How to *nicely* reprimand an employee...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But this woman is an attorney. She should be capable of determining her work hours. She's not an emergency room physician. She's not a teacher. She's not making widgets. She's an attorney.

This is a person who Flexiglide was designed for. She comes in sometime between 7 and 9:30 a.m. She works eight hours. She leaves. And guess what? She's MORE productive. It's just that crazy, people. But it works. When you let people come in at 8 one day, 8:30 the next, 9:15 the next day, they are actually MORE efficient, not less efficient, because, ya know, it's their life. It's their work. They can go to the doctor in the morning, pick up their dry cleaning, whatever, they don't have to sweat these details. They are not 4th graders. They can deal with it. And you don't have to spend half your day on administrivia like who is thirty minutes late.

I've worked for two federal agencies. One had flexiglide, one didn't. The agency with flexiglide was about fifty times more efficient, and the managers had a lot more time to deal with WORK. Work, yeah, work. Not petty administrative bullshit like who is ten minutes late.

The person in question is not an attorney. She is a legal assistant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But this woman is an attorney. She should be capable of determining her work hours. She's not an emergency room physician. She's not a teacher. She's not making widgets. She's an attorney.

This is a person who Flexiglide was designed for. She comes in sometime between 7 and 9:30 a.m. She works eight hours. She leaves. And guess what? She's MORE productive. It's just that crazy, people. But it works. When you let people come in at 8 one day, 8:30 the next, 9:15 the next day, they are actually MORE efficient, not less efficient, because, ya know, it's their life. It's their work. They can go to the doctor in the morning, pick up their dry cleaning, whatever, they don't have to sweat these details. They are not 4th graders. They can deal with it. And you don't have to spend half your day on administrivia like who is thirty minutes late.

I've worked for two federal agencies. One had flexiglide, one didn't. The agency with flexiglide was about fifty times more efficient, and the managers had a lot more time to deal with WORK. Work, yeah, work. Not petty administrative bullshit like who is ten minutes late.

The person in question is not an attorney. She is a legal assistant.

Oh well that's a huuuuuuuuuuuge difference then.

[Anonymous]

I suggest emailing all subordinates that this is a busy time for the office, strict time schedules are required until further notice.Late arrival and early departure will not be tolerated due to time constraints. Leave and other time off will not be approved unless it was approved prior to the announcement.

End it by stating when things will resume normal pace - expected to last 6 weeks, 3 months, etc...

[Anonymous]

" End it by stating when things will resume normal pace - expected to last 6 weeks, 3 months, etc... "

No - that gives the slackers permission to screw up again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But this woman is an attorney. She should be capable of determining her work hours. She's not an emergency room physician. She's not a teacher. She's not making widgets. She's an attorney.

This is a person who Flexiglide was designed for. She comes in sometime between 7 and 9:30 a.m. She works eight hours. She leaves. And guess what? She's MORE productive. It's just that crazy, people. But it works. When you let people come in at 8 one day, 8:30 the next, 9:15 the next day, they are actually MORE efficient, not less efficient, because, ya know, it's their life. It's their work. They can go to the doctor in the morning, pick up their dry cleaning, whatever, they don't have to sweat these details. They are not 4th graders. They can deal with it. And you don't have to spend half your day on administrivia like who is thirty minutes late.

I've worked for two federal agencies. One had flexiglide, one didn't. The agency with flexiglide was about fifty times more efficient, and the managers had a lot more time to deal with WORK. Work, yeah, work. Not petty administrative bullshit like who is ten minutes late.

The person in question is not an attorney. She is a legal assistant.

Oh well that's a huuuuuuuuuuuge difference then.

Why? Are legal assistants less grown up than attorneys?

[Anonymous]

They are given less leeway than attorneys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:" End it by stating when things will resume normal pace - expected to last 6 weeks, 3 months, etc... "

No - that gives the slackers permission to screw up again.

It gives you time to find a new office.

Signed,

A slacker

[Anonymous]

If you have to go to a forum to figure out how to manage your employee you have bigger issues. Are you incompetent? You have no business managing people if you can't figure this out on your own. Oh, and don't complain that your employee is late when you are surfing the internet during business hours.

[Anonymous]

Send an email to all 10 of your subordinates reminding them that need to arrive on time.

Don't follow this advice! Can we say passive aggressive? All this will do is get your employees talking about who has been arriving late so as to have brought on such an email. Really annoying. Have some balls and talk to the employee about the issue.

From someone who's worked for a person who sent emails like this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The responses are all rather fascinating to me. In my office (and most of the industry, frankly), the conversation would go something like this: "Susan. Please stop showing up late. The hours are 7:00 to 3:00, be on time."

It's not very touchy-feely here, largely because it is completely male dominated. I think that anytime you have more women, it creates a gentler environment. (And most of the men are former military, too.)

This cracked me up. i do think the message has to be pitched to the audience. The former military person might prefer the straight to the point. If I were already stressed out about a situation and got the straight to the point message, my thought would be maybe I need to be looking for a new job. You have basically said, your choice is to get here at 7:00 or don't come back. Now legitimately, you may need me there at that time and you are obviously within your rights, but if I have other responsibilities that won't fit with that, it's clear I need to find something else. if the firm is already overburdened, having the person quit (who from what i cam tell is otherwise a good employee) because they figure they are already on the way out with a stern reprimand or feel backed into making a choice because there is no room for flexibility, won't help the OP. I think you can be firm in a nice way.