doesn't have capacity, what do you want her to do? Work evenings? Weekends? Are you not worried about her well-being? Do you realise the actual impact this will have long term? My employer has gone through planning again and reprioritised work to be realistic with what we can manage, we have a special leave time code to use for the hours we missed that day so we get paid and SPECIFICALLY told not to work in our own time. Guess what? We have a hugely loyal and productive work force, these expectations are for our CEO through to our lowest admin grades.

After half term it's likely only 2 more weeks. But don't be a dick, put yourself in her shoes and really think about what you're expecting here, not to pay her? For her to break with stress? For what? What you decide to do will impact this woman for a long time (and yes, I'm a manager too). If it's coming from the top, challenge them on it!

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

Lots of people are juggling. Productivity is lower. So prioritise.

Can you propose flexi furlough to your employer? We’re doing it and those who are taking it are still the type who work over their hours anyway. It doesn’t help workload but it means those who are struggling with the juggle can legitimately reduce their working hours.

I disagree that this employee has childcare available. It’s a big thing to change nurseries. I did it twice but emotionally it takes it’s toll.

Just talk to her OP. And be honest. Empathy isn’t about not bringing up issues. It’s about having exploratory rather than judgemental conversations when you do.

You've had some good advice here, OP. I would also approach it from a, "I've noticed x, y, z (give specific examples). What can we do to help make things more manageable for you?" Have some acceptable options in your head, ready to discuss e.g. could we temporarily move some of the more administrative tasks to a junior / secretary, while you focus on getting the other work finished; do you feel it would be beneficial to take some leave etc. (I'd be wary about suggesting the latter if your employee doesn't bring it up first, but perhaps have a chat with HR first about the best way to phrase suggestions.)

Also try to get the employee to discuss what they want to see happening job-wise when schools go back. Perhaps they will say that this is why they're struggling and, once school's go back, they'll be able to focus on work again; perhaps they'll say they've had to reconsider priorities and they're actually thinking of going part time; perhaps they'll say they need some time off to recover from the stress of the last year. If you don't know what the issue is, you can't help solve it.

However, I do also agree you really need to manage up more effectively. You know the jobs that need to be done, and the timescales, and the resources you have to achieve them. Work out what can be done when and have a discussion with your management about it. (Always have a solution to the problem, or present something as their choice e.g. we can achieve x by y, if I hire another part-time employee; we can achieve x by y, if we lower the priority / extend the timeline of b; which option would you prefer me to take?)

OP, just so you know, it's 'per se'.

Offer help, support and understanding.

She's trying to work and has a young child around. That's bloody difficult.

She doesn't need you piling in with more pressure.

It won't last for ever.

My concern here is that upper management will make the decision for you and she’ll be let go or put in review. And you’ll be in trouble with them for having let things slide. That’s not a good outcome for either of you. I know you dislike the management stuff, but you’d be doing her a favour by being a bit franker I think. It’s wrong to let her assume that everything is ok when actually, her livelihood is on the line.