Made a terrible hire, trying to keep my team together.

[Anonymous]

Monthly check-ins? So you’ve only checked in with her 6 times even though she’s been having performance issues? You’re right - this is in you. I report to the CEO of my company and even we have weekly check-ins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a chance of layoffs where she will go as last in?

OP here. We are doing budgets for next year and have been asked to reduce $. I included her at the ‘large cut without extreme company risk’. No way it gets to that extreme but I have let my leadership know I’m willing to reduce headcount.

Great,
I hope she doesn’t pitch a fit about it!

[Anonymous]

There was one red flag with her from the beginning and others were trying to tell you without saying it but they didn’t succeed
When they suggested another round they really meant don’t go with this candidate we smell a dud
That’s my take

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have put zero effort into mentoring her. This is going to be on you, boss.

Someone who is credentialed and in their 40s should have it figured out alone. Some people are just duds and it sound like OP found a dud

No one is a dud. But it doesn’t sound like she is a good fit for OP’s team/company. I’m sure the person feels the same, but it’s not easy to quit and find a new job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was one red flag with her from the beginning and others were trying to tell you without saying it but they didn’t succeed
When they suggested another round they really meant don’t go with this candidate we smell a dud
That’s my take

This. OP, listen to your team!
This all happened to me except i was the existing colleague who was already doing the work. The new hire was my boss. What kept me hanging in there, at the end - Boss’ boss flat out admitted to me that they knew Boss wasn't working out. Boss was eventually (I think) PIP’ed and then moved to a different role where they had limited ability to cause any problems. Like going from head chef to ubereats driver. It bought them time to leave on their own terms.

[Anonymous]

Layoff, pay up and move on.
You don’t need to disclose a reason, just say budget cuts or change of direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This one’s 100% on me. We had funding for an additional position finally be approved about 3-4 years of ‘no not right now’ and pulled the trigger on a candidate who was incredible on paper (great education, great work experience, interviewed well) and was a diversity hire(simply a bonus, based off interviews she 100% was the best candidate). My team said ‘wait it out and let’s do another batch of interviews’. Last we did that, funding was pulled.

She has now been in role for about 6 months and is no better off than she was a month in. I’m constantly reminding her of her scope of work, to stop focusing on things that aren’t hers, and our monthly check ins don’t seem to be working. She refuses to assimilate to company culture (coming in for team meetings/executive engagement), & takes plenty of personal time during the day. It’s all around a bad hire.

My two other employees have been at the company for 7+ years, they are at wits end with her. Not only is she bad at her job, she approves things from our budget without reason & is condescending to the other people in the office. I’m not even sure how to handle this, completely over my head. This lady is in her 40’s so has been around the professional world for a while but she seems to function more like someone fresh out of college.

Do I push her out? Do we PIP her? I’m afraid if she isn’t removed, I’ll lose two other people on my team who are great. Anyone dealt with this before?

Good luck. She has great experience as she jumps around. Just fire her. Skip the PIP.

[Anonymous]

I think you’ve got to micromanage her. Definitely weekly check-ins, ideally daily (just 15 mins). Status updates on everything, copy you on communications related to most significant projects, etc. Maybe it will improve her work product, maybe it will inspire her to start looking elsewhere, or maybe it will have no immediate effect. But it should be good for the other employees’ morale. They’ll see you’re doing **something,** and you’re handling the messes rather than them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you’ve got to micromanage her. Definitely weekly check-ins, ideally daily (just 15 mins). Status updates on everything, copy you on communications related to most significant projects, etc. Maybe it will improve her work product, maybe it will inspire her to start looking elsewhere, or maybe it will have no immediate effect. But it should be good for the other employees’ morale. They’ll see you’re doing **something,** and you’re handling the messes rather than them.

+1. Hopefully she hates being micromanaged and will start looking for a new job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you’ve got to micromanage her. Definitely weekly check-ins, ideally daily (just 15 mins). Status updates on everything, copy you on communications related to most significant projects, etc. Maybe it will improve her work product, maybe it will inspire her to start looking elsewhere, or maybe it will have no immediate effect. But it should be good for the other employees’ morale. They’ll see you’re doing **something,** and you’re handling the messes rather than them.

+1. Hopefully she hates being micromanaged and will start looking for a new job.

This. I’m a lot like her (though people don’t poorly review me and seem to like my work). I expect extreme flexibility because I’m taking a lower position than I’m qualified for because I’m mommy tracking. That being said, I’m responsive and I also am nice to everyone. I certainly don’t ever punch down.

Your girl will hate micromanagement. Make her do the work while you watch her as she shares her screen at least a few hours a day, ideally first thing in the morning and last thing of the workday. Start calling her for fire drills at all times.

She’ll quit soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you’ve got to micromanage her. Definitely weekly check-ins, ideally daily (just 15 mins). Status updates on everything, copy you on communications related to most significant projects, etc. Maybe it will improve her work product, maybe it will inspire her to start looking elsewhere, or maybe it will have no immediate effect. But it should be good for the other employees’ morale. They’ll see you’re doing **something,** and you’re handling the messes rather than them.

+1. Hopefully she hates being micromanaged and will start looking for a new job.

Also, this has the added benefit of giving you stuff to write on the PIP. "#5) Focus on your own tasks and do not be distracted by others' projects." Then when she does it, you can file that away as violation of #5. When you go to HR, you will already have your case made for you by her own hands. Documenting is an extremely time consuming part of putting someone on a PIP. I had someone who was not meeting deadlines (and I mean like 3 weeks late), and I had to go back through my emails to find all the missed deadlines, reminders, failures to communicate, etc. Do it now from the start with the PIP in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you have put zero effort into mentoring her. This is going to be on you, boss.

Someone who is credentialed and in their 40s should have it figured out alone. Some people are just duds and it sound like OP found a dud

No one is a dud. But it doesn’t sound like she is a good fit for OP’s team/company. I’m sure the person feels the same, but it’s not easy to quit and find a new job.

That’s sweet. Also, it’s wrong. There are definitely people who are a dud at work. If you haven’t worked with any, that’s your own luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you’ve got to micromanage her. Definitely weekly check-ins, ideally daily (just 15 mins). Status updates on everything, copy you on communications related to most significant projects, etc. Maybe it will improve her work product, maybe it will inspire her to start looking elsewhere, or maybe it will have no immediate effect. But it should be good for the other employees’ morale. They’ll see you’re doing **something,** and you’re handling the messes rather than them.

+1. Hopefully she hates being micromanaged and will start looking for a new job.

I wouldn't even call it micromanaging. She is causing problems with her current work practices.
I might even schedule some regular group meetings so that others can see that you are checking in. Yes, it's time-consuming, but less so than the alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Do you have well written performance standards? Detail how she's not meeting them. Step 1 is to have a meeting about all the issues you're having with her performance and document it.

Sounds like she needs weekly meetings (not monthly!), nonstop mentoring. You need stop gaps if she's approving budget items that shouldn't be approved. Why didn't you tell her no the first time?!

"Constantly reminding her"- what does this mean? Maybe she needs bullet points in an email. You are wishy washy and she's ignoring you way too easily.

I've taken great managerial trainings on things like this, you need more training.

[Anonymous]

How is she bad at her job specifically? Exactly what is she bad at? What duties or task is she bad at?

Everyone should be justifying why they need funds from the budget not just this employee. There should be an approval process when it comes to spending any money from the budget if it was not in the budget for the fiscal year