I need help managing people - I'm at my wits end

[cheezer]

We hired someone in October to work as an analyst under me.  It's now been 3+ months and he just does not get it and is continually screwing up things that are completely common sense.  Today was the last straw at calling in 10 minutes late to a conference call.  He also shows up at meetings unprepared without the documents we're going to discuss and forgets to do things that I've asked of him.  There's a whole host of other things that I won't detail.

We work in a fast-paced environment with a lot of stress so it is not easy by any means but I shouldn't have to babysit a 26 year old.  The peers of his that I have worked with are much better.  He's not ramping up.  Nothing I say seems to change anything.  I've had summer interns who I've worked with for 2 weeks who are better.  Does anyone have suggestions?  I'm also not formally his manager so I can't fire him, report him to HR, or anything like that.

[SJ]

Can you talk to whoever is his formal manager? Do you think others share your concerns? Does he know that you are unhappy with his performance and what your complaints are? What is the review process like?

[sweetnsour]

I would talk to his manager since you already tried everything with him. He might respond to his manager since they should be able to write him up if needed.

[dr.girlfriend]

He works under you, but you can't report on his performance to anyone? Whoever his manager is, they should be informed continually, as should the guy. Deficiencies should be documented, a remediation plan set in conjunction with HR, and he should be fired if he can't remediate his deficiencies.

[cjeanette]

I would have a meeting with his manager and have specific examples outlined to go over. Does this analyst only work with you? If he works with others do you know if they have the same concerns?

[cheezer]

So my boss is his manager but I feel she thinks it's on me and this other guy to train the analyst. So I feel like I'm failing my boss in a way. But I do think I should come up with a written review, go over it with my boss, and then give it to my analyst in a semi-formal feedback session. As he was new this year, he did not get a formal review.

[cheezer]

Jan 30, 2015 13:26:15 GMT -5 cjeanette said:

I would have a meeting with his manager and have specific examples outlined to go over. Does this analyst only work with you? If he works with others do you know if they have the same concerns?

He works under me and my VP.  I myself have concerns about my VP so its one giant cluster.  VP has concerns about analyst but I think is willing to give more time than I am.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

That's how I felt with two of my $$$ temps. I spoke to them first & then I ended their assignment when they didn't perform, but I know that's not helpful to you.

I'd talk to his manager first and then I'd sit him down & lay it all out on the table with concrete examples.

"You are unprepared for meetings. Examples xyz. You consistently arrive late to meetings. Examples abc. You simply do not do tasks that I give you. Examples def. You need to come to meetings on time & prepared."

I'd also have more consistent check-ins with him. Make him give you a status update every day or twice a day on where he stands with the tasks you assigned & give him stricter deadlines. I find that if I give an assignment w/o a deadline, people won't focus as much on it.

[ECB]

Jan 30, 2015 13:27:44 GMT -5 cheezer said:

So my boss is his manager but I feel she thinks it's on me and this other guy to train the analyst. So I feel like I'm failing my boss in a way. But I do think I should come up with a written review, go over it with my boss, and then give it to my analyst in a semi-formal feedback session. As he was new this year, he did not get a formal review.

Well, you "feel" she thinks, but do you KNOW?

Past that- what have you done to train him?  Detail that.  And detail how he's still messing up.  In the end, this probably has absolutely NOTHING to do with training.  A) He may just be lazy and doesn't care, or B) this isn't a good match for him skills wise and it's NEVER going to work.

Training isn't the catch-all solution and if they really peg it all on that and, in turn, all on you, that's poor management going on.

[sweetnsour]

I would document everything. Let your boss know what is going on and ask if she has suggestions on how to handle it. Make sure you detail the steps you have taken so far.

[cheezer]

Jan 30, 2015 13:49:45 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Jan 30, 2015 13:32:02 GMT -5 Balki.Bartokomous said:

That's how I felt with two of my $$$ temps. I spoke to them first & then I ended their assignment when they didn't perform, but I know that's not helpful to you.

I'd talk to his manager first and then I'd sit him down & lay it all out on the table with concrete examples.

"You are unprepared for meetings. Examples xyz. You consistently arrive late to meetings. Examples abc. You simply do not do tasks that I give you. Examples def. You need to come to meetings on time & prepared."

I'd also have more consistent check-ins with him. Make him give you a status update every day or twice a day on where he stands with the tasks you assigned & give him stricter deadlines. I find that if I give an assignment w/o a deadline, people won't focus as much on it.

