A former coworker, who I consider a friend relayed a story to me.
His wife, also a former coworker, was at an industry function and met two of my employees.
One of my employees is on a 30 day performance improvement plan. Same employee told my friend’s wife I’m difficult to work for.
Good news is she wont have to worry about that much longer.
Reasons for PIP: shows up to work a couple hours late routinely, takes 2 hours of smoke breaks daily, has not met a deadline in the year I’ve been her supervisor, and got disciplined for bullying an employee. So yeah, I’m the difficult one.
I’ve been a supervisor for 13 years and counting. In that time I’ve had exactly one person say that I was difficult to work for. I agree; they would have found it difficult to work for me because I didn’t let them do whatever they wanted, all the time (which would have been anything other than work).
Being the boss means you have to have the difficult conversations, and some people just don’t know how to receive redirection so it makes you the bad guy. I can live with it.
I’ve been in a supervisory role with direct reports on an off for somewhere around 15 years now. In all that time I’ve had people that report to me that probably didn’t agree with my management style, but only one (that I’m aware of) said that I was a bad boss, and he was the only employee I was directly responsible for firing. He had major problems with responsiveness, meeting deadlines, showing up to places on time, or showing up at all in many cases, and offered a constant stream of excuses which became harder and harder to believe. He made up so many excuses that he often forgot his past excuses and would get caught in his own lies. He would occasionally work on projects for other project managers in the office and without exception the same bad habits would creep in and he’d blow off a meeting, miss a deadline, show up a late to a job site, ignore emails, etc. Towards the end nobody else would work with him because he was so unreliable. We had him on a PIP and I tried really, really hard to help him address the problems, but no matter what he just couldn’t break out of those bad habits. When we finally fired him he took the scorched earth approach and basically blasted everyone he possibly could, refusing to take any responsibility for any shortcomings he had.
Years ago I worked at Ford Motor Credit in collections. One or two nights a week we would work until 8:00 PM to make phone calls after hours. On most of those nights, the supervisor’s boyfriend would call to talk to her.
One night I answered the phone and heard “Rick, can I talk with Mary?”. It sounded like the boyfriend, so I thought that I would be funny. I patched her in with all three of us on the phone and said “Mary, the old fart is on the phone”.
Well, it turns out that it was the new branch manager, not her boyfriend. The next morning I went in and said “I need to explain last night.” He said, “No, you don’t need to explain it”. Surprisingly, I found myself without a job within the next 60 days.
Sounds like a valid reason for putting someone on a PIP.
It also seems like those could have been easily corrected with some feedback, coaching, etc. Unless the PIP is a formality to an already made decision to move the employee out.
However, if you’re getting feedback that you’re difficult to work with, there could be something there too for self-reflection.
e.g. If you’re demanding because you feel you have high standards for employees, that doesn’t mean you have to be difficult. Being clear about expectations, realistic, flexible, fair, and a whole bunch of other aspects of managing come into play w/out becoming difficult to work with. Managing and leading is a skill as well.
A little back story: when I interviewed for the position, i was told they want my team to work cohesive hours. Further messaging was I need to get my staff to perform better.
Lastly, I was told this person thought she should have the job I was filling. So she started coming at me in the 1st week. Im very patient. She took my patience as weakness.
After starting, I found out she left her 2 previous jobs just before the posse showed up to fire her.
Around 6/20, I am now officially granting her the opportunity to find a less difficult supervisor.
In my 35 years in the industry, difficult was never an adjective used towards me.
At an underground mine I worked at we had lots of video cameras to monitor production and for safety reasons. One of the guys in the control called me over to look at some video footage that he had just seen live.
It looked like someone was cutting off another person’s foot with an angle grinder. We called up the supervisor and asked him to investigate.
It turns out that one guy had new overalls and the legs were too long. So he asked his friend to cut them shorter using an angle grinder while he was still wearing the overalls!
Both received an attitude readjustment.
Poisoning is a whole 'nother level. Long ago, I had a new coworker in a different office. I was sort of the senior non-management guy in our group, so I’d call him regularly, just trying to help out. A few times we’d discuss some issue, and he’d have it exactly 100% backwards. Which made no sense, because he was a pretty sensible guy. It gradually became clear that his coworker in that office had taken a disliking to the new guy, and was deliberately feeding him misinformation to make him look bad. I honestly don’t understand how someone could be that horrible a person.
With some people, nothing is easily corrected. They lack the self-awareness to realize that they’re a problem. Sometimes they lack the motivation to make any changes. Sometimes it’s both. I’ve come across people that are uncoachable and any change would definitely not come easy.
Similar to op examples - Had an employee that was late and missing deadlines. Digging into it, it was because the person needed more step by step guidance to the goal. Without that, lots of wasted time, and delays. I assumed she could take more open ended problem solving tasks and run with it.
Not so.
Someone else was chronically late. Turned out to be school dropoff timing thing with a special needs kid.
This person wanted the job I filled.
She had been told before I started that she needed to be in the office by 8. She has grown kids.
Within 2 months of me starting, she had slipped to getting in at 11.
If I say something to the staff, without fail, she tries to put me in a bad light.
The poisoning she is doing is telling a valued employee that I think he is terrible at his job. While I hold him accountable. I have exhaustively told him I value him here and he’s doing good.
Her permanent record (cue Violent Femmes), is full of documentation. My patience is gone and it’s time for her to move on.
Trashing me at an industry function and poisoning and employee are the final nails.
Today was the employee’s last day. She managed to find some more reasons to make the change, incuding upsetting one of my peers in another regional office.
I hope she is able to find peace as well as a place that fits her better.
Today my department felt like a funeral visitation.
The three longer term staff had a three way hug. I found this out because my HR director told me.
My friend who told me about the comments made about me also indicated that at the industry event, people steered clear of her because she was angry.
At last week’s company wide department training. My peer from anoth region told me his staff steered clear of her because she was off putting.
My staff has forgotten her behavior and want to mourn.
I also found out my two predecessors never held anyone on my staff accountable. No wonder they are frustrated because I am not letting them skate.
My wife correctlyvstated if I knew the staff I was unheriting, I would not have taken the job.
I realize now that I was hired to fix this sh!t.
Housecleaning under way.
We had someone give notice yesterday and in the long run, it’s best for both sides. She wanted (and tried) to do more than she thought she could realistically do, but she’s well-liked and personable. She’ll be happier moving on.
Once upon a time I owned a small manufacturing company with a production line…
In Appalachia. Most of the workforce were youngish folks, recent highschool grads, blue collar, limited opportunities for earning a buck, outside of working in the fields. (just for a bit of background colour).
I was walking the production line one day and one of the guys was chewing on something that seemed larger than gum. I asked what he was chawing on, thinking it was tobacco. Nope. He opened his mouth to show me and it was a wad of packing tape. Turns out he was soaking packing tape in acetone and chewing on it to get high.
