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

[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.

[cycnus39]

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

[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???

[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?

[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.

[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 ;-)