Ah, the joys of management (see icon!)

[graculus]

Well, apparently I have successfully completed my probation period (even though I thought it was 3 months and I have a couple of weeks left) and despite some minor teething troubles, I'm still in a job.

Speaking of troubles, I'm looking for suggestions on how to handle this particular scenario: we have a worker, let's call her K. She works about 12 hours a week on a casual basis and has helped us out when things have been busy; however in recent weeks, K's behaviour with the rest of the team has caused them to start tearing their hair out.

She's not dumb enough to do this kind of thing in front of me, but I understand from others that K's incredibly bossy, to the point of rudeness, particularly to poor J who is half her age. She's also been making passive aggressive comments about staff to other staff when they're not around, again not in front of me. Everyone is working really hard, but apparently nobody works as hard as K does, and everyone needs to know that.

Having already tackled K once about her not letting me know when she wasn't coming in when expected, I know that I am going to be exposed to a massive pity party, but it's getting to the point where the assistance offered by her to our workload is exceeded by the sheer annoyance she causes to everyone. In the interests of full disclosure, I'm also a bit hacked off with her myself, since she went straight to my boss and got her to overrule me when I wouldn't agree with a decision she thought we should make.

So, any ideas? Short of hiring a hitman through an anonymous Cayman Islands account, which is a bit beyond my budget... ;)

Comments

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I've already spoken to my boss, but I'm getting the idea that Asking My Boss To Deal With This is not going to be an option. Unfortunately.

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I agree with batteredhaggis. Passive aggressive works.

I was in a similar situation only as a co-worker, not as a boss. A co-worker of mine (I'll call her B and I think you can guess what that stands for *g*) told people she was the only one who did the work. She loaded the spreadsheets, she manipulated the pictures, she uploaded them to the internet, yadda yadda yadda. One day, another co-worker had a spreadsheet that needed loading and he came into our office. He wanted to know where B was. She was out at the time and I asked what he needed. He told me he needed a spreadsheet loaded. I told him I'd do it. He looked at me and asked if I knew how since B was the one who did all that. I looked him straight in the eye and asked where he ever got that idea since I was the one who trained B and since she went to all the shows the company had, I did the majority of all that work.

He was a wee bit surprised but after that day, not a single person brought B a job to do. :) They found out she was fibbing.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Passive aggressive might work for her, but alas I'm going to have to deal with this...

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

Would she respond to a head-on confrontation or is she the type you have to flank from the sides? I'm guessing the old response of "You're not the only one who works here, ya know. Everyone else here does more work than you and you don't hear them overexaggerating their contributions" would work?

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I doubt head-on will lead to anything better than a full scale pity party... we've got a team meeting tomorrow morning (minus K, as she only works Mondays and Tuesdays) and I expect I'll be under significant pressure to sort this out. It won't get done next week, though, as I'm off work and I can't really not do this face to face. *sigh*

[cycnus39]

It sounds to me that she's worried she's going to lose her job and is acting out because of it.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

No way to ensure that better than what she's doing at the moment... ;)

[cycnus39]

Yup, self-fulfilling prophecy. If she is let go, she will of course say she saw it coming -- she knew you hated her from the start. ;-)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure it'll all be my fault rather than everyone else in the team wanting me to bury her under the car park!

[sg1scribe.livejournal.com]

I agree - she sounds like a very insecure person who is trying to compensate by telling everyone that she is the most important person ever.

Is there some way you can reassure her that she is a valued member of 'the team' (even though that isn't necessarily how you view her at the moment) and at the same time point out that if she makes encouraging comments to others in the team, that'll make her even more valued?

She sounds like someone who might respond to encouragement towards positive behaviour rather than confrontation over negative.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Pfft. You're all too nice. ;)

I guess the issue for me is whether the team en masse feel it's something that can be rescued - once I've gauged the collective feeling as opposed to individual complaints, I'll have more of an idea of whether it's worth expending the energy and time that will be required to deal with this.

[siluria]

I don't envy you! Our problem is out manager, who we're considering a vote of no-confidence with, unfortunately, his line manager should have an even bigger stamp of no-confidence on, so our only hope is straight to the top. I can't see that working out for us.

I'm afraid there's not much I can say to help, only that it's quite often the case that the higher-ups are completely oblivious of what's happening under their noses and sometimes they just need telling straight. How are your stealth ninja skills for sneaking into the office and catching her out???

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, we're in an open plan office which makes sneaking up much more difficult! At least I feel my immediate manager will back whatever I decide to do, as she's already told me it's my team and my decision.

I had supervision myself yesterday and advised my boss of the difficulties we were having, but I'll have to forewarn her before I step in and deal with it, because I'm sure K will go running to her and whine about how mean I'm being to her as this is how she dealt with the last time I had to tell her something.

[siluria]

At least you have backing - good luck with it!!! xx

[sg1jb]

That she went behind your back to your boss (over a decision you had made) is really a concern. I'm wondering, if she doesn't have respect for your position then it might be difficult for you to address the problem effectively...

Would involving the rest of the team in finding a strategy to deal with her be workable? If everyone adopts the same approach and response to her less endearing traits, perhaps that peer pressure might help change her behaviour a lot more effectively than a one-on-one possible confrontation with you ever could.

Maybe?

[graculus.livejournal.com]

We're having a team meeting this morning, minus K as she doesn't work on Wednesdays, so I'll see just how strong the collective feeling is, as opposed to individual complaining!

The problem is, K has been put in a position where the team (prior to my arriving) were made to feel grateful towards her as she had helped things at a busy time. However, her personality and past life experiences (the latter of which I have heard about at great length to explain why she whined about me to my boss and whined last time I spoke to her about something) mean she's very difficult to approach and address anything with. This is what happens when you inherit situations, I guess!

[manna]

Whatever you do, make sure that it's done exactly in compliance with the official HR policy. Get the handbook and find out what the procedure is for telling someone to sort out their behaviour towards other colleagues, and follow it. Especially if you think the place really would be better off if she wasn't there.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I've already primed up my boss, for starters, but I'll certainly check that out. I fully expect she'll go whining to my boss about how mean I'm being to her (which is what she did last time I had to pull her up about something) and so I'm going to put it off till I'm back rather than deal with it and let things fester while I'm off next week.

[obelix]

Can you set her some objectives that she has to meet and review them with her and identify where she's doing well and where she needs improvement and while you are doing this suggest that there has been a few grumblings about her behaviour and that she might want to work on it. You can then review with her regularly how she feels she is doing meeting her objectives and how you feel she is doing and document the process.

Sort of give her the praise where appropriate and then let her know that she has a few things to work on.

Sometimes when people have a specific goal in mind they focus on that goal and become better team players.

Also this would give you all the documentation you needed if you had to suggest that she may want to find opportunities better suited to her strengths later on ;-)

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that although she does this work for my team, I don't actually supervise her and I've inherited this situation that at times works well, but not when she's bugging the crap out of everyone!

Anyway, team meeting minus her today (as she only works Mondays and Tuesdays) so we'll see what the consensus opinion is. I'm off next week, so if I'm going to deal with it that'll have to wait till I get back, otherwise team smackdown could start next week. ;)