Husband not doing well at work. Feel really bad for him.

[Goingforplatinum]

DH has been in his current job just over 12 months. He thought he was doing fine and generally enjoyed it. He had a meeting last week and was basically told had not met his targets for the last 6 months and this is unacceptable. I've informed him he needs to speak to his manager and work alongside him to improve things, to ask his manager not to leave it 6 months and to inform him monthly if he is behind on targets. His manager has asked DH to call him at the beginning and end off each shift to say what he is going to do / has done that day. Part of me is mad at DH, I'm also anxious and also feel for him. I've never seen him look so deflated and worried about going to work. I'm also anxious about him loosing his job, we have just got a mortgage together and have young children. I'm trying to support him as best I can but at a loss of what to do. His job can't be done part time and we could t afford for him to leave work. He has looked at changing jobs but nothing pays as well as his current job.

Sorry about typos, fingers are very cold

Look for a new job even if a pay cut, there are things out there and the higher wage now aids negotiations. He can’t live with a manager like that who seems to set him up to fail to be proved right. His soul is worth more than a few extra quid.

Did he know what his targets were? And was he able to track them himself? Were they realistic? If yes, then he really has no excuse.

However, if he wasn't aware of his targets and/or isn't able to track his progress against them or they're not achievable, that's an issue he should absolutely be raising/should have raised early on.

It sounds like he's being given the opportunity to raise his game and prove that he can do the job, so he needs to really step up now and show what he's capable of. It might be that this is a wake-up call for him. Or a sign that he's in the wrong job.

Impossible without more information to know if his manager is being reasonable or not, or if DH is in the right role or not.

That doesn’t make sense op. Unless he didn’t know his targets, which is highly unlikely. As such he knew he was under performing. And there has been previous discussions.

The reason he is telling uou is he is now on a formal pip (performance improvement plan), if it’s daily micro management, which is usually the last step to dismissal.

if I was him I’d be looking for another job fast.

He hasn't been placed on a PIP, apparently that's the next step. He knows his targets but can't track them, they are only tracked by higher management. Apparently there has been some discrepancies within the computer system used, so that's been looked into and investigated, but as he is currently been micromanaged his manager must feel there is a need for this. I've told him he needs to be on it and to knuckle down but he seems to be wallowing a little ATM so has less motivation. I have been in the position myself where you feel your doing okay only to be told your not, and it is deflating. We've also all been given some kind of bollocking at work and if you up your game, it tends to soon be forgotten about.

It seems very unfair at face value if he was only alerted to his shortcomings at the 6 month review. Was he unaware of his targets or performance, or perhaps told 'don't worry about your targets until you've fully settled in' then that was reneged upon?

Sounds like he has chance to turn this around though, if it's honestly a job he wants then I would suggest that he plays the game, checks in every day and seeks feedback on these occasions, raises any problems. He needs to be seen to want to improve. Now that he knows he wasn't hitting the mark, are there any reasons (apart from obviously feeling discouraged by all of this), why he feels he can't hit the targets discussed?

Not to be pessimistic though but if they've pulled him up so sharply at only 6 months in, with no prior discussions, it wouldn't hurt to have one eye on the local job market.

These are my thoughts exactly. In my job I know week by week if there is a problem. There is no reason to not meet his targets, he just needs to get his motivation back. I've told him to just do as they say with a smile on his face and to email his manager every time a job is complete for his own paper trail.

Ok then, so he needs to be asking for feedback against his targets at very regular intervals, daily preferably, and tracking this himself. I agree that if he gets up to speed this will hopefully blow over. Sounds like poor management and they're now going in heavy handed rather than flagging this earlier in a less surprising way but at least he now knows what he's dealing with.

He needs to get a new job ASAP before he is pushed and has either no reference or a terrible reference which will affect his ability to secure anything else

What kind of targets are they? Is it something he could keep an ‘offline’ measurement of himself?

targets are entirely pointless if they aren’t measured/tracked.

Also when I say about the mortgage, we have the offer and in the last process of buying a house so this has come at the worst time. Not sure the bank will lend if he gets a new job, especially one with lower salary. The house we are buying is also the house we rent so if we pull out then we have to move. There are no rentals in out small town so then that means changing locations and the children's schools. I think if it wasn't for this, I would just telling to definitely find a new job.

If he's been in the job for 12 months, I assume he's passed his probation period?

It does sound like bad management than necessarily being entirely his fault - if he was going so wrong, they should have let him know rather than let it drift for six months. Tell him to get stuck in with a smile on his face and I'm sure it'll turn around!

Well, either he’s failing, or he’s been set up to fail. I suspect probably the latter, from the info you’ve posted.

Either way, I agree a new job is the best way forward. Once your head is above that parapet, regardless of the reason or how fair that is, it’s often very difficult to shake it off.

Op I don't mean this to sound cruel but can I ask why your husband left his last job?

The reason I ask is I worked with someone a few years ago who got pulled up a bit like your husband. The role we were both in did not really have targets or goals (that we were aware of anyway). The lady I worked with got pulled in my management about her performance and was genuinely shocked.

She was popular outgoing and friendly to everyone but wasted an unreal amount of time a day chatting to everyone It was only when she asked to see the amount of casefiles everyone else in the team dealt with daily she actually saw how far behind she was. She as she said enjoyed banter.

I really hope you're being a bit more supportive than you're coming across here. 'Informing' him of what he needs to do sounds more like you're on his manager's team tbh.

Maybe just listen and give him space to explore what's going on and to come to his own conclusions about next steps?

His last job was doing the same thing but for a company further away, he left there so he could work closer to home.

@PermanentTemporary iam being more supportive to him then I appear on here. I'm looking for practical advice here and giving the facts. I'm being more understanding to DH and letting him vent whilst offering advice.

My husband had a manager who suddenly seemed to turn the tables and start changing targets/ job description etc. It made him so miserable he had to take time off sick. This was during the pandemic, and I was pregnant. In the end after trying some mediation with the HR team he quit. I was so worried - I was just about to go on mat leave, I was scared he wouldn't find work in the pandemic. But he did and he ended up getting a better job and his mental health improved immediately.
The job doesn't matter. His mental health matters. Support him to do what's right for him even if it is to quit