First Timr Manager - Fully Remote

[Anonymous]

I guess I disagree with all the posters above. No, sorry no errands during the day. You have an hour during lunch, but any more than that should be annual leave. Your start and end times are flexible, but while working you need to be continuously working.

I would talk to HR. Mine has been incredibly supportive of PIPs when I needed them. They told me what to say and even were on the call with me. As a manager, your work (or at least a large portion of it) is getting your team to work. If you can't get your employees to work, you are failing at your own job. Being a manager is hard, but hold the line now or else it gets worse quickly. Poor managers who can't manage their employees soon lose the good ones and get stuck with the bad ones who are unable to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I disagree with all the posters above. No, sorry no errands during the day. You have an hour during lunch, but any more than that should be annual leave. Your start and end times are flexible, but while working you need to be continuously working.

I would talk to HR. Mine has been incredibly supportive of PIPs when I needed them. They told me what to say and even were on the call with me. As a manager, your work (or at least a large portion of it) is getting your team to work. If you can't get your employees to work, you are failing at your own job. Being a manager is hard, but hold the line now or else it gets worse quickly. Poor managers who can't manage their employees soon lose the good ones and get stuck with the bad ones who are unable to leave.

This. This board is filled with people who want to promote their cause. On this thread, many of the slacker WFH people have arrived and are giving advice that supports their stance.

OP, it is going to be you who loses your job over this. Not the unavailable WFH people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I disagree with all the posters above. No, sorry no errands during the day. You have an hour during lunch, but any more than that should be annual leave. Your start and end times are flexible, but while working you need to be continuously working.

I would talk to HR. Mine has been incredibly supportive of PIPs when I needed them. They told me what to say and even were on the call with me. As a manager, your work (or at least a large portion of it) is getting your team to work. If you can't get your employees to work, you are failing at your own job. Being a manager is hard, but hold the line now or else it gets worse quickly. Poor managers who can't manage their employees soon lose the good ones and get stuck with the bad ones who are unable to leave.

Micromanaging jerks tend to lose their good employees the fastest. Then they wonder why the people that work for them aren’t productive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I disagree with all the posters above. No, sorry no errands during the day. You have an hour during lunch, but any more than that should be annual leave. Your start and end times are flexible, but while working you need to be continuously working.

.

The above is the correct answer. I'm not a manager but do expect that I should be available to my managers and colleagues at all times during the core hours of a workday - except for a half-hour/45 minute lunch. You know, like we used to do in a traditional office. If I have to be offline, then block off the time as a meeting on the calendar.
And yes, I appreciate when managers set up weekly or biweekly one-on-one/or group check-in meetings with me. It makes me clearer on what projects are priorities and also that the manager isn't forgetting about me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I disagree with all the posters above. No, sorry no errands during the day. You have an hour during lunch, but any more than that should be annual leave. Your start and end times are flexible, but while working you need to be continuously working.

I would talk to HR. Mine has been incredibly supportive of PIPs when I needed them. They told me what to say and even were on the call with me. As a manager, your work (or at least a large portion of it) is getting your team to work. If you can't get your employees to work, you are failing at your own job. Being a manager is hard, but hold the line now or else it gets worse quickly. Poor managers who can't manage their employees soon lose the good ones and get stuck with the bad ones who are unable to leave.

Sure. But focusing on "time in the seat" is less effective management than focusing on the OUTCOME. The job isn't getting done. Focus on that. Part of the job should include responsiveness and set a clear window of timeframes for this employee if you feel they aren't getting it right. It's the first step, before a PIP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You set the expectations. " I need this by x,y and z time. " You also have to be reasonable. Most things should be able to give at least 3 days notice. If something is urgent, make sure it really is urgent. Everything cant be urgent. I had a remote manager who would schedule last minute meetings for things that were not even remotely urgent like an annual performance eval. That really pissed me off. I dont buy your "i didnt want to micromanage" and that you were "permissive", sounds more like you wanted to be laidback and now pissed that your team isnt high performing

No, I wanted to treat my adult employees like the adults they are. But that obviously is not going to work moving forward. This has been a good lesson.

For life safety reasons in our field, sometimes things actually are urgent. I’m aware that not everything is.

[Anonymous]

Tell people to block their calendar with OOO or Focus Time when they won’t be able to respond to chat messages in a timely (15-20 minutes) manner. If Focus Time you can ask them to specify they task they’re working on so you cash discuss it during 1:1s. (I mention focus time because sometimes I have a project that interruptions cause me real problems during so I turn off notifications for the duration… but I also clear this with my manager/team first.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell people to block their calendar with OOO or Focus Time when they won’t be able to respond to chat messages in a timely (15-20 minutes) manner. If Focus Time you can ask them to specify they task they’re working on so you cash discuss it during 1:1s. (I mention focus time because sometimes I have a project that interruptions cause me real problems during so I turn off notifications for the duration… but I also clear this with my manager/team first.)

My org is supportive of this, as long as it's not Focus Time all day. And it's obvious if we're not responding to our customers. I do not ask them to specify, unless they're not delivering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell people to block their calendar with OOO or Focus Time when they won’t be able to respond to chat messages in a timely (15-20 minutes) manner. If Focus Time you can ask them to specify they task they’re working on so you cash discuss it during 1:1s. (I mention focus time because sometimes I have a project that interruptions cause me real problems during so I turn off notifications for the duration… but I also clear this with my manager/team first.)

My org is supportive of this, as long as it's not Focus Time all day. And it's obvious if we're not responding to our customers. I do not ask them to specify, unless they're not delivering.

Yeah my org also doesn’t require us to specify what we’re working on in focus time but I think OP might need to if her non-responder just blocks most of their day as focus time.