Employee Performance Issues
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Anonymous
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I am a new supervisor. I came from a different office in my agency to manage a team. In my current office, my position was vacant for several years. Our job is very customer service focused, requires great attention to detail and timely response to requests and budget actions. I gave my new team an assignment and several of the team members were successful in completing the task. However, from this assignment at least half the team has issues with written communication. I'm talking not responding to meeting requests, not being able to write a simple email and answer a question from another office or the public, not being able to provide clear, concise instructions. Their schedules involve a lot of telework, but the majority have not bothered to make sure they are set up to work from home. I am really not sure what a few people are doing. I'm at a loss what to do, as these folks received good performance reviews in the past. But their work is sloppy or hasn't been done. This is not the job for slackers or those who are procrastinators. I need advice.
There are two team members that have performance issues. It impacts the team, in that the high performers get the work of the poor performers dumped on them. To me, that is unacceptable, but I understand the work needs to be done. However it sends the wrong message and I would like to address it. What would you do in these two scenarios? One, Sally, is a very nice woman, but simply does not follow up. She tries to do her job, but does not complete tasks. Like I said, our job is time sensitive. Sally also takes leave often for appointments and errands. It is getting to be an issue. She leaves pending tasks or incomplete work, and I don't think she has the basic knowledge of policy to do our job well. I feel like with some training, she could be an okay employee, but it is very time consuming. She has not met the due date, but seems open to feedback and training. However, she won't show up to meetings (she is sitting at her desk) or seems to be in la-la land when I ask her the status of her memos or other deliverables. She also defers to high performers and seems to farm out her work to them. Bob, the other poor performer, simply did not complete the assignment. They had several weeks to do the work and I'm not sure what he was doing all day during that time. Our job is very independent, meaning you could work from home or at your desk all day without any calls or meetings. Bob is a fun guy who is well liked by leadership. He goes to lunch every day with the top leaders in our team. I'm feeling really uneasy about his performance review as he has little to show as far as accomplishments. I don't often go to his desk, but when I do, he is reading the newspaper or surfing the internet. Often he is MIA. He won't show up to our scheduled one on ones or meetings. He forgets about deadlines. He plays loud music all day. When I asked him to be mindful and consider using headphones, the other team members seemed to think I was the one in the wrong. Other employees and managers have mentioned to me his music being an issue, but now I look like the bad guy. What would you do in my situation? I tried to give everyone some slack since I'm the new person on board, but ultimately I'm responsible for this work and it isn't going to get done with these two. It is also not fair for the rest of the team to have to do another person's job in addition to their own. I also feel like it is borderline fraudulent and time and attendance fraud if you are getting a paycheck but not doing any work. |
Anonymous
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First you need to document. You specifically sound like you need to get into writing infront of all team members the important of customer service and what the expectations are around it; you also need to document that telework is a privilege and that there are expectations around it. I would draft something, get cover and sign off from your boss and HR, and send out the expectation to everyone.
Next you need to look at specific instances where people are not meeting the expectation. Yes, this is timeconsuming. Yes, it is a terrible mistake not to invest the time on it. Yes, it was a mistake "to cut everyone some slack" because now your work will be even harder. That said, just do it. The longer the situations continue, the even more timeconsuming extricating them will be. These situations need to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Start with the people whose inferior performance is affecting the most people in the group. Only do as many as you have time to invest in doing right at one time. Some employees genuinely appreciate feedback and will be chagrined and eager to mend their ways. In my experience, this is the minority of employees, but you won't necessarily be able to predict ahead which are in this category, so be clear and charitable: give every employee the chance to be this person, the one who didn't know it was wrong but is eager to get onto a path. Some employees will be genuinely surprised to hear they are not doing a good job and they will not have the skills to improve. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try to break through, but to involve your direct supervisor promptly in what the options here are. This also in my experience is a minority of employees, although based on OP's concern, may be a larger number for the team in question. Some employees genuinely do not want their poor performance noted, and will be hostile, passive agressive, or rude. Immediately involve your direct supervisor. In my experience, this is a surprisingly large number of employees whose first reaction is anger or something ruder. That said, be polite, firm, and clear. All of this will eventually go your way. By starting with the most visible offenders, that will also signal to people in group A (unaware but willing to change) the sea-change, and some of them will get on board very quickly. Be patient. Be consistent. Be kind. It's just a situation that evolved slowly and now will need to be walked backward. |
Anonymous
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So do you send an email and request a meeting and talk to the employee one on one? The issue is that their performance was not being addressed in some time as their supervisor position was vacant.
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Anonymous
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I suspect the two people you mentioned have got away with so much stuff in recent years, that they feel they can do anything they want.
