To-Do software to manage an employee

Factual Questions
1

I have a great manager—for the most part. He is terrible at checking in and giving updates, and doesn’t understand that “no news” is news. I need to know that he called so-and-so and she doesn’t have an answer yet. Is there a to-do list app that has deadlines (to the hour) and fields for daily status updates?

I imagine it would work something like this:

Task Deadline Status Note
Make deposit 9:00 AM Today Complete
File TPS Report 12/8/23 10/8/23 Spoke with accounting will follow up with HR
11/8/23 HR needs to locate the Penske file
12/8/23 The Penske file is not in the file cabinet. HR will check with the archivist tomorrow. Let HR know they need to contact Mr. Lumbergh to let him know they can’t find the file.
Call Mr. Beuller 9/8/23 7/8/23 No answer
8/8/23 No answer
9/8/23 No answer
10/8/23 Called twice. No answer
11/8/23 Wife answered phone. Said she’d have him call.
12/8/23 Called 3X. No answer. We need to get another number for him. Or e-mail.
2

I’d build it in FileMaker if it were me. Or if it were someone who reported to me.

3

Those are all comments i would put in the body of the file in a comment section.

Let me amend -

At one point I worked for various companies doing telephone customer service [a really large insurance company and then a really large alarm company, and then a food service company doing USDA coordination] and I would pull up said file on the computer to work on it - at the alarm company calls would basically autoroll onto a screen for me to work, the insurance company I would have telephone messages and incoming computer based queries for quotes, claims and the whole shebang. With the food service company their DOS system was so ancient I made file cards to track calls on 5x7 index cards.

I think the issue is that your manager may not be checking and updating the files? I would hate to have to micromanage someone to the point of emailing them a bullet list of tasks for the day and requiring an update back every 4 hours.

4

Yeah, that seems overkill to me. I would also hate to be micromanaged like that, or to have to micromanage a direct report like that.

Your first step should be to talk to the manager and tell them your concerns, and hope to work out something a little less formal and time consuming than a daily task list.

5

If you’re trying to force your haphazard manager to keep their exact task status up to date, you will fail spectacularly, perhaps to the point of being force to need a new job.

If you are hoping to somehow update yourself the status of your haphazard manager’s accomplishments and intermediate statuses of their tasks and subtasks, well you just created a new full-time job for you that a) you will suck at, and b) will prevent you from doing whatever really is your job.

My bottom line, having managed a lot of people: This way lies abject failure. Rethink what you really need and more importantly why you think you need it. I bet you don’t.