How much should an employer support a member of staff who clearly cannot cope?

[rambleonplease]

I’m in a relatively new role, started just over 6 months ago. Small team within a large organisation. 10 of us all doing similar role with 2 different bandings. One member of the team just never seems able to cope with anything ( she’s on the higher of the 2 bandings). A very low threshold for stress. So just gets tipped over the edge very easily. Obviously this has a knock on effect that others pick up the slack/ support this person more. But it just seems never ending and when you look closely at this persons work, mainly to try and understand why she is so stressed and offer solutions/ help, I cannot see what she has done all day! Or I see very little compared to extreme version she has of what she’s been asked to do, which is mostly very reasonable.

The member of staff does have family issues which is possibly exacerbating what she can cope with. But the family problems are not problems that are very transient. But also she is not the only one with a lot going on outside work, but others get on with things.

Just how long does an employer give to support this kind of thing until they really tell them they have to get their head down and get on with it? I do know this issue pre dates my arrival in the team. Really only asking as the more clearly I see it, the more it is really starting to piss me off!

It’s annoying when you think other people aren’t pulling their weight, but really you don’t know what’s going on or what private conversations have gone on between them and the manager.

If it’s massively impacting you, then you can raise it as a resource issue with your manager, explaining at times you have too much work on, but other than that it’s not appropriate to comment that someone ‘can’t cope’.

@SunshineAndFizz yes I guess that’s all I could say if I needed to, the impact on me. Tbh it’s she herself who says she doesn’t cope. She’s quite explicit and vocal about it.

I think most people have been in the position you are in. My experience is that it hugely depends on the sector you are in. If in the private sector - then there is a way that they can be coached out - put on a plan: there are internal procedures for managing people who aren’t good at their job. Sadly if you are in the public sector I have seen people that are so lazy and or incompetent and they either keep their job or keep being shuffled in different roles all to the same result.

This isn't really a question anyone can answer here. What support this person deserves depends on exactly what her difficulties are and how/why they are affecting her work as they are. There is no one "size fits all" approach. It's not "well in this circumstance she must be given X amount of support, but if she needs more than X she must leave." The type of work, the difficulties she's having, the cause of those difficulties, how long this is likely to last, and many other factors will affect how much/what support work is legally required to give, how long they must keep her etc.

You have only been in the role for six months.

Unless you are the line manager for this person you need to worry about your own work right now.

You are way too new to risk being seen as a trouble maker.

For all you know that person could have a disability/health condition that is known to their manager and you should not be nosying to that extent about her family issues.

@Greenartywitchi am not planning on being a trouble maker or interfering. I have worked in this sector for 25 years, but yes I am new to this job. I was merely asking here as to how this is managed in others experiences as it can be very draining on all resources. Just looking for other perspectives, that’s all.

@rambleonplease the problem you find quite often is managers with slopey shoulders who don’t want to do what is required.

As a manger I would familiarise myself with HR policies about performance and reasonable adjustments.

I would then talk to HR and anyone in my management chain to make sure they are aligned and will carry through.

Depending where you are in your performance year start with a 1:2:1 with the employee where you ask them

• what they think they are doing well
• where they think the need to improve/find hard
• try to link back to a job description.

Then ask about barriers to improving is it training, is it stress, is it they struggle with planning and organising etc. Also ask about external factors. At this stage you may identify reasonable adjustments.

If appropriate and your employer has one encourage them to use the EPA service.

Your aim should be to get an agreed set of SMART objectives that you review at least monthly and make sure any training and development is provided.

If in 6 months there is no improvement then you need to look at utilising the performance management process to exit them.

One option maybe to downgrade them I.e. if they are over promoted and this is what is causing stress.

If you are not their manager - walk away and just accept it.

HTH

Yanbu, it’s massively annoying. Everyone has things going on outside of work.

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do. Move on if the extra work is constantly falling to you because the other person can’t cope. And be honest at your exit interview