Problem Employee

NaeNae55

I need your help in how to handle an issue with a problem employee. This employee is extremely reliable, very smart, works quickly, etc etc. But she has a few personality quirks that drive other people crazy (she has brought empty dishes in to take home leftovers when we had potluck, generously offers candy to visiting children which she bought already out of date by 6 mos to 3 years to save money, in the last month she has asked if a little bug bite she has which she may have gotten here is eligible for worker's comp, asked if a fax which said "thank you" could go in her personnel file, and today she asked me if her leave accrual would go up because she just got her annual raise...though it never has before and she has been here since 1997). Her antics of going through other people's in-baskets (in case they have some work that belongs to her) among other things has made her very unpopular with her co-workers. Now one of them is getting really angry about another issue and I am unsure how to proceed. The problem employee has a log which she logs everything down. I mean everything. She logs the comings and goings of other employees, including managers, as well as amount of work, phone calls, etc etc. When I was an accounting supervisor and she was in my department I told her going through other people's baskets and keeping track of their time was offensive and set an antagonistic atmosphere. I pointed out that work distribution was my domain, and to let me do it. (I also loaded her down with work on the assumption that if she had time to do all the logging she had time to do more work.) She agreed, though I think she still kept track of time (I felt it would be an invasion of privacy to go through her calendar). She specifically told us she didn't want the calendar the company would buy as supposedly there was not enough room on her desk so she has brought her own.

Now that I have learned so much doing HR I am leary of saying the wrong thing. It is her calendar so we cannot just check it out. Should we insist that she use a company calendar so we can claim company property? Will that help anyway when an employee should be able to expect some privacy? Can we order her to stop or will that be breaking some law? If we order her to stop, how can we make sure she is doing so if we cannot continually verify so in her calendar? And if we can't order her to stop, what will we tell the other employees who complain? One has already mentioned to someone in another department that she is thinking of leaving because this problem employee is driving her crazy.

HELP!!!!

Paul in Cannon Beach

I have worked with some people that might be related to this employee. You don't want to be too harsh because they are probably not intentionally causing problems. Some of the quirks are odd, others endearing, and some plain annoying or worse.

Regardless, my suggestion is that you be clear in your expectations and direct in you communications style. Tell her what is ok and what is not ok. Explain why but don't get in a situation where you are defending yourself. Make sure you are understood.

Affirm her and her positive qualities. Set a date for a second meeting to evaluate her progress.

In my mind you have to do something. If you don't you will look weak.

Paul

Crout

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-14-02 AT 07:53AM (CST)[/font][p]In addition to what Paul has said, I would check her HR file to see what has been documented in the past in regard to performance evaluations, etc. If these quirks of her's have not been mentioned in the past, it would hardly be fair to suddenly "get tough" with her now. Don't get bogged down in the supposed lagalities of her calendar vs. the company calendar. Focus on the big picture. Sit down with her, as Paul suggested and be able to identify speciific behaviors you want her to change. Keep in mind that many of the things you mentioned in your post are personality based and do not appear to be violations of company policies. Don't dump everything on her at once, and don't expect miracles overnight, but you should get a sense that she buys into your assessment and is putting forth a good faith effort to change. On the other hand, if she happens to mention during your meting that her "quirks" are a function of the mental illness she is currently being treated for, all bets are off because now she is under ADA protection. See how great HR is? And I'm not being sarcastic. It's like a constant chess game, and that's what makes it so darn fun.

NaeNae55

Thanks so much for your replys and input. I am positive we are in no danger of this employee claiming mental illness. Though very smart she, is a bit dense to what is going on around her; I remember her once telling me that subtlety didn't work with her and you basically had to hit her over the head with something to get her attention. I have always used that when bringing up other problems...like her extremely short skirts. I start with, "Remember when you told me being subtle and tactful doesn't work with you? Well,..." She usually handles things pretty well then. I wish I could use her personnel file, but unfortunately it doesn't go back that far. Our company was bought by another fairly recently and we all had to be interviewed and hired for the new company so all new files.

So I guess I will follow your advice and leave the calendar out of it. I'll use my regular starting phrase with her and just tell her that keeping track of other's movements is upsetting and insulting. Something like that could get blown out of proportion and turn into a hostile work environment claim. She is usually pretty good about handling criticism and stopping the offensive behavior. Except for the length of her skirts, this is the first time I have had to bring something to her attention for a second time...and it has been several years since I talked to her about getting into other people's in-baskets, etc.

Again, thanks for your help!

Pork

This person reads like she is or has been briefed on maintenance of "Job Security" by way of having notes and "black mail information" on which ship she can jump when the need for survival arrives. These people are dangerous in any organization and are the basis of "hostile work enviroments" in many cases. I would not consider any calendar in the office as personal and have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" considering the information is internal to the office operations and "comings and goings". If she appears to be as smart as you give her credit, then give her also the credit for being capable of more serious damaging work. You definately need as a minimum to have a detailed discussion with this case. By the way is this person now a member of the HR Department; if not back out and let her supervisor/manager handle your concerns? Good luck Pork

NaeNae55

Thanks for your input Pork. I realize it reads like she is spying with poor intentions, but I have known this person for a long time and I believe I can truthfully say that her spying boils down to keeping busy. She has been known to make the simplest things complicated to the nth degree because she keeps track of everything. (You should have seen some of her spreadsheets when she was in the Finance Dept.) I have never heard her say a bad word about anyone, and she seems totally clueless to all except the most obvious situations. I have always said she walks to the beat of a different drummer; it's just that her drummer is on Mars.

She is no longer my employee and is not in my department (thank Goodness!!!). Her manager came to me for advice on how to handle this situation so I went to the forum (and I frequently sit in as observer when employees are counseled).