September 26, 2008 at 6:43 am
Another interesting article. If you read the whole thing (a little long, 4 pages) , there are a number of useful suggestions.
I agree with those who have brought up things like training. We need to make sure we've covered all the managerial responsibilities before just firing. Do we really understand the job and what it takes to get someone properly trained for it? Are we giving that training to "Eric"?
Next, we need the "3 Ds". Document, Document, document. Eric needs to be told what is expected of him, how he's falling short now, and how he needs to improve. His performance can then be documented. This will cover us should we need to let him go.
Finally, if he's basically doing the job but management thinks he's overpaid, then he doesn't get a raise this year. He doesn't get any raises until he's making what he should be making. If he doesn't like it, he can choose to move on (which saves us the trouble of firing). On the other hand, if it's really that hard to find someone who can do this job, maybe Eric isn't overpaid! I don't know what Eric does but hey, there are lots of managers who still think that we (IT people) all make too much. :w00t: Let's not be too quick to suggest that people are overpaid when we can't figure out how to replace them. Maybe this is another management problem as opposed to an employee problem.
___________________________________________________
“Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”
September 26, 2008 at 6:45 am
I got only two things to say;
Eric = Mangement - FAIL!
Manage does not mean cope!:P
(well maybe I got more than two but these will do).
--Shaun
Hiding under a desk from SSIS Implemenation Work :crazy:
September 26, 2008 at 6:49 am
I've been a manager and had direct reports that are frustrating to manage. When I failed to manage them well, bad things happened. When the direct reports did bad things, bad things happened. I spent more time managing this minority of direct reports than all the others combined.
I understand the frustration. I've been there.
I believe when I failed to manage a difficult direct report well, it was exactly that: I was failing to manage. I'd love to spin it off onto the direct report but that wouldn't be fair to either of us.
It's tough to admit, but it's also true. If I'm managing a team of MVPs I would look like the best manager on the planet. That would be a false assumption, but that's how it would appear to many.
A truly great manager will lead. Leadership means taking a team in disarray or with morale issues and making them into a team of MVPs.
I do not see much leadership in Evelyn - at least not in this case. I see excuses masquerading as reasons. I see personality issues bleeding into employee assessment and worse, employee utilization. All problems - personnel or business or technical - are opportunities in disguise.
:{> Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
September 26, 2008 at 6:51 am
One last thing: Personal Improvement Plans are a poor excuse for an instrument of management, and don't exist in the realm of leadership.
:{> Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
September 26, 2008 at 6:57 am
Andy L: forum edit button Fail 😀
or as your a manager is it management fail? 😉
Totally agree with you about leadership - what is your mechanism for getting an employee or team into shape?
Hiding under a desk from SSIS Implemenation Work :crazy:
September 26, 2008 at 7:00 am
This article describes two people who are fairly competent, or barely competent, at their jobs. Eric and Evelyn. I suspect the entire company is filled with Erics and Evelyns.
September 26, 2008 at 7:06 am
Shaun, it's a two-step process:
1. Gain the confidence of the team. This is easier for some than others. There are natural leaders - you can pick them out of a crowd, people just follow them. You do not have to be a natural leader to manage well. If you stand up for members of your team, lead by example, and do the right thing even when it isn't easy; you can gain the confidence of the team.
2. Go somehwere. Once you have people willing to follow you, lead them somewhere. Have a plan. Pick a goal. Set the agenda. Leave enough bandwidth to manage the day-to-day stuff and enough for "incidentals". Be agile.
In addition, a leader should make decisions and be willing to pitch in with the dirty part of the job when necessary.
This isn't everything, but it's a good start.
Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
September 26, 2008 at 7:08 am
I agree with majorbloodnock, rmechaber, and all the others who I forgot to note that mentioned that the issue is with Evelyn, not Eric. She didn't want to effectively manage him and place boundaries and guidelines because she felt 'trapped' into hiring him. That part is hardly his fault, in fact I hope I trap my future employers into hiring me at the high end of the pay range every time.
