Great point, but she was not hired through a temp agency. She was hired directly by the company on a temporary basis.
My apologies if I didn’t read comprehensively enough prior to posting. But yes, put that way, the responsibility to give the tough love pep talk should be yours.
I was thinking about your situation last night and I’m of the mind that you aren’t doing her any favors by keeping her on. She is clearly uncomfortable, you aren’t getting the help you need, and the situation is a bad fit for both sides.
If you do decide to let her go, shoulder some of the responsibility for making a bad hire, even if you don’t feel that way. Let her know why it didn’t work out, but remind her that the responsiblity goes both ways and that just because she isn’t a proper fit for your job, doesn’t mean she won’t be a good fit somewhere else. This may all be totally obvious, but I’ve worked with many managers who just want to get the meeting over and don’t let the terminee leave with even a shred of dignity.
Clearly she’s not a terrible person, as you seem to like her enough to have started this thread, but it’s equally clear that she doesn’t have a thick enough skin to be an admin.
Yeah regardless of whatever stupid system the guy has for himself after 3 months you should know what it is.
I’m not sure I actually mentioned before that she wasn’t from an agency, so you’re absolved. May I transfer your apologies for not reading comprehensively to the second paragraph? 
(See post 57 - I’ve decided to release her.)
I’m in no rush to get her out the door. I can still make a lot of use of her for the time being. Starting today, I’ve just been trying to work more within her limitations. That’s not a good permanent solution, but it’s fine as a stop-gap measure. Kind of like driving an old clunker while you’re getting set to get a better car - no expensive repairs, just keeping it running until you’re ready to trade up. Of course, like a car, she’s free to quit at any time. I just hope she doesn’t. Her work IS useful and valuable, even if she’s ultimately not a good fit.
I don’t know what our limitations are on being able to hire someone else, etc. You know how these things are. We’ll see what Chief has to say tomorrow, and what he will be able to do.
I feel a whole lot better about the whole thing now, and I sincerely thank all of you for all your advice and feedback.
Is it clear to her that she’s being given less-critical duties because she has failed in her more-critical tasks?
Hm, good point.
Conveniently, today we were told the timeframe of the big and complex project she was slowly working on when she had a moment to spare in between the myriad of other tasks had changed from “soon” to ASAP. Relieved of the burden of having to train her, and with some assistance from her on the parts she COULD do, I had it done in 4 hours instead of the week+ it would have taken her. (Never mind all the time I’d have had to spend training/explaining/fixing/correcting/etc. - about half of the 4 hours was correcting her errors in preparing the documents)
So we can use the efficiency required by the time-frame change as a bit of a smokescreen.
Smokescreen? What is being hidden and from whom?
Exactly what you said - that she’s been given different duties because of poor performance.
From whom is it being hidden? Not from her, I hope.
My view is that you should be up front with her about exactly what’s happening and why.
What good would that do?
…and when you inquired, what did you discover?
I’m glad you’ve come to a place you’re happy with. And I hope she’s able to use the work and the feedback that you’ve already done with her to find some work that she can do more effectively.
I have to apologize then. When you said temp I was thinking like a person thru Manpower or Aerotek.
But still. I think if you want a good person you have to give them a carrot of a real job with real pay and benefits and then make them feel like their work is important to the success of the company.
A little late to the party, but…is she more shy with men then with women? Older employees then younger? Is it hierarchy that intimidates her?
Also, doesnt your HR person know of an assertiveness training?
A book, perhaps? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=+assertive+workplace&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3A+assertive+workplace
This dialog bespeaks a totally dysfunctional supervisor. Green Bean, IMO *you *are ****ing this up by the numbers.
The employee *must *be told *exactly *how bad she is failing. And exactly how limited you believe her to be. Only then can the employee have any hope of making a valid decision about quitting, choosing a different job in the future, or upgrading her performance. Or understanding and accepting being shunted off into a “coffee lady” role.
Your failings here are hurting her, yourself, and your department. If I was Kahuna, you’d be on the line for retraining or non-supervisory duties real soon.
Put on those big girl panties we know you’ve got and start managing like a manager. Or leading like a leader. Either way quit being shy and sensitive and passive aggressive.
