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 wrote: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.

Ditto. When people aren't called on something for a long time, they consider it a right, not a privilege.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.