slow quiet one, and the micromanager

[snoopsy]

I manage a large team, all remote. We have a new admin person who hasn't been with us long (7 weeks). The new admin is pleasant, but has a very quiet personality. I have done some of her training and she is slow and methodical. The manager who manages the admin is a hard-worker but known to be difficult - likes control, gives little leeway on methods used - its her way or nothing, expects people to operate at 100% all the time etc. calls people outside of working hours (I have put a stop to this one).

The previous admin only lasted 8 months before handing in their notice as they felt the pace the manager was setting was too fast, and there was too much to juggle. As a result, I simplified some processes, and automated others to make the workload more manageable and less hectic. I removed a small area of responsibility too so I am confident the job spec is do-able.

I wonder if the admin potentially has some health issues which means she's having to go to the bathroom. She has mentioned some auto-immune/allergy issues, but has not been specific. I am thinking a side-effect of her health issues may be IBS or a more serious digestive issue, but this is me guessing. We are all remote so its difficult to know what people are doing.

I suppose I have 2 questions:
I have no problem with the admin being methodical, but she is taking nearly 3 hours to do a 30-45 minute admin task that I know she can do competently. After 7 weeks I know she has mastered how to do it as I have done some of her training. I need to work out if the admin a) has health issues she is too shy to disclose, or b) is actually this slow, or c) is doing something else with her time.

If during those 3 hours she was in the bathroom for some time then I don't mind, but I do need to know. There are ways to work around her health issues as we are all remote, but I can't put anything in place unless I know. I have a reputation for being kind and understanding (or so I am told). How do I approach this? I do not want to say "it took you 3 hours to do this. what's the problem?" It would come across that I am monitoring her, which is wrong.

The second issue is how I deal with the "difficult" manager. Their manager skills only work with the kind of employee who works like a robot and has perfect attention to detail. I need to speak to this person about how we onboard new people and make sure we are doing everything possible to help them learn their job. The manager has talked about "testing" the new admin (eg setting them up to fail) and won't entertain the idea that there could be another issue. They are convinced this person is doing something else with their time (eg watching TV). They are frustrated and don't have the patience to realise that after 7 weeks, if its not working they need to employ different methods to solve the problem of slowness (a shared things to do list, for example) before we judge or jump to conclusions.

Does the new admin know how long tasks should take to do? Does she have deadlines? So, you could send her some stuff in the morning and ask that it's done by 1pm?

Also, is it a case of too many managers? If you're giving her work and her actual manager is (and how many others?) do you actually know her full workload? Does she already have that complete workload assigned yet and does that mean that she gets to the end of the week without having completed things?

You also need to deal with your crap manager and lay out expectations of her to be supportive. That 'testing' comment is really unacceptable and she'll end up with a grievance again her if she continues like that.

I think as long as she is completing her workload and meeting deadlines it doesn't matter how long it takes her to do an individual piece of work.

If she isn't completing her workload, making lots of mistakes, or missing deadlines then that's when you speak to her.

Sounds awful. What a way to alienate a new person. :(

How often do you have a review with her? You should be meeting regularly to discuss process, expectations, areas that they would like more support in, areas to improve…

her tasks are clear and regular, they are visible to everyone as they come into a shared mailbox. The workload only comes from one place. Its not an admin role with adhoc duties - the steps and tasks are regular. I got involved in the training as sometimes hearing instructions from another voice helps, and I wanted her to know that she can message me with a query any time she needs help if her manager is not available. The initial training can be heavy-going, but there's only a few steps to learn, and a few places to get data, so after 7 weeks it should be routine for her as there are no exceptions.

Is she not getting through everything that comes in then?

We help her prioritise the tasks first thing in the morning. The shared mailbox would have 5 or 6 requests in it by 9am. You need to be in the job a while to recognise what needs to be prioritised. That will come with experience so we jump on a call to explain our reasoning for the prioritisation - it takes 5 mins. She has an opportunity to ask questions. We expect that after a few months she will start to be able to prioritise without much assistance as she will have learned from us. We then agree a plan of the order she needs to process each task. If there are 2 tasks that are urgent, we will explain that, then any tasks of equal importance we say that she can plan her own time around when she likes to take lunch etc. This morning there were 2 urgent tasks that needed to be processed first, each one 15-30 mins max. She didn't get them uploaded until after 12noon. That's 3 hours.

Have you given her the time frame though? Actually say the words 'this should take around 30 mins and if you can then upload straight away and confirm by email that it is done by 10am please. If there are any issues at all, call me'. You need to be really clear what you expect people to do by when in order to know what's happening. If she doesn't upload by 10am, ask her if everything is OK and she needs more training.

