Employee problems

[mikeydidit]

I have a situation that has occurred several times within the last few days that I need some advised on.

Let me begin with the project that we have been working on has been a nightmare. I truly don’t believe that I have been involved with a project of this size that no one wanted to do anything on, but all wanted it done by this due date. The bulk was placed on us.

During this, I had to call on one of my senior techs (and several others) to help. For the most part this tech is as good of an employee as anyone could ask for. He is at work about an hour early everyday, does what needs to be done with very little supervision, and does excellent work.

As you can imagine from my above statement about this project, we not only had a lot to do, but several things that just had to be done at the last minute. I called my tech and told him that I hated to pull him off the project that he was on, but I had to get this done. His response was that he was busy. I again told him that I knew he was, but I really needed him to help with this. He reluctantly showed up and did the normal excellent job that he does.

Several days later, the same type situation and again I got the same type of response and had to go through the same thing to get him to help. At this point I haven’t said anything; as I like to think things through instead of just react. I feel that if this happens again I will have no choice but to reprimand him for insubordination.

I try to be as good to my people as they let me. I feel that I have done a lot for all of my employees and do my best to be a good boss, which is why this is probably eating at me so badly.

How would you handle this? I realize that I am probably a lot better tech than a supervisor, because I really don’t know what to do.

Thank you for your time and replies.


"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[avlis35]

Mikey,

I'm in a similar situation of a tech beoming a supervisor over the other techs. Being in similar situations as you have described, the best advice is to reel in the techs and remind them of the pecking order. Don't interpret this as always being a reprimand. Sometimes you may have to turn a request into an order based on your decisions. However, the consequences of those decisions would fall on you, and not the staff, as the management of the resources beneath you is your responisbility. It sounds as if this staff memeber is assuming that responsibility and not respecting your auhtority. Don't ignore this - it will just continue to grow. Your employees will respect you more when you acknowledge the situation and attempt to address it, rather than ignore it.

 

[aixnag]

mikey,

I believe,its all about his attitude problem; this is quite serious,this genarally comes with being very comfortable for number of years in the same position,knowing that he's valuable, strong feeling of irreplaceble.

My point is 'no matter how busy he is in daily normal stuff, there is always better way of communicating his positon with their boss', perhaps he would have negotiated with boss about the work in hand and work being allocated in addition to that. Am sure bosses will help in these situations.

You find/share the info,
a. how many years he is working on the same position?
b. Ask him, whether he is looking for change in job role?
c. find out How comfortably he shares technical experience with others.

Based on the above information, you can choose on of the below strategy.
1. Let him know your expection in clear statements.
or
2. Try and put a resource to shadow his daily work.





aixnag
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[SQLSister]

If you ignore this the attitude willl only get more pronounced and harder to fix. It will eventually turn to open defiance.

Bring him in and tell him that it is acceptable to tell the boss what task you are doing when asked to do a high prioroity task so that the boss can evaluate prioroites. But he is not to decide priorities when you have have made that decision. And in no case is "I'm busy' acceptable as an answer with no further explanantion. Remind him that if he does not follow this diecrtion that further action may be required and that his performance evlauation may be affected or he may receive a formal written reprimand. Then follow up with the written reprimand if he contnues to show a bad attitude. Your job as the boss is to be the bad guy when necessary and allowing this to continue is the single worst action you can take.

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[mikeydidit]

Thanks again for your advice on this. He has been with me for about 5 years now and does a good job for us here. This employee had problems with another department that he worked in here and transferred to telecomm.

It seems like this guy's personality is like a roller coaster ride. One minute he is happy running around doing what he does and the next minute or hour is like his best friend just died. Regardless of his mindset, he does what he needs to. I don't have to assign him work. He finds what needs to be done and gets it done. That’s pretty much all any boss could ask of their employee. I think the days that I had the problems were one of the "best friend just died days."

