Troublesome member of staff

delmar39

Thanks for all your comments and apologies if I painted a rather negative and inexperienced picture. It is hard to give the full picture on here and I guess my post was just sounding off rather than seeking support/advice. Again, apologies.


Basically this person reported to our CEO for 4 years and our CEO has a hands off approach to management (understatement). So I worked very closely with this person to provide the direction, guidance and support he wasn't receiving from his line manager and we had and still have a good working relationship. He has always been prone to fly off the handle and demotivate those around him in the process, but I would be the one who stepped in to understand the issues, sit down informally or get out for a coffee and a chat. However, the next day he could be exactly the same, so on it went. He would constantly come into the office saying he'd had enough and was going to hand in his notice (in front of the office), but I would sit him down and talk it through. In summary under his previous line manager outbursts in the office or none delivery of objectives went unchallenged. Since taking over his line management (he is a Senior Manager within our business) I haven't ruled with an iron fist and indeed I certainly don't expect people to stand to attention when I walk in the room! I sat down with him and talked through how we pushed things on. We'd agree objectives and how these could be hit by utilising those around him and everything seemed fine. Unfortunately many of the objectives weren't hit. We'd schedule weekly and monthly catch ups to drive things forward, but excuses for none delivery kept coming and my positive suggestions fell on deaf ears. I even offered to do things myself to support, but again he was adamant that he was capable of delivery.


Re the disciplinary this wasn't me being eager to impress, he basically had a meltdown on arrival to the office one morning due to an office tidy up removing a document that he created - this resulted in him swearing, throwing documents across the office and insulting an external partner (disabled) whilst at the same time making 3 members of staff feel threatened. I wasn't around at the time, it was reported to me, I thought it serious enough to seek HR advice they recommended an investigation, which I did, I held an investigatory meeting (he accepted full responsibility), I then submitted the notes of this meeting to my senior manager to take forward to a potential hearing, which they did. I have provided this person with no end of support, I value his input and see him as an important member of the team, but he cannot seem to lift himself out of the cycle of negativity that results in none performance. He cannot control his emotions within the office and does consistently miss deadlines that have been set. He openly admits that the problems he brings to the office are because of external influences - home life etc for which he is receiving counselling. I have arranged for him to meet with an external business mentor to enable him to talk through some of his issues objectively with a view to making a positive difference.


I admit that the relationship has become a bit strained, mainly because I have put in a lot of effort and whilst things seem to improve short term, these improvements don't last and we go back to him saying he has no motivation for the job. It can be demoralising when time and effort don't have a lasting impact.


We do not have HR internally. We contract it out. This does have an impact and I do think we need more robust HR practises, something I am looking at with one of our Trustees who works in HR.


I hope this provides more detail.

getmore4less

If this guy is senior what are those under him doing to make sure the team objectives are being met?

I have worked at a few places where it is the team that get the job done dispute management trying to mess things up.

if all his direct reports know what needs to be done then there is a better chance of it happening.

if you have not been including them then start.

if lucky one will spot the opportunity and start taking over.

FBaby

I don't look forward to coming into work at the moment because of this person and to be honest it's been a nightmare, simply want to come in and enjoy what I do

He probably feels the same as you! Seeing in from the other side, he has been at his job for 10 years, never told he wasn't performing appropriately, on the opposite, he was made to believe he was doing a good job since he was promoted. He was happy at his job, his boss was satisfied with his work, and then suddenly you show up and throw it all in the air, and he suddenly goes from being a model employee to the most incompetent one.

Whether you are too eager, or got away from what he is getting now for too long, it remains that the guy is facing quite a bit of change that he will see as you triggering it all.

theoretica

Do you get the impression he was genuinely better suited to his previous place in the hierarchy? I wonder if this might be a case of promoted to the level of incompetence.

nodiscount

this resulted in him swearing, throwing documents across the office and insulting an external partner (disabled) whilst at the same time making 3 members of staff feel threatened.

And all he got was a verbal warning? I hope there were some mitigating circumstances!

I think you need to explore reasonable adjustments and consent to write to his doctor with a view to get insight into his condition, not to spy...so that you are fully aware of how you can support him.

