# Problem Employee at Work, Requesting Advice **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474 "2014-05-14T22:18:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/21 "2014-05-15T17:35:32Z")
I would still mention it to management, but I would avoid mentioning bob’s name. “Hey boss, I happened to check on my old client, since, you know, I care about them, and I noticed there were a lot of problems with the last job done at their site. I just want to make sure we’re treating them right and figured I should let you know”. Yes, in general, involving yourself in someone else’s business is a bad idea, but in this case, Bob’s shit work is impacting your job, and your business, and I would say something. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/22 "2014-05-15T18:00:58Z")
> [@Mr.Nylock](#): > > 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. Your attitude was the reason why the law exists. It’s been my experience that older workers are more productive, better skilled, more reliable and less costly to employers. [A recent survey bears this out](http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/09/24/older-workers-theres-hope-study-finds-employers-like-you-better-than-millennials/), and supports older surveys. You’ll change your tune once you hit 40 and you get sidelined by a 20/30-something who may have a bang up resume but just can’t do the job in real life. For the OP - do your job and when you come across the failures of Bob you have to fix, report them. Those who say bury your head in the sand forget that leaves your ass in the air. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/23 "2014-05-15T18:27:19Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Your attitude was the reason why the law exists. I bet it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/24 "2014-05-15T18:45:24Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > 1. Do I inform on Bob to our local management, forwarding along a copy of the spurious test documentation? If you and Bob worked for me, this would get him fired as soon as I confirmed that it was true. I’ll give people a lot of time and leeway to improve their performance, but they can’t lie to the people they work with, and they _absolutely_ cannot lie to a client - that opens your employer up to a whole host of liability issues, none of which would be covered by insurance if it came out that the tech was falsifying data. Anybody who falsified a test would be out on his/her ass as soon as I documented it. > [@](#): > > 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. As another poster previously mentioned, option 2b is terrible. If he’s not going to respond to encouragement, his response to threats will probably be much worse. You’re in a difficult position, and it sucks. Sorry. I guess you could try option 2a, but you already suspect it isn’t going to work. No good advice, unfortunately. Has Bob changed jobs a lot? It might be the case that he’s been through this before and will just take getting fired in stride. Sometimes people who don’t care about doing the job don’t get too worked up about losing the job (best case scenario here, I’m afraid). ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/25 "2014-05-15T18:48:35Z")
Unfortunately,OP, there’s little that you can do. If upper management is aware of what problems that Bob is causing, then they are going to have to take whatever action that they deem is necessary to resolve the “Bob problem.” Remind ing them of it further is simply poking a hornet’s nest (e.g. You’ll get stung for no good reason). Bob sounds like he doesn’t care anymore and that he is too afraid to leave on his own. He may have to be faced with a true “sink or swim” type of situation before he realizes that his keeping his job depends upon him immediately improving his performance. Short of that, I don’t foresee him trying any harder as he really does’t have to do so. If you are indeed Bob’s friend, then stick by him whatever happens and continue to be his friend if he does eventually get fired. That’s really all that you can do in this situation. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/26 "2014-05-15T19:32:22Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Your attitude was the reason why the law exists. It’s been my experience that older workers are more productive, better skilled, more reliable and less costly to employers. [A recent survey bears this out](http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/09/24/older-workers-theres-hope-study-finds-employers-like-you-better-than-millennials/), and supports older surveys. > > You’ll change your tune once you hit 40 and you get sidelined by a 20/30-something who may have a bang up resume but just can’t do the job in real life. > For the OP - do your job and when you come across the failures of Bob you have to fix, report them. Those who say bury your head in the sand forget that leaves your ass in the air. Huh? I think your comprehension of my words is different than their intended meaning. But that’s OK, I’m sorry to see that it got you so worked up. Perhaps if you take a deep breath and read again what I wrote you will have a different understanding and see the fallacy of your response. Or perhaps I’m just not able to understand you. ---
**Author:** ![delsina363](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@delsina363](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsina363)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/27 "2014-05-15T20:04:40Z")
Unless you are in really good with someone in management, I would suggest doing nothing. If you are not his direct supervisor you should not be peeking at his reports for mistakes. It seems that they know already, so just do your job, and let management do theirs. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/28 "2014-05-15T20:44:26Z")
First: thank’s all for the responses so far. Some more info I probably could/should have provided: The company I work for is large-ish, and international, but locally, we’re a 5-person shop, one of which is our Sr. Tech/Area Team Leader. The nearest real mangement is a Time Zone away (with phones and internet, that’s not necessarily that far). While each of us techs feels somewhat possessive of certain customers, really, _all_ of our local customers belong to all of us. There is no “My Customer,” no “Bob’s Customer,” etc. We store all test and work order documentation locally, specifically for all of us techs to have access to it for reference on a customer and/or particular piece of equipment. And customers sometimes lose documentation, and can call any one of us local techs for copies; so having all work documentation on a server for anyone to access makes sense. What triggered my curiosity about “Bob’s Work” for this particular customer is that they have a certain type of equipment that requires a particular type of test equipment. We only have one set of that particular test equipment, so it’s stored at our local shop, for everyone’s use. On the day that Bob went and serviced that customer, he never came and got that particular, special test equipment. He used his regular test set. But the results he recorded on the test report are as if he’d used the Special Equipment. Which is flat out impossible with the equipment he actually routinely carries and used. I know Bob didn’t get the special test equipment because a third tech was working in the shop on a depot repair all day, and Bob never came by, and all the special equipment was present at the shop when I arrived later that afternoon. **Enginerd** definitely nailed it in his post: > [@](#): > > If you and Bob worked for me, this would get him fired as soon as I confirmed that it was true. I’ll give people a lot of time and leeway to improve their performance, but they can’t lie to the people they work with, and they absolutely cannot lie to a client - _ **that opens your employer up to a whole host of liability issues, none of which would be covered by insurance if it came out that the tech was falsifying data.** _ Anybody who falsified a test would be out on his/her ass as soon as I documented it. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/29 "2014-05-15T21:50:46Z")
Do you have to sign out the special equipment? That coupled with the shady report would certainly give the boss what he needs to get rid of Bob. I know you don’t really want to get him fired but with a small shop you can’t afford to have a faker on board. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/30 "2014-05-15T21:57:43Z")
If it’s bothering you, inform your manager and he will typically deal with it. The thing is, once you start managing people, you find that they all suck at their job in different ways. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/31 "2014-05-16T01:47:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > once you start managing people, you find that they all suck at their job in different ways. No doubt. But there’s sucking, and there’s lying. Not the same. **ExTank** , presumably your Area Team Leader (where do they come up with these titles?) knows that everyone’s having to pick up Bob’s slack, and is wondering how to either get Bob back on track or can him. But if you don’t think he knows about Bob’s bit of falsification, then by all means make sure he does; this may give him the ammunition he needs to show Bob the door. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/32 "2014-05-16T15:42:23Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > 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. I admit I’m biased because \*my \*particular company is too afraid to fire (or even discipline) someone over 40. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/33 "2014-05-16T16:46:51Z")
For damn sure three out of my last five employers haven’t had a problem with it, or at least no more problem than firing anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474/34 "2014-05-17T00:22:10Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Firing someone over 40 isn’t nearly as difficult as you make it out to be. Huh? What? [QUOTE=] (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s age; [/QUOTE] Ohhh! Good point! So it would be equally as illegal to retain the underperforming worker \*just \*because he’s over 40. In other words, his performance must be the retain/dehire factor, regardless of his age. –G! IANAL and all that stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problem-employee-at-work-requesting-advice/688474.md?page=1)