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.

I am not a manager but I am admin staff and I can tell you micromanaging is crushing and it may be having an effect on her motivation and confidence, though micromanaging is not always as obvious in the beginning as training obviously requires a lot of input. I think you would be right to address this further with your micromanager.

In terms of the new starter’s performance, you do need to start with the basics. I don’t think you are in a good position to start making it known you are monitoring timings etc until a clear deadline has been set. So start doing that, explain the rationale so it doesn’t feel targeted and arbitrary (even if in your opinion she should already be aware), and then follow up with a line about is this okay, and support needs to identify.

If you put the cart before the horse by immediately talking about her monitored task time, it will likely come across as heavy handed.

Sorry I see the person has left.

Dont underestimate how poor people management from your micromanager can affect staff turnover.

OP, it was clear from reading your posts that the new recruit was just not up to the job, and parting ways is the right solution. It's easier that she has realised this herself, but had she not, the right thing to do would have been to let her go.

Re the health issues, I'm not sure why her opening up would have been helpful, her taking x6 times longer to do a task means she is not meeting the business's needs and not able to do the job. I would not suggest accommodating this level of slowness. You knowing that it's a bowel issue wouldn't have made the bowel issue have gone away, and you should not have gone forward with someone who can't do the job, including for health reasons.

Your microwave analogy was brilliant, by the way!

Is there a way that any of the consequences of her missing steps could be made to inconvenience the admin herself? Often I find if people have to clear up their own mess they're less likely to do it again.

It's good for all parties that she has chosen to move on.

Make sure your micromanager now has the inconvenience of recruiting another member of staff but you will need to continue to closely supervise her as its questionable if her methods are what are needed at all in 2024.

I also loved the microwave analogy