Also, not sure if they can work from home, but you mention teleworking happens often. |
Anonymous
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Yes, they can work from home but that might change if they are not doing their work. It is a privilege not a right.
I agree. They have gotten away with basically not working. |
Anonymous
Ditto. When people aren't called on something for a long time, they consider it a right, not a privilege. |
Anonymous
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There are many workers who suck at their job yet continue to get good performance appraisals and I just sit and shake my head.
Must be nice getting paid to not really work for the last 30 years. Wish I could help OP but I'm just as lost as you. |
Anonymous
So you need to help her follow tasks through to completion, by defining that expectation and then offering her tools to do this: can you send her for training to use Outlook to help her organize follow up? Give her praise for completing follow up. Do not reassign follow ups but instead hold her accountable for completing tasks. quote=Anonymous]Bob, the other poor performer, simply did not complete the assignment. They had several weeks to do the work and I'm not sure what he was doing all day during that time. Our job is very independent, meaning you could work from home or at your desk all day without any calls or meetings. Bob is a fun guy who is well liked by leadership. He goes to lunch every day with the top leaders in our team. I'm feeling really uneasy about his performance review as he has little to show as far as accomplishments. I don't often go to his desk, but when I do, he is reading the newspaper or surfing the internet. Often he is MIA. He won't show up to our scheduled one on ones or meetings. He forgets about deadlines. He plays loud music all day. When I asked him to be mindful and consider using headphones, the other team members seemed to think I was the one in the wrong. Other employees and managers have mentioned to me his music being an issue, but now I look like the bad guy. This is a very sensitive situation. You need to test the waters with your boss about concerns and impacts of his performance on the team. If they do not want to rock the boat by addressing this, do not press, as you will not have the back up you need. |
Anonymous
| What's wrong with firing poor performers? I'm just not understanding especially when the high performers are going to continue to quit because of these people. |
Anonymous
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I have always been a high performer who gets dumped on by poor performers. They use file names like Marty McFly. I know they make fun of me because I do their work. I have more education, more experience, and make more money. Some of their tasks are so easy, it is just copy and paste. I would rather take the five minutes to copy and paste then deal with their passive aggressive behavior.
I have been fortunate enough to work on a team of high performers, where everyone pulls their own weight and it is bliss! I now know it is not the norm. I work in a field I trained for and invested in my own education. Some people just don't want to be at work. |
Anonymous
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OP - Thank you, thank you, thank you for being willing to address these issues. PPs have provided some great advice. I expect it will be a long road, but truly, your efforts mean a lot to those of us who work hard and witness this type of nonsense. You are a supervisor and I am so pleased to hear that you are trying to do just that- supervisor. Sounds silly to write, but the problem is widespread.
--hard worker (on day off) |
Anonymous
| If Bob's a buddy to the higher ups, make sure everything is documented well, otherwise you will be feeling the heat yourself. |
Anonymous
| I mean, I'm speechless as both an employee in the private sector and a taxpayer. I can't imagine someone not showing up for a ,eating just because it's at lunch time. |
Anonymous
I had one employee like that, she was a former SES in the government who was demoted to a 15 and was so toxic that she was shuffled around to 8 different supervisors before she came to me. I knew of her reputation well - she avoided work, was hostile at times and passive-aggressive most times, and did sub par work (when she actually did work). And she mainly teleworked ("disability accommodation"). What fueled me was not as a power play by being her boss, but as a taxpayer witnessing the flagrant and egregious waste of dollars spent on a Federal employee who willfully skirted off the backs of taxpayers for doing no or sub park work. She wouldn't respond to emails, wouldn't show up for meetings, just amazing. 30 days into supervising her I wrote her up for AWOL. 2 months later I suspended her without pay for not following my instructions. At performance eval time, she was placed on a PIP for unacceptable performance. I was also building a case for a much longer suspension without pay due to continued AWOL and failure to follow instructions. She failed her PIP miserably and was fired from the government 30 days later. Take a course on handling employee performance and conduct. Make sure responsibilities are clear and in writing. Document. Make sure your concerns are documented to the employees. Hold people accountable immediately, and don't be afraid of conflict management (take a course on it). Be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, now that you are a supervisor. Keep your leadership apprised. Get to know your Employee Relations POC. Don't be afraid to put someone on a PIP. People noticed - right away - that I wasn't afraid of expecting accountability and holding people to that accordingly. When the "untouchable" employee was fired, people noticed that, too. As my team chiefs saw what I was doing, they were empowered to do the same of and with their subordinates. Our organizational culture now is much more professional - and productive - as a result. Mi appreciate that, and so do they. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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