My bottom line: *You *are failing. Change something to stop it.
LSL Guy covered what I want to say.
You owe it to her, to the company, and to yourself to be up front and honest. Not harsh, just honest. She deserves a fair chance to decide whether she thinks she can change her performance or seek another job/career.
The way you reply here makes me wonder whether she really understands in a concrete way what your expectations are, that she is seriously failing to meet them, and that you have decided that her chance to prove herself has come to an end.
If moving her into the less-critical tasks is a preface for getting rid of her, she deserves to know that too, so she has the opportunity to use whatever time she has left to plan. If moving her into the less-critical tasks is a more-or-less permanent job at your firm, then she deserves the chance to decide whether she wants to accept that or move on.
I agree with LSL and Ascenray.
I dont know how many times I’ve gone round and round with a manager with something like…
You said you wanted…
No, I said …
But then so and so said …
Yes but we MEANT …
And you have to be practically a mind reader.
LSLGuy, Urbanredneck and Ascenray:
Are you guys for real?
Do you think we’d actually let her go without making the issues clear and giving her copious chances and tools to improve?
She’s had:
- 2 formal sit-downs with me
- A formal sit-down with Guy#3 where he let her know that improvement was necessary to stay.
- Plenty of informal and on-the-spot correction and dialogue about things that need to be fixed.
- Assignment of a mandatory task management system
- Daily meetings with me to go over task management and prioritization
- Clear direction on tasks and standards. Most of this is written (emailed) for clarity and reference, and acknowledgement and apologies from me and the other team members when we’ve been unclear or wrong.
She has been “told exactly how bad she is failing.”
She has enough information to make “a valid decision about quitting.”
She “really understands in a concrete way what your expectations are, that she is seriously failing to meet them…”
What more do you want?
Continuing to tear her a new one will not help anything, and I can’t imagine why you would suggest that I do that. It would just be cruel.
She’s still partially effective, and we can’t do without the help that she provides. She’s satisfied with the pay and she’s getting excellent experience and some really good stuff to put on her resume. Our needs are at least partially met, and she gets a paycheck and experience. She can quit at any time, and is aware that the job is not secure.
And the notion that I am being “quit being shy and sensitive and passive aggressive” is utterly ridiculous. If only you knew me in real life. Being INsensitive to other people’s feelings is one of my great shortcomings.
We would ALL rather have made this work, and if it can still be made to work, I’m on board. Besides, we all like her.
For what it’s worth, the task management system is helping. She’s not using it as effectively as she could, but it’s improved her performance. In fact, I’ve started using it myself. I’ve also told her that she is free to adapt the system or use another one entirely if she chooses. She’s made minor adaptations to suit her needs. It doesn’t solve the underlying issues.
Also - a final decision has not been made. Guy#3 said he had additional thoughts, and I don’t know if he’s discussed it with Chief. I haven’t. Who knows, maybe they’ll come up with a better solution than letting her go.
Temps/contractors do have the carrot of a real job. The company regularly hires them full-time positions, whether they’re through an agency or not. That’s how I wound up here in a job I love.
They also use a higher-end agency, not some downmarket clearinghouse like Manpower or Kelly who treat their temps as disposable. They’d rather pay for better people, and it’s an effective way for them to find permanent employees who might not have had a shot through the traditional channels. Temps/contractors are also paid decently and treated well, and their work is valued by the company.
Having worked for bad agencies and in bad positions myself, I understand why you might have such a negative view, but there is a lot of variation in the world of temping. I’m sorry you had a bad experience.
My apologies for having misunderstood so much of this situation.
No worries. I left all that out in an effort to avoid TLDR, but I probably should have made it clear that steps had been taken.
She does seem to be intimidated by people higher up in the hierarchy. Not sure of the gender issue, as this industry is definitely an old-boys-club, so upper people tend to be male.
Being too intimidated to deal with high-level folks is, shall we say, a problem, given that Chief is C-level, and he is always working closely with the president and the CEO. Which means we are too. (Pres and CEO definitely try to make themselves approachable, FWIW)
Thanks for the book rec. I’ll check it out and recommend it to her.