Problem Employee at Work, Requesting Advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I work from a local shop for a worldwide field service organization. We get company cars/trucks, laptops, smart phones and mobile wi-fi devices for internet access. We get jobs dispatched to us via smart phone, and a program on our laptops allows us to enter and submit job information.

One of my coworkers, call him Bob, has been a “resident tech” (M-F, 9-5) for our main local customer (call them Acme Mfg.) for 8+ years. Acme has begun phasing out local operations for a different facility, and Bob now only has to go in on Mondays and Fridays, for less than 4 hours of work each day.

The rest of the time, he’s supposed to be available for routine Preventative Maintenance Services and Service Calls to the rest of our local customer base.

The problem is, he does half-assed work; his “admin” (test documents, work documentation, and timely transmittal of test results to the customers) is atrocious. Several customers have called him (and our local management) on his poor work quality. It has continued, and regional management has become involved. I know he has been written up at least once for it, perhaps twice.

Another one of our local customers is geographically very close to Bob. While Bob was the full-time resident tech for Acme, I have been routinely servicing this customer, and have established a good rapport with them. Since Bob has become part-time for Acme, he taken over servicing this other customer.

Bob just serviced this other customer this week. On a hunch, I pulled up his test documentation from our server, and spotted egregious errors, perhaps outright falsifications.

My conundrum:

  1. I like Bob personally, and don’t want to see him get in any more trouble.

  2. Bob’s work volume and quality is sub-par with other technicians, locally, nationally, and internationally. Locally, we’re pulling his slack, and our bottom line (and mine and other coworker’s pocket books) is being impacted.

  3. We have robust local competition in our market, and I don’t want Bob’s crap work to cause any of our customers to “go shopping” for another service provider.

  4. As a mere coworker, Bob will not be receptive/responsive to any suggestions/constructive criticisms/friendly advice from me, no matter how nicely it’s put to him. At best, I’ll get a “yeah yeah; I’ll get that corrected” and nothing will be done by Bob to correct the situation. He’ll most likely just blow me off.

So my question (s):

  1. Do I inform on Bob to our local management, forwarding along a copy of the spurious test documentation?

2a. Do I go ahead and try to talk to Bob, to attempt to encourage him to correct this?

2b. Do I maybe hint that I’ll inform on him to local management if he doesn’t come correct?

I have little inclination or desire to be an “informer.” But I also don’t want either mine or my other coworker’s job/financial security to be endangered by Bob’s lousy work ethic.

Any advice appreciated.

2

Bob is a co-worker. He doesn’t report to you. If you feel it is going to hurt your business, and you by extension, then let his manager know. Then let that manager handle it.

3

^ This.

4

Concur.

Under no circumstances whatsoever do #2b.

5

Not. Your. Problem.

Unless he’s doing something that directly and significantly impacts you, there’s no need to get involved. Management is aware of the complaints and they can act if they wish.

6

It seems like you may be junior modding so to speak.

7

I’m sorry, is that directed at me, or treis?

8

Oh, you in this situation. It seems like what you are doing at work is analogous to junior modding based on the story so far. I can’t exactly see the reason for concerning yourself with your coworkers performance to this extend given that you are not being held accountable for his results.

You mentioned that management is aware of problems. My assumption is that management has more extensive data and information on the situation and the impact it could have on the business (although you may have a couple more specific things you know), and if they need you to get involved they would probably approach you. I may not be understanding the situation fully though.

9

Regional management is already involved. What can you tell them that they don’t already know? And let me ask: is Bob over 40? If so, he’s in a protected class. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t been shitcanned yet.

There’s a problem employee in my office. She’s still around because she’s a lawsuit risk–she’s almost 60 and her husband works at an Ivy, so they have BIG $$. Nobody likes her on a personal level. On a professional level, she’s almost impossible to work with. It’s always easier to work around her. She’s not made herself indispensable (yet) but she’s working on that. She’s a manipulative bitch and my manager doesn’t know how to/can’t handle her. So she runs roughshod over our department. And her work output is crappy. But she’s got them by the balls and she knows it. They might eventually be able to fire her, but it’s going to take a lot of documentation and write-ups (by a smallish business that doesn’t DO write-ups).

