Romance Interferring with Job

Rockie

I am supervising an Administrative Assistant by default.(I inherited her from a manager who is no longer with us). She is in charge of ordering supplies, stocking supplies, etc, as well as ordering telephone, beepers, lunches for meetings, etc. in our administrative area.

Complication #1:
She is very sickly and has had a multitude of medical problems. Days here and there - minor surgery here and there. I am sure a lot of this is legitimate and hopefully this last minor surgery she had will assist her with a lot of the problems she had been having.

Complication #2
She has a hard time getting to work on time. She is supposed to be here by 9AM and work until 6PM. She does not adhere to this schedule. She is rarely here by 9AM and I have counseled her on this twice. She does not seem to be getting much better with this. I have documented time sheets. She told me that she felt "overwhelmed" by all her duties. Her job is simply not that difficult, but it does take some organization and follow-through.

Complication #3
She was a so-so employee last year, but got engaged over Christmas and has been ten times worse since then. Just my opinion, but I feel the financial pressure has been lifted and she doesn't feel the obligation to do her best as she will be "taken care of" regardless. She is totally out of leave. She just presented me with a request to take an entire week of leave in June as her fiancee has already booked them on a cruise. This is an entire week and she plans on taking an entire week off in October (which she will not have leave for).

She is also continuously on her cell phone. She claims it is business, but others have informed me that it is personal (fiancee, children, etc.).
Anyway...to make a long story short....we are probably going to have to terminate her on her performance and tardiness issue. We could work around the sickness and being out for this, but the drastic decrease in performance and the seemingly "lack of concern" about her job in general. This is very unfortunate as she is a five year employee and I would have hoped she would have "shaped up". I really feel bad for her as I have tried to work with her and be a compassionate person, but other management personnel have begun to ask me what her problem is and why she is always out, late, on the phone, etc.
I really don't see any choice in the matter.

Sorry to ramble on...but venting is good sometimes.

Do any of you have any advice on this issue?

jules2001

Well, I think it is unfortunate, but as long as you have your documentation in order, you should replace her.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Hey,

Let us know what happens. I am curious to know how you handle it.

Good luck!

[email]paulknoch@hotmail.com[/email]

Rockie

Just to let you guys know...we did terminate this employee. She really was not surprised. Her fiancee is supplementing her "unemployment" (what a guy!). Anyway, we found tons of stuff that had been hidden and not done to further reinforce our position of her not doing her job. We were able to outsource the supply ordering and another person took over handling phones and beepers. In short, we terminated a very poor performer and were able to save an FTE in the process by not having to replace her.

ritaanz

We all knew you could do it. I also want to extend my congratulations on getting honorable mention in the April Employment Letter Extra. Remember? The gal that committed suicide and then called for her final check? x:D

Rockie

Thanks. I will be sure to include that one in my book of HR Horror Stories.

Gillian

Ditto to Jules.

Carol CA

I agree to let her go, as long as you have sufficient documentation. I would stick to the attendance issues and any performance issues that you can document. Don't touch the medical absences since those are probably protected by FMLA. You certainly have a right to expect her to be at work on time and to put in a full 8 hours. Document those continual tardies. I would also shy away from her "atttitude" about work being more lax now. Instead document hard facts about missing deadlines, not completing projects, etc. Our "company business" is performed via the normal telephones -- not cell phones when in the office. If it is her personal cell phone, I would tell her not to use it in the office. I would probably pull all this together, sit down with her one more time, and let her know if she doesn't improve it could lead to termination. Those unemployment law judges always want to know if the employee realized that their continued actions could lead to termination so there is no "surprise".

Good Luck!

Crout

Do you have a policy, or defacto practice of progressive discipline? If so, you will need to utilize that policy before you terminate her. Is there consistant enforcement of the 9am start time for EVERY EE? Make sure that you are treating the EE in question as you would any other EE and you'll be on solid ground.

Theresa Gegen TX

Also, you need to stick to the facts (her poor attendance) and not what you perceive to be the motivation behind the facts (her engagment).

No manager or supervisor should make any statement to this employee that "since you've gotten engaged, you don't seem to care anymore." This may seem obvious to the HR people, but other managers often make these types of statements, then end up in court, with the employee saying "the real reason you terminated me is because I am a female (and you think that females don't do good jobs once they are married)."

Good Luck!

sharonm

Yes, this sounds like a typical "problem employee"!! We have many. Our company has a progressive discipline procedure. As others are telling you, documentation is crutial...what are the expectations, and what will the consequences be if they are not followed. The first step in our discipline process is a Corrective Contact, if the adverse behavior continues, we place the employee on Probation for 1 year. During this probationary period, documented follow-ups are held with the employee each month or every other month. If after a few months, the adverse behavior pattern does not significantly improve, we usually go on and terminate the employee. This process shows an outside agency (if the employee challenges) that we gave the employee every opportunity to improve.

Good Luck!!

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-30-02 AT 01:28PM (CST)[/font][p]So you let her go and didn't replace her and saved an FTE. I wondered when I first read your posting how the company could afford to have a full time position dedicated to "ordering and stocking supplies, ordering lunches and ordering beepers". Chances are if you had added some real duties to the job, she would have up and quit since those new duties would have cut into her personal cell phone time.

Rockie

Yep..it's amazing what you inherit! This is a typical person who (for five years) did nothing....but managed to look busy until she got a new supervisor (which was unfortunately me!).