Now, after the hiring process, Eric has a responsibility to act like a reasonable employee. Waltzing in at 11am is inexcusable, but if nobody told him that from the start, they're going to have to deal with it when it becomes a problem. If you have to deal with it after the fact, then you have to set expectations, measure those expectations and document any deficiencies.
When Eric asked his multiple managers what he needed to do to get that promotion in six months, every single chicken-$hit one of them should have told him, and not pouted about it on the phone to Evelyn after schmoozing him out of their office.
If he's too hard to deal with, can him, do what's best for the department, but don't blame the guy for the lousy leadership he's been living with.
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
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"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
September 26, 2008 at 7:10 am
First of all, Evelyn hired Eric because she knew him and it was a big mistake. Second not only Eric was not capable to do his work, he had a bad attitude. He thought he should get promoted even he had not done anything to prove himself.
Evelyn was his boss and she did not warn him about his work attitude and his work performance and that was her problem too.
Yes maybe they both should be fired.
Unfortunately I saw too many 'Eric' in my career life especially in big corporation. Some kept working because they knew some big shots in the company.
September 26, 2008 at 7:19 am
OMG! What a perfect article for me. I don't know the answer to this one, I am living it right now. I am the manager of 1 in an IT department of 2. I totally need to know how to do this I do not want to be Evelyn, which I think I am kind of being right now. I, did have a tough performance review with my staff last year and did layout expectations. I must admit he is better but not what it could be. My big fault is I do not have quarterly or monthly or weekly reviews to make sure the expectations are met. I have identified that this person is not a self motivator and needs to be micro managed. But..... I am not that type of person. I have my own work to do and it is a real strain on me to have to watch and check and tell my staff what to do.
Geez, I sound pathetic. What I need is a website, blog, or forum where I can get advice when I do have the motivation to confront this performance. If you have any please tell me.
There is a big difference between my staff and Eric. My staff wasn't always like this. We had a 3rd member for a few years and I think he slacked off and never got back on the track. Then his marriage ended. And now he has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a thyroid condition, has massive pain in his legs and feet, massive abdominal pain (not sure if its is heart or gall bladder), and hasn't slept in about 2 months when all of this pain started. I suspect he has been very sick for the past 3 years which would totally explain is poor performance.
I think my solution because of these medical conditions would be that improvement plan. First task would be to manage his work and help him heal. Then rebuild to get him back up to the levels he needs to be to be a part of the team again.
September 26, 2008 at 7:23 am
I have to agree with the general sentiment here, that the managers, starting with Evelyn, completely failed to manage Eric, and avoided the one thing that could have made a difference: RESPONSIBILITY.
All of his managers HAD a responsibility to both Eric AND the company to do the right thing and EXPECT Eric to meet certain criteria:
1.) Job Performance
2.) Appropriate at-work attitude
When Eric failed to meet those criteria, no one took responsibility to clearly outline the problem and then set clear expectations on how and when Eric would subsequently MEET those expectations, nor did they specify any consequences for continuing to FAIL to meet them.
I'd fire Evelyn first, and then perhaps all the subsequent managers if they can't or won't change their management techniques to avoid this kind of problem in the future. In Evelyn's case, it could already be easily documented that her failure was grossly negligent, and quite likely to be an intentional violation of company policy. For the remaining managers, there's too little detail in the story to tell exactly what they did or didn't do.
Ultimately, Eric quite likely would need to be let go, as it seems unlikely he would be able to meet the expectations that for so long were ignored. However, it's also likely that there would no alternative but to make the things happen that never happened, and spell out to Eric exactly where he stands, how shaky that position is, and exactly what (and in excruciating detail) he needs to do to keep his job.
Flattering him to death is nothing more than further deception/dishonesty, that in the long run, isn't going to benefit anyone.
Steve
(aka smunson)
:):):)
Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)
September 26, 2008 at 7:26 am
Honestly I see that all the managers, including Evelyn are at fault as much as Eric. Consider for a second that it is the job of the managers to ensure that employees are meeting their expectations and if not work with them to get to the place where they can or to get rid of them. Working with them will always include performance assessment, feedback and improvment plans if necessary. Goals are critical or a person can not know what is expected of them and when they meet them they should be rewarded and when they don't they should be penalized or corrected.
