How best to manage these junior colleagues

[Floralie222]

I started a new job at the end of 2023 at a reasonably large company just outside of London. I am still the newest person in my department of about 10 people. The whole team works together collaboratively, and I am the line manager of two junior colleagues. On paper, I like everything about the job, the work is interesting and I get on with my boss and team mates and colleagues in other departments.

The only issue is the employees who report in to me. I am not the type of manager to "micro manage", neither is anyone in the team. The line manager system is more just for appraisals and approving leave etc. But for the last few months, I have found myself having to be involved as they have been missing deadlines a lot, and colleagues in other departments have been reporting this to me and asking me to follow up. On investigation I've found that they are missing deadlines, sometimes by up to two months, as a result of which I've had to become a lot more closely involved in their work duties.

The issue is their response and attitude. They snap back at ANY form of feedback, however constructive I make it. I have tried the approach of giving them 3 pieces of praise for every piece of "constructive criticism", they still fly off the handle at me. They'll tell me the deadline isn't important, even when i've explained to them the impact of their delay. Ive asked them to prioritise work multiple times and they've ignored me, eventually I've taken the work back and done it myself and they have been rude to me about it, saying it was unnecessary. They'll tell me they don't like being micro managed (the irony is lost on them that i dont want to micro manage either). My own line manager is on an extended leave, I am documenting more carefully now and once she is back I will discuss this with her but I have spoken to a couple of others about it who have hinted that conflict does not go down well here and I might be seen as the issue being the newest person. One of is quite manipulative, so I am worried about this. I've never had problems like this and I've managed other people before, but this seems more of an attitude/respect issue.

I've asked a friends and old colleagues for advice and a lot of them have said they are noticing this a lot more with younger colleagues compared to how we were trained. Is it a generational thing?

If your still reading ...thank you!! Any advice on how to deal with this as it's becoming more stressful than the job is worth! If it becomes too much I will look for another job but grateful for any tips.

You need to follow your company disciplinary process.

You're totally right, it's reached that stage. I think I'm concerned about the can of worms that might open as they are both quite manipulative, so I'm being a bit naive hoping for another resolution and documenting things very carefully before I go down that route.

Bluntly, you're either their LM or you're not. I can see if you aren't having regular 121s with them to understand their career ambitions and current challenges, or being close enough to praise them when they have done a good job, why they would start slacking.

Companies seem to be doing this a lot these days - overlooking the emotional aspect of people management, but in my eyes it's absolutely key in getting the best from your team.

Thank you, that's a very helpful perspective. I should have mentioned, we have regular 121s and until recently I have focused these a lot on praise and their career/development, asking them what kinds of work they want to be doing. It's only recently I've had to step in and put more focus on their day to day workloads, and that seems to be when the attitude has shifted.

My advice would be to document everything. Meetings, interactions, 1-1’s - the lot.
follow up meetings with emails confirming what was agreed etc
identify performance targets with clear and identifiable objectives.
my fear would be that this has the potential to go sideways for you. Protect yourself.

Sorry to say, but if you are their manager and dont know what to do, then you're not fit to do your job.

Why havent you come down on them like a ton of bricks and put them on performance plans/disciplinaries yet?

Missing deadlines by 2 months would likely result in being fired anywhere else.

You need to haul them over the coals and fire them.

I think that's a little harsh on OP.
I've managed someone like this in the past. They are slippier than a bowl of eels.
What helped me was really prepping in advance for every meeting. Writing down what I wanted the objectives to be. Emailing them afterwards with a summary of the conversation and being very clear about the steps needed to avoid going on a personal improvement plan.
I don't think it's a generational thing - there are problem employees of all ages, but it could be that they are influencing each other.

I'd also have a good conversation with your boss about it when they are back.

This is exactly it. I think formalising weekly one to ones so that they have the feel of a positive performance management plan, without calling it that at first, and then documenting whether or not these are met, is the way forward. Agreeing the format of these with my line manager. Then over to HR if they are continually failing to meet the goals.

Theres definitely influencing each other behind the scenes. And one paticularly has the potential to cause trouble.

You say you work for a reasonably big organisation. How big? Because in our mid size organisation we would be able to chat informally with HR. This is a sort of area where they would help coach you on informal performance management, where you’re not necessarily at the stage of getting them involved into a formal process, but your reports have performance challenges.

this is one of the most difficult areas of management IMO and something that a lot of managers don’t get training on at all.

Then over to HR if they are continually failing to meet the goals.

HR will coach you through that but they won’t be doing it for you.

Can you ask for some training on performance management and having difficult conversations?

And read your company's policies and make sure you are following them.

Oh yes my company notices this too. A fairly senior person with 500 ppl below him said that younger ones no longer want to receive feedback on their work, they take it very personally and that 'we need to help them through it'. And by feedback we mean letting them know their work contains mistakes and how to do it right next time.

I don't know about this. If I sugar coat too much I worry they don't get that it's important and if I'm being blunt I worry that they withdraw and shut down.

I feel like a therapist at work.

Thanks all for the replies! May be worth pointing out that in my line of work, this level of supervision/management is not normally required except for more junior team members. I managed good and bad performers in the past, but (fortunately) never encountered such attitude/personality problems, with this potential to stab me in the back.

It's not always straightforward to launch into a disciplinary matter with long standing team members who may have been coasting along unnoticed until now, when you're the newest member of the team. Hence looking for advice.

100 percent agree with all of this! I also feel like a therapist...

Thanks for the suggestions, am definitely going to ask line manager/HR about the training/advice. That way, if its clear I'm following the advice, there's less chance of it backfiring for me.

Stick to facts when talking to them. Ask them for their priorities for the week , and timescales and what input they need from you.
highly recommend the one minute manager books.