After that, depending on what gp says, are you able to pay for therapy of some sort?

But none of this will work if he doesn't trust you.

delmar39

theoretica wrote: »

Do you get the impression he was genuinely better suited to his previous place in the hierarchy? I wonder if this might be a case of promoted to the level of incompetence.

Thanks for this. Our CEO promoted him and gave him additional projects to fill capacity rather than on capability, past performance etc. He admits himself that he isn't or doesn't want to be involved in management. I have defended this person and even when our CEO was managing him rather than addressing the issues through management and support she wanted and wants him out. I know it came across as though I've gone in all guns blazing, but actually nothing much has changed as I was doing similar things with him prior to taking over his line management and as I've already said we do have a good relationship. I've said on numerous occasions to him that I want to work as a team where we support each other to do the best we can. For some reason he cannot help light fires that I'm frequently having to put out. I've told him that he's firing the ammunition for people to use against him constantly, but he is trying very hard to overcome some of his difficulties.

delmar39

nodiscount wrote: »

And all he got was a verbal warning? I hope there were some mitigating circumstances!

I think you need to explore reasonable adjustments and consent to write to his doctor with a view to get insight into his condition, not to spy...so that you are fully aware of how you can support him.

After that, depending on what gp says, are you able to pay for therapy of some sort?

But none of this will work if he doesn't trust you.

Thank you for this. Guess who chaired the hearing...our CEO! I was told that the advice from HR was a verbal, but when I asked HR they said they recommended AT LEAST a first written. Our CEO is known for talking a good game, but has never been great at facing these issues head on. So I was totally undermined by her decision. The disciplinary wasn't me being harsh either, as some appear to imply, if someone behaves like that in the office then the behaviour cannot go unchallenged because other staff will expect that they can do the same thing without consequences. Yes thanks may follow up your suggestion to seek GP info have considered this.

delmar39

FBaby wrote: »

He probably feels the same as you! Seeing in from the other side, he has been at his job for 10 years, never told he wasn't performing appropriately, on the opposite, he was made to believe he was doing a good job since he was promoted. He was happy at his job, his boss was satisfied with his work, and then suddenly you show up and throw it all in the air, and he suddenly goes from being a model employee to the most incompetent one.

Whether you are too eager, or got away from what he is getting now for too long, it remains that the guy is facing quite a bit of change that he will see as you triggering it all.

He does! He says it to me regularly! Seriously he has never been seen as a model employee, simply got away with it. He's in a position where staff have to liaise with him on a daily basis and at times he's unapproachable. It hasn't always been this bad, but he does have a reputation for being negative and providing poor service from time to time. We've had leadership training where we've all worked on our weaknesses and to be fair he did identify his, but we're no further on. The previous post perhaps sums it up re reaching a level of incompetence. Perhaps it is a case of realigning what he does in the restructure I don't want him to leave as he has so much experience, but with support he needs to play his part in the improvement process which he is trying to do. Last week he took a call from his business mentor in the office in front of his staff and rather than phoning back he proceeded to tell them how depressed he was, stressed, demotivated etc. When I spoke to him about this and declaring his current situ to his direct reports, he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. His staff felt differently as they had to leave the room and then reported it to me. This is what I meant about self awareness, knowing when to keep things to yourself.

delmar39

Thank you for all your comments. I know I painted a rather negative picture on my part at the beginning, but actually all comments have made me think so that's really positive. It's hard to paint the full picture as there are lots of issues in our organisation at present, some stemming from our CEO, but suffice it to say I'll see this through by supporting the member of staff and he is trying hard to improve the situation.

delmar39

getmore4less wrote: »

If this guy is senior what are those under him doing to make sure the team objectives are being met?

I have worked at a few places where it is the team that get the job done dispute management trying to mess things up.

if all his direct reports know what needs to be done then there is a better chance of it happening.

if you have not been including them then start.

if lucky one will spot the opportunity and start taking over.

You are right his team perform without his management. In fact, some on significantly less perform more effectively. I mentioned a restructure earlier on in this post - his staff could quite straightforwardly take on some of his duties. I want him to perform. I've told him that he hasn't got long left to work and that he should go out on a positive. We'll see how he responds in the next few weeks.