She meets with me or her manager or both of us every morning so we can help with queries and prioritisation. we are then available all day. there is the odd pre-arranged short call with another team. she joins so she has exposure to cross-functional areas. sometimes during the day if she asks a question via messenger I ask if she'd prefer a call or for me to reply in writing. I make sure that she has opportunity to speak to me if there's anything wrong. I ask her how things are going. Is she happy with all the different areas of learning, is there anything I can go over where she's unsure after training with her manager

So not really a targeted meeting to discuss progress, next steps, any additional support she might need, more of a daily tasks call? Maybe set up a meeting to focus on progress and areas for improvement, areas she does well.

if its urgent it means it needs to be uploaded ASAP. she knows this. once its uploaded another team need to physically do a load of stuff so she knows the sooner its uploaded, the more progress they can make. From the prioritisation meeting she also knows that I know exactly what she has to do that morning and the rest of the day. I would be micromanaging if I told her "it takes 30 mins." She knows I know how long it takes. The task has clear steps, no exceptions or issues that could cause it to take longer (except for a database system failing). I would never ask her to confirm by email, again that's micro-managing. We all have visibility of the system where it gets uploaded. Its the fact that she doesn't come to me that makes me think what on earth can be wrong. We are a busy team. I believe that the prioritisation meeting is enough to set her up for the day, knowing she can message any time. I do not have the time to micro-manage and check on her. We are all adults and her salary is good for the level of the job so I would expect independent working knowing that her training has gone well as I have seen with my own eyes when she shares her screen.

Could it be that she completed the task and forgot to upload it / had some sort of tech problem?

maybe, but that's why messenger exists so she can message me that the upload has failed. I can support her by trying the upload myself, and then support her raising an IT ticket if necessary. I can explain what other options we have when the upload fails (the system has only ever failed twice in 2.5 years). Lots of people use the system so someone would speak up to say its down.
I need her to come to me with an issue. If I don't know, I can't help. we are adults. When we interviewed her we explained that we are all remote and that we are a very supportive team with a wide range of skills and responsibilities. I said that we need someone pro-active and responsible as this is the best fit in a remote environment. she assured us that's how she works.

Could you meet with her and say now that you're X weeks in, it looks like you know what you're doing and how to do it; now we need to work on speed. This is how long a task takes. Ask what's slowing the process for her.

It is micromanaging if you keep doing it but at the start it is OK to give her a time frame. You could even have sat on the call and screen shared with her so that you could watch her do it. In your morning meeting you could count up how many are in the inbox eg. 6 and then say '6 should take around 3 hours so if you could crack on that would be great'. It's acceptable to reiterate that as it initiates a workflow, please upload each one as they are completed rather than all at the end.

You're kind of letting her keep failing to do it in the time frame you expect but not addressing it directly for fear of being seen as a micromanager.

She's been employed for 7 weeks. Its about time I let her get on with things when I know she knows the steps, and I have seen with my own eyes she can do them.

yes, this is a good way to frame it. thank you.

You could let her get on with things then if she is getting them done. If she isn't, tell her.

I hate to say it, but I have discovered in recent years that people interpret 'asap' very differently - maybe that's the issue, maybe you could be more specific 'this one needs to be in by 10 so this one can be in by 11' etc.

It sounds like you need to sort the manager out really, are you the new admin persons second line manager? I have never known a second line manager be so involved which says to me you have a first line manager problem, they should be looking after the new staff member and looking at all this and reporting back to you.

Have you thought about extra training, 360 degree feedback or a performance plan for the manager? If they’ve already driven one staff member away and you know they aren’t an effective manager… I’d strongly consider it.

Id book a meeting with her direct, without the micro manager, for an informal 'how's it going chat'
Ask open questions - is the workload manageable? How are you finding it? Are you having any problems with it? Do we need to provide training on anything? Are you enjoying it?

It might flush out issues you're not aware of

What management training or self-reading/courses have you done? As it sounds like you're struggling with some basics which is concerning when you're responsible for people.

As an IBS sufferer I work better at home because I'm more comfortable, but I only WFH when my DD is off poorly unfortunately. She's lucky she gets to work at home if she does suffer from IBS as let me tell you an office is the last place you want to be when your in excruciating pain & trying to hide it so it's unlikely to be that. IBS symptoms are calmer at home for some people as stress & environment can be a huge trigger.

I would definitely pull her up on it, & don't feel bad. You expressing your concerns on here prior to raising the issue with her, show you are a compassionate enough manager to broach the topic in a sensitive manner.

She could have just been binge watching Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, you won't know unless you ask. Better to do it now than later on down the line.

I am confused. she has had 7 weeks of screen-sharing, which is how I know she knows what to do.

oh what basics are those?