I did make him (after trying to just ask for help) do what I needed to be done. I didn't go to the "I am the boss, do this", but I did let him know that what I needed of him "I" considered more important that what he was doing and it needed to be done now.
He did at that point come down and do what I asked.

It really bothered I guess that someone I do so much for made me basically order him to do something. It also bothered me that this could get to a point where I would have to start documentation on him, and I didn't want it to go there. I try hard to let my people know that they are appreciated and do all that I can for them. He got a nice raise by transferring to my department. I took him knowing he was not happy where he was and he and his boss also had problems. I have also promoted him to a higher position since that time and he now makes more money than any of my employees, including one that has been here longer than him.

According to what he tells his friends in the other department, he is very happy here with us and would never go back. He also tells them that I am a good boss and I am good to him. I do here that he doesn't think he is appreciated like he should be, but there is never a time that he does anything for me that I do not make an effect to thank him, or brag on him to my boss and other department heads.

I think at this point I will go to the local Walgreen’s and pickup some Dramamine and ride it out.




"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[eyeswideclosed]

Bipolar.

 

[mikeydidit]

Then I may look for a stronger drug while at Walgreen's...

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[flapeyre]

Bipolar, or maybe ADHD.

Feles mala! Cur cista non uteris? Stramentum novum in ea posui!

 

[Gooser]

If your guy has a bad attitude, yet gets the work done. There's a real good chance that bad attitude is caused by his environment, yet his work ethic still demands he do the job. Your job is to find out what's causing his bad attitude and fix it if you can. A guy with a good work ethic is hard to find, harder to keep.

Good luck with that!

v/r

Gooser

"A happy worker,
is a worker that doesn't come in one Tuesday with a .45 ACP
and start poppin' caps."

 

[Provogeek]

There may have been posts like this, not sure ..... to much to read, to little time to read it, just adding my 2 copper.

If you didn't include telcom in your department function, I could have sworn you were my own manager Mike. The one I give a hard time when ever he pulls me off my current project to work on another.

Do I give him a hard time to be mean or nasty? No, thats not the point. The point is, I am being pulled off a project that will eventually have to return to. I push back on him to make sure he is willing to deal with the rest that is involved with pulling me off the project. Ready to deal with the customer complaints when they feel like they are not getting the attention they feel they deserve? Ready to deal with a project schedule that gets tossed out the window because I got interrupted and or, the customer tried to continue on their own and screwed everything up? And most of all, is it really the right choice pulling me off my current project? Or are there other, better options that he has not thought of?

In my opinion, even with this perceived attitude issue you have with him(not sure on all that, didn't read all the posts), you have one of the best types of employees you can get. Having someone who has the dingle-berries to question you.

I have worked with the simpletons that will take orders and do exactly what is asked of them with out questioning the orders. These folks have problems growing very much because when they are presented with an obstacle they have difficulty getting past it with out management intervention. I didn't see any reference to being in the military, so there really is nothing wrong when someone questions your orders, as long as he does not question your authority. And since he does do what you ask of him, with or with out pushing back on you, he clearly is NOT questioning your authority.

Your a manager, deal with it, thats why you have the manager title and get the manager pay check. Because from my book and many many other tech I know, manager = BS receptor. You deal with the BS so we don't have to.

If his push back really does bother you, then take him for a beer after working hours and sit down with him and shoot the breeze. Pop out some small talk and tell him your problem with this one employee you have. No names, no identification, just do your best to keep it anonymous. See what his own opinion is of dealing with him self. Or even just flat out tell him what bothers you and see if you two can work something out. You say he is an excellent employee, giving him a reprimand will just cause ill will between you two..

 

[mikeydidit]

Earlier in this post, I had already made up my mind to NOT reprimand this employee. This mainly because of his abilities and dependability.

