Guildance on managing employee

cobbingstones

Hello

I'm new to being a manager (self employed) and I'm finding it challenging dealing with an employee who initially showed a lot of potential, but now five weeks in is needing some ground rules and for me to be more 'boss' like. I find it difficult challenging people and would appreciate some advice on how to deal with staff who have had customer complaints and who the other members of the team are becoming peed off with them due to their 'I know everything' attitude and also at times lying.

How would you deal with this?

Thanks

Takeaway_Addict

Informal chat to start with. With a list for you to work through with the candidate.

Southend1

cobbingstones wrote: »

Hello

I'm new to being a manager (self employed) and I'm finding it challenging dealing with an employee who initially showed a lot of potential, but now five weeks in is needing some ground rules and for me to be more 'boss' like. I find it difficult challenging people and would appreciate some advice on how to deal with staff who have had customer complaints and who the other members of the team are becoming peed off with them due to their 'I know everything' attitude and also at times lying.

How would you deal with this?

Thanks

It would help you manage this person effectively if you gain am understanding of why he has a know it all attitude. Could be insecurity and trying to impress precisely because he doesn't know everything about his new job and is worried this will show.

Training and mentorship are likely to help more than challenging this employee.

Has he had a thorough induction to explain company policies and procedures and the kind of attitudes and behaviours you expect of your employees?

ali-t

Ensure you go prepared into the meeting with evidence. Don't attempt to wing it. If you have details of the complaint you need to speak to the person about it so they can change their behaviour to ensure it doesn't happen again.

If they have been lying, again you need evidence of it to be able to do anything.

If you are only 5 weeks in and the person is being a nightmare you need to put boundaries and rules in place or you are in for a hard time.

ILW

If he has only been employed for 5 weeks, just say goodbye and replace with someone better.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

If a staff member has had complaints, is lying and has a bad attitude 5 weeks into the job, I'd be getting rid personally.

top_drawer_2

Good employers create good employees in my experience.

Plus if you avoid dealing with the issue now (by taking the easy route), then what will you do when you get someone more troublesome.

Have you got small business support available? Can you look into getting it?

I'm shocked how many people are advocating getting rid of this individual without looking into the reason behind their attitude. Imagine the post from this individuals perspective "I started a job five weeks ago and no one is willing to help me so I'm sucking it up by ignoring the behaviour and sticking with what I know from my previous job - I try to appear confident but I think everyone hates me..."

bluenoseam

in 5 weeks he's annoying other staff, has garnered complaints & is showing a visible attitude. Might sound harsh, but that to me suggests the best way to manage him is pull him aside, tell him that he's no longer an employee & give him the relevant paperwork. That's 3 fairly significant issues inside 2 months and I get the feeling he's not likely to adapt well to boundaries.

lizzydarcy

You may wish to give ACAS a ring or check out their website.

Not only do they have lots of helpful advice for this type of issue which can be good to protect yourself legally but they run training sessions which could help in the long term.

At 5 weeks though, if you state in your contract of employment that there is probation period, you could probably get rid without an issue and at 5 weeks, unfair dismissal shouldn't be an issue.

You say the employee has potential though which leads me to think that you might want to consider giving this employee a second chance. If this is the route you decide to take, I think the best way forward would involve a sit down chat with the employee and address your concerns with them and then draw up an "Action Plan."

The action plan would be an agreement on what behavior you need to see improve and over what timescale. If the employee breaches the conditions and you get rid of him, at least you can say you gave him the chance to air his concerns and to improve.

Make sure you make notes in the meeting for his personal file - its easy to forget things.

AmberNguyen

Start off with a polite conversation with them..but if that doesn't works for them than it is time you teach them a lesson..get them under your command and act like a real boss..there is mo place for mercy.
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Lagoon

From the point of view of an employee, I once worked with someone like this.

They lied, they had a know it all attitude and they refused to listen to instruction.

As soon as they entered the company, they made their mark by refusing to do any work that was 'below them'. They would walk around telling other experienced professionals how to do their job, and would go behind the backs of others and be generally !!!!!y.

Eventually, after only a month or two, it reached the point where this person has filed two complaints against other members of staff. One complaint against me and someone else, for 'gossiping' about them, and another complaint against someone much more senior because this person wasn't their manager but had asked them to do a task. The complaint there was that this person had been aggressive.

Needless to say, nobody in the company was sad to see them go. The company gave them many chances to change, including a few weeks off for 'stress' after the aggression incident when they refused to work until the other person had been disciplined.

In this case, we all recognised that this person didn't have a clue what they were doing but their attitude was that they were superior. I think that as a manager you can work on behaviour but you can't change attitude. If someone's attitude isn't looking good so soon, don't put your other employees through the experience of having to work with this person long term.