New starter at work being shitty to friend/colleague

[Raverflavour]

Hi MN
My friend/colleague has put her heart & soul into setting up a project at work & recruited to one of the new posts. The recruitment process was tricky, the person who was offered the post was difficult throughout the process but my friend remained sure she was the right person, despite other colleagues having doubts.
New person started Monday and I've seen her already firing multiple questions (not related to the role) at my friend, not listening to basic instructions & questioning my friends project manager experience (it's her first one & she's going to be amazing) rolling her eyes & generally being quite rude. My friend is being very patient but I am quite uncomfortable with it all (I'm not even in that team & can see it)
Any thoughts on how I can support my friend or how I can get the new person to be a bit more respectful and kind without anyone seeing

Your friend hired a difficult person who is now...being difficult?

Apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick.

Why was the difficult person given the job? Who signed off the hiring process and the formal appointment?

It's a kind of chickens coming home to roost situation now. Your friend needs to tell the new employee to sort their attitude out, give examples, be specific and manage their new hire's performance.

A bad hire is worse than no hire.

@EmmaH2022 essentially yeah, but there's a bit more to it than that. The person has a lot of experience & knowledge, & I get why she wanted to recruit her (it's a niche area) - as soon as she was offered the role, the person was quite demanding & uncommunicative though.
Feel really protective over my friend! There are others starting v soon in that team & so hoping that will help

This person needs to be dismissed or at least put on a warning. If she is like this when she has just started how bad is she going to be in a few months time. Looks like your friend made a bad choice when recruiting.

Your friend made the wrong decision when recruiting and she needs to be really really tough now and either get rid or issue a warning.

If she shows weakness at this point then it will only get much worse.

Well, your friend did the hiring

I've had the experience of someone who was hired in spite of the interview panel actually saying they had concerns about her attitude.

She was a large part of why I left the job and then she got booted out after, which was so annoying.

If she pisses the new starters off, then your friend will have to deal with that too.

I'm all for loyalty, but if your friend had a free hand in the hiring, then she can sort it, she knew what she was doing.

They must be on probation. I'd go down like a tonne of bricks around boundaries, behaviours & very clear work objective. If they didn't meet the standers for role/ grade then they would fine they failed their probation period based on performance

Your friend needs to talk to HR early next week once she’s had a few days to settle in.

Advise your friend to hold regular weekly or fortnightly probation meetings. Give targets including .. get to know the team members and their roles, build positive relationships within the team, develop orientation around the building, log all instructions in writing and regularly update manager with progress, ask for support if unsure,

You're completely unconnected, though, aren't you - you're not even on the same team, let alone having any sort of responsibility for this person? Leave well alone. If this person is difficult and obstructive then creating a situation where their boss's mate is getting involved in their work and commenting on the relationships in the team is going to be an absolute gift to them.

Needs to be nipped in the bud or it will only get worse. She needs to be warned now, or she will infect the rest of the team.

Talk to your friend about it: say it is bad for the business and other staff, seeing an employee (particularly a new one!) being so deliberately rude to their manager and ask how she is going to handle it. Personally I would push to get rid of her before her probation ends when she’ll be much harder to fire.

There’s nothing you can do really. It seems odd that she wanted this particular person who is very difficult. I presume she is on probation-she needs a warning.

Does your friend see this? Does it bother her? All you can do is offer your opinion and support and let her get on with it. A friend of mine had to fire someone for similar reasons recently, as it was upsetting the whole team. Soonest done the better.