Since my last post he and I have discussed this problem. It seems he thought he was getting back at the people who did not do their planning on this project. It was not directed at me although, that is where we had problems. Like you stated, if their is BS it comes to me. It is not the highlife of my job, but I do my best to take it in stride. He thought he was taking up for me by putting them in a bad position is the bottom line. He didn’t think this all the way through, as the BS ended up coming back to me. I feel if he had, he would not have put me in the position he did. I think he realizes it now and it’s back to work as normal.

Throughout this post, I have seen several posters question whether or not I should have bothered this employee with this project. I have been a tech a lot longer than I have been a supervisor and I am sure that I am better at being a tech. I too have been through (I still have) the boss who doesn’t know anything about what I am doing but drop what you are doing and do this and this. I don’t do that to my people.


"Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something."
(Plato)

 

[VVVA]

This may\may not apply to this particular situation, but I know that my reluctance to being pulled off projects is directly dependent on how much work I will lose. If I'm 90% of the way done with something, and I'm forced to do something else, and lose a third of my work due to switching tasks, I REALLY resent it. If this guy is coming into work early and does an exceptional job, I don't see any point in de-motivating him more by reprimanding him. In essence, what you're asking him to do, (from my perspective) is not care about his job.

 

[aarenot]

ok, count to ten before you think about a response here.


do you hold all persons whom are involved in the project to the same standards. do you request, and then demand from the project planners what they are supposed to do when you ask them to do it. do you consider reprimands to those who are not planning out their projects properly. are your direct reports the only ones who have to perform their jobs properly, respond with a smile, and a yes sir when you make requests from them.
if you are the manager, then it is your job to aquire the proper documentation of the plan, follow up to aquire, and check on the status of the project planning as well as the tech work. your direct reports have to deliver the tech work, the project planners have to deliver the work to complete the planning. you need to be procative about aquiring both, if you are having project plans without the proper planning, then take some responsibility just like you expect the techs to. push the project planners for proper planning, follow up on the project planners, and be in the loop soon enough to give feedback to the planners.

if your tech does not get the job done, or not done in the time expected you follow up with them and i assume expect a justification, and explanation, as well as a commitment to do better in the future. you probably even check up, follow up, and consider a reprimand if they continue to not complete their work in a proper manner prior to or at least at the point of neccesity.

i understand that the planners may not report to you, but they do report to someone whom you can direct feedback to. this is in all probability part of the issue, and is the reprimand that is probably suitable. you know that not providing the proper planning which is requested is push back, and even insubordination, or negligent.

i would not suggest starting to address the real issue here with negative feedback, but start with positive feedback to the person who reviews the project planners for their raises. those that do their planning well, do not push back by pushing it into someone else inbox without proper planning, asset allocation, and manpower allocation, and lead times get a high rating. those which do not get a low rating of their performance. provide statistics of costs of projects which are properly planned vs those which are not. include overtime costs to divert manpower to rush jobs which are unscheduled rather than billing the overtime to the planned project. travel time from scheduled/planned work to unscheduled/unplanned work should be charged to the project of the unprepared project planner.
the basic rule is that you can not control anyhting which you do not track, so start tracking the cost of improperly planned projects. then pass that data along to the person who reviews those that plan the project. it might be best to approach this from a cost of the project standpoint, then evaluate why the cost of one project was greater than another instead of directing it at the project planner specificaly. finding, and documenting best practices in projects, including project planning may push the proccess toward better preparation. it can also justify the higher costs in your department due to the added costs of certain practices.
i am not saying to not do what it takes to get er dun, but also do what it takes to encourage planners ot get er dun as well. consider having a project meeting including the technical, or maybe just yourself, and the project planners to go over the project prior to the lead time for scheduling.

bottom line is if you are having to pull people off jobs to a rush job someone is not doing their job in the first place. some of this is unavoidable, all of it is unavoidable if you do not address the cause. it may be you are understaffed in project planning, technical, or managerial. it may just be that you are the victim of unforseeable, unschedulable workload, but i doubt it.