So I feel your pain. But there’s nothing you can or should do. At least you like the guy well enough.

10

Option #1, discuss it with your boss, who I assume is also Bob’s boss. Sounds like you care about the company, it’s business and reputation. The people that say, stick your head in the sand and let management worry about it apparently only care about themselves, and view the company as two halves, management and labor. They don’t realize that everyone is on the same team. If the company loses business because of Bob’s actions that could mean the company doing poorly and you losing your job.

11

Being in a protected class doesn’t protect you if you’re not doing your job. Management does, though, have to make sure (as they should for everyone) that the documentation is there so that if they do dismiss him and he does bring a suit, that they have their case documented. It’s entirely possible that previous supervisors for Bob didn’t document and so the case is having to be built from ground zero. (I say this a supervisor who has been on the the receiving end of known problem employee transfers who have zero documentation on their performance problems).
As for the OP: as a manager I’d want to know how this is affecting my other employees. This line is the key point for me:

It’s not just Bob’s work, it’s everyone’s work.
As an employee, I’d think through my phrasing and script out the points I want to make, so that it doesn’t come across as running to tell, but genuine concern for the effect on others’ work.

12

Your management probably knows, and has already done, more about this problem than you give them credit for. Keep your mouth shut and your head down and it will all probably go away soon. Speak up, IOW tattle, and you’;; look like a problem employee yourself.

13

I would agree that sticking your head in the sand should not be the default strategy; but in this situation,

So it seems that management is aware and taking action; and I would say it is better to sort of go with the flow in this situation. Obviously, I’m making some assumptions based on the brief description, but I just don’t think trying to correct Bob is really going to produce a good outcome and I believe hinting to Bob that he is going to tell on him would have even less desirable results. It seems to me that the OP is pushing his own agenda because of what he feels is right and does not have faith in the management structure. I don’t think in this situation the OP is actually working “with” management. If he wants to work with management I would think the first thing to do would be establish things in the framework of how he can help the company succeed and focus more on problems to his work in particular that Bob is causing, and try to tactfully figure out what the position of management is in the situation. I just think focusing on results is better than focusing on undesirable attributes of individuals.

14

Small companies don’t have litigation on staff. So, sometimes they trade the uncertainty of defending against a lawsuit (no matter how frivolous, they may end up settling) for the certainty of harboring a bad employee.

15

What “protected class” does being over 40 put one in?

I’m asking for a friend, you understand.

16

As someone in my 30’s I kind of wish this law didn’t exist; I feel that it may actually create barriers. Looking at it from the employers perspective, who are you gonna hire? Someone with strings attached or someone who you can discipline at will and as best fits the needs of the organization? Really to me it just makes an older person more of a liability. I asked my business professor about this, she did not seem to think it had that kind of effect on hiring, but I’m still not fully at ease.

17

It shouldn’t matter if your council (not “litigation”, fwiw), is in-house. If you document the issues, management can run it by whoever it is your company retains.

Firing someone over 40 isn’t nearly as difficult as you make it out to be.

18

It matters, but only if there are an abundance of candidates. Usually it’s hard enough to find a solid candidate so once you do all the other factors are disregarded. People doing hiring know this and the bottom line is that they are people too, not robots.

19

**ExTank **- act as if this person was a stranger to you. Directly getting involved is probably not a good idea, but if you work for a large enough company they may have an anonymous tip line that can be used to report violations of the company code of conduct. You may hint that you’ve gotten complaints to the person’s manager, but beyond that I wouldn’t do anything. Too much potential for downside and not a lot of upside.

20

This.

Your Bob was my Electronics labmate. When I, after much anguish, went to talk to one of our teachers (not electronics) about it, he brought me to the office of the Electronics teacher, who took one look at us and said “:eek: again? :smack:”. Turns out he’d been flunked Electronics 14 times already (this was going to be the 15th) for falsifying test results… the teachers had set up our lab group specifically so he’d be paired with the person they considered least likely to get dragged down by the idiot (as he’d done with several of his previous labmates).