In handling things the way that Evelyn did and the other managers they have cost the company money that they clearly couldn't afford else they wouldn't be having layoffs. Sadly this is a very common occurrence in the corporate world today and it is due to both parties and has made many corporations bloated carrying dead weight.
So, the question shouldn't be what I would do with Eric, but what I would do with all of them. ?.?.?
Thinking about it maybe I should take them all out for a pork chop dinner "Moden style" (Sorry Jeff I really liked that thought on an earlier post you had. 🙂 ).
David
@SQLTentmaker“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot
September 26, 2008 at 7:29 am
Tracy Wentzler (9/26/2008)
OMG! What a perfect article for me. I don't know the answer to this one, I am living it right now. I am the manager of 1 in an IT department of 2. I totally need to know how to do this I do not want to be Evelyn, which I think I am kind of being right now. I, did have a tough performance review with my staff last year and did layout expectations. I must admit he is better but not what it could be. My big fault is I do not have quarterly or monthly or weekly reviews to make sure the expectations are met. I have identified that this person is not a self motivator and needs to be micro managed. But..... I am not that type of person. I have my own work to do and it is a real strain on me to have to watch and check and tell my staff what to do.Geez, I sound pathetic. What I need is a website, blog, or forum where I can get advice when I do have the motivation to confront this performance. If you have any please tell me.
There is a big difference between my staff and Eric. My staff wasn't always like this. We had a 3rd member for a few years and I think he slacked off and never got back on the track. Then his marriage ended. And now he has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a thyroid condition, has massive pain in his legs and feet, massive abdominal pain (not sure if its is heart or gall bladder), and hasn't slept in about 2 months when all of this pain started. I suspect he has been very sick for the past 3 years which would totally explain is poor performance.
I think my solution because of these medical conditions would be that improvement plan. First task would be to manage his work and help him heal. Then rebuild to get him back up to the levels he needs to be to be a part of the team again.
Tracey - There is nothing wrong (in fact you might gain greater rapport) by saying that you should have met with him before this time, that you realize that things have changed since the last time you met and that you both need to work together to improve the performance between you. Take the time, no, rephrase, MAKE the time to meet with him regularly, at least quarterly if you're having issues, I would suggest monthly, and get him back on track. The investment in him will free up your time fixing issues and reduce the stress you feel in dealing with him.
For what it's worth, most staff just wants to know that their manager is aware of what they're doing and that they are a valuable member of the team, if you can tell him how you know he's capable and you trust his decisions (once you do, of course) then he'll probably step up and become what you know he can be. Or, you'll at least have been meeting regularly and documenting expectations versus actual, and have reason to take the next step.
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
September 26, 2008 at 7:32 am
Tracy, jcrawf02's advice looks good. And if you have an HR department, get their advice. Fitness and capability can be a legal minefield as well a row of bear-traps as you try to make a balanced consideration of transient or treatable medical conditions against longer-term changes to a person's fitness to do their job, whether different/shorter hours might help etc. One rule of thumb is to stick to performance required and encourage the individual to address and sort out the other issues themselves, but there are good and bad ways of doing this.
September 26, 2008 at 7:57 am
I just went throug a similar situation except mine was a new employee I hired rather than an inheritance.
I hired my second choice because I couldn't afford my first choice. The new hire failed to live up to their resume. I found them spending time goofing off which usually means a lack of work but I couldn't hand over new work because their current work was shoddy. I counseled on the wasting company time and sent them to training. The came the medical and personal problems which used up all of the vacation time and sick time allotted as well as unpaid absences. Again I counseled with the understanding that "If you can miss this much time and goof off while you are here then maybe I don't need the position." I ended up with a layoff.
I believe in giving people chances to improve themselves and you have to spell out the issues so they can improve them. I will invest in them if they show an effort to improve but at some point you have to cut your losses. I hate the idea of promoting people one level above their ability as I have seen companies go under because of that practice.
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