Sounds like the right approach. They’re just dating, right? Not like they’re married - could have a short shelf-life, no teflon-coating after that for sure.
Two words: Arsenic, Coffee
I’m sure you can combine those in a problem-solving manner. 
Have I missed the bit where you brought these issues to the attention of your direct report?
Because that is step no.1, before all of the documenting and HR escalation you need to speak to them. Make them aware, make them aware in a way which allows them to modify their behaviour and doesn’t yet commit you to take further action.
Sometime all that is needed is to make people aware that their shortcomings have been noted.
If your disciplinary system does not allow you to have that informal chat…you may be screwed. If you can’t speak to your direct report in that way or don’t feel they’ll be open with you…you may be screwed.
I’ll tell you one thing though. Their relationship with HR will not remain a secret for long, their “issues” and any inaction on your part will be judged in the light of that relationship by absolutely everyone and you will be judged accordingly. So either the relationship ends (and that isn’t in your power to control) or the performance issues end (which you can do something about).
I feel for you as this is a crappy situation and I’ve been somewhere very similar as a manager.
However I was lucky in that my HR policy allowed a lot of leeway before anyone got put on the formal disciplinary pathway
Just a pointless contribution:
I don’t work in corporate, and I understand and use the terms “direct report” and “c-level” and they are common parlance where I work.
“Direct report” is more specific than “employee” or “staff,” at least here. My boss has 6 direct reports (I am one) but 47 employees/staff - because all of her direct reports have direct reports. She could get involved with the hiring/firing of my direct reports, but she doesn’t usually.
Depends on who’s doing it to whom. I’ve really HAD “Teflon employees” who, when I assigned them a task, said, “Make me, bitch” :eek: or insisted they were “too busy” even though it was a stat order; these were hospital pharmacies, so it was important that it be done, and done right! They also did this in front of multiple witnesses, and could manage to turn it around and get ME in trouble.
Is it any wonder I left the profession, when dealing with superiors who handled things this way?
BTW, I see nothing about either partner’s gender in any of royalscam’s posts. It could be a male underling and female superior, or even a same-sex relationship.
Sounds like a union shop.
The OP should bear in mind he is getting strategy on office politics from people who don’t know what a “direct report” or “C-level” executive is. Just something to think about.
Just start a rumor that the direct report got herpes from blowing some homeless guy while drunk. Problem should resolve itself.
I worked in gigantic corporations most of my working career, and I have never heard of “C-Level” before. Sounds like government-speak to me. Or maybe we Silicon Valley folk don’t go for that lingo.
It looked just like Skinny n’ Sweet!
Host a happy-hour and invite the two plus colleagues and senior management. Push booze on them liberally and hope one or both of them do something out of line enough (start a fight, makeout, etc.) that the problem takes care of itself.
Seriously? This thread is the first time you have ever in your entire life heard “c level” or “c suite” despite having worked in gigantic corporations for most of your life? Usually the term is used by pretentious dickheads that think they should be C level or at least are on the path if they kiss enough ass long enough, but it’s hardly so rare that one could spend a decade working in a US top 500 company and never ever hear the term until this thread. Baking powder?
By gigantic, would that be a US Forbes 500 company, a 100, a 50 or pray tell a global 100 company?
I’m a director at a Global 100 company, and the terms “direct report” and “c-level” are clear to me, but hey, that’s the world I live in.
I don’t have employees, because I don’t own the company. I have direct reports and beyond them I have a group or team (used interchangeably).
As for your issue OP, just keep your head down and as others have said, find an opportunity to help with your direct report’s development…and develop her right onto another team if you can. You will not win if this situation blows up. Remember - your job is to make your supervisor’s job easier. Causing this simmering pot of drama come to a boil will not endear you to anyone.
And yes…document.
Sometimes it’s just used by regular people referring to the senior executives in a company.
I find it difficult to believe that you work in Silicon Valley and have never heard the term “C-level” before. For all the hype and bullshit, Silicon Valley tech companies are just like any other company. They got the same corporate structures and report to the same SEC when they go public.
<3
Is the company public?
If its private, I’d have an honest talk with your boss, the CEO.
If its public, I’d have an honest talk with the CEO and Legal where I brought up the names “Dick Schultz” “Best Buy” and “Brian Dunn.” Granted, Dunn was running the company into the ground and the sexual shennigans were an excuse the board used to push him and Schultz out - but that made it all the easier.
You other employees CAN sue for sexual harassment if this employee is getting preferential treatment because of a relationship with a superior. This is a lose lose situation for your company.
“Direct report” sounds clunky to my ears. It’s an annoying piece of pretentious business speak. I find that people who use it are the same type who think “buy in to the core competency learnings” or “empower vertical integration to improve synergy” are normal ways to talk. Maybe I just missed the transitioning of the paradigm.
Yes it’s clunky, but it is also very common business jargon with which some on this board were unfamiliar. They learned something. I like learning about subcultures that I don’t know about.
I too revolt at discussions of the need to focus on core competencies and maximize synergies. I heard it all in endless TQM and then ISO 9000 meetings when I worked for a big corporation. (Yes, more jargon. Just Google it.) But I deal with equal nonsense where I work now, in government.
I think there’s a difference between using actual business terms that have a specific meaning (like “direct report”) and using bullshit consulting-speak (like “re-strategizing our best of breed cross pollinizing value-adds”).
Yeah, there’s a definite distinction between that an elevating our workflow to a new paradigm.
I’m getting lost in all this silly terminology – does an online glossary exist for these terms?