I think this is very good advice.  Be honest and specific with him about what he needs to improve.  Document what you've told him and the plan going forward.  Micromanaging sucks, but I would position it as trying to get him through his development needs as quickly as possible.  I know you probably don't have a lot of time for this, but the alternative is probably worse (i.e. re-doing his work).

Also, why is he an analyst at his age?

He took 2 years off to do his Mormon mission or something and he had 2 years in accounting first. Also, the only analyst with 2 children and a wife that doesn't work.

[leeluu]

I agree with Balki. How confident are you in the amount and quality of feedback you have given him? Often times managers think employees should "just know", or feel they have given good direction when they haven't.

Have you told him directly (as an example) it is never acceptable to be late to a meeting? Before moving to formal documentation, you should make sure you have given him the feedback verbally.

[ECB]

Jan 30, 2015 16:43:32 GMT -5 @choco said:

Jan 30, 2015 16:17:32 GMT -5 leeluu said:

I agree with Balki. How confident are you in the amount and quality of feedback you have given him? Often times managers think employees should "just know", or feel they have given good direction when they haven't.

Have you told him directly (as an example) it is never acceptable to be late to a meeting? Before moving to formal documentation, you should make sure you have given him the feedback verbally.

Wait, WHAT? Since when is this something that you need to tell a 26 year old with a wife and 2 kids to do? I weep for our future. 

IT's sad but yes, there are people who you actually have to spell shit like this out for.

[ECB]

OP - thinking about the late thing- have you asked him why he's late and/or what HE feels he can do to make sure it doesn't happen again? Putting it on him to voice a solution might make it more "real" that he needs to do this, if that makes sense.

[Balki.Bartokomous]

Jan 30, 2015 16:43:32 GMT -5 @choco said:

Jan 30, 2015 16:17:32 GMT -5 leeluu said:

I agree with Balki. How confident are you in the amount and quality of feedback you have given him? Often times managers think employees should "just know", or feel they have given good direction when they haven't.

Have you told him directly (as an example) it is never acceptable to be late to a meeting? Before moving to formal documentation, you should make sure you have given him the feedback verbally.

Wait, WHAT? Since when is this something that you need to tell a 26 year old with a wife and 2 kids to do? I weep for our future. 

Sadly, there are many people out there who do need to be told that. I think leeluu 's advice is a good CYA move just in case. You never know.

My company was pretty fast-paced and we tried to hire higher level analysts but it was still a crap shoot. To find a good analyst, I finally figured out that I had to focus my search on people who had been at a manager level. Seriously. It was kind of ridiculous.

[larzhope]

I totally agree - this guy needs things spelled out for him completely in a 1) this is what I've observed 2) this is the expectation 3) here's the business impact of when you fail to meet that expectation 4) come back to me with a plan on how you are going to make sure it's not going to happen again.

I would do this for each issue (tardiness, lack of preparation, any errors in analysis, etc)

[livinitup]

When this happned to me, I wrote detailed emails to my boss on each performance issue. It was becoming obvious that the worker was a poor fit for the job but the worker went around me and got sympathy from my boss -who perferred to be 'supportive'. I felt very worried that the staff's poor performance was becoming less their ineptness and more 'poor poodles, you need better training'. No. Just no. Those emails became the documentation for her termination when my boss was ready.

I think you need to start covering your ass with this guy.

[shopgirl07]

Put him on a performance improvement plan (PIP) with clear objectives and consequences.

[cosmos]

Being late to meetings may be a work culture thing that he doesn't get.

It's acceptable and common for people to be late to meetings in my company. I'm shocked if a meeting begins on time. And I'm in an average of 6 meetings per day.

So, he needs to be told that it's not acceptable in yours. I wouldn't assume that he knows.

[cosmos]

Jan 31, 2015 21:45:02 GMT -5 shopgirl07 said:

Put him on a performance improvement plan (PIP) with clear objectives and consequences.

Something like this definitely needs to be vetted with HR.

[v]

Feb 1, 2015 0:34:37 GMT -5 cosmos said:

Being late to meetings may be a work culture thing that he doesn't get.

It's acceptable and common for people to be late to meetings in my company. I'm shocked if a meeting begins on time. And I'm in an average of 6 meetings per day.

So, he needs to be told that it's not acceptable in yours. I wouldn't assume that he knows.

I agree with this.  At the law firms I worked at (very fast-paced environments), no partner was EVER on time for anything other than a court appearance.  Meetings, conference calls, etc. always started late -- *because* so much was going on and they couldn't just drop everything to get on a call.  It drove me crazy as a ridiculously prompt person, but there was nothing I could do about it because of where I fell in the food chain.  If he's worked/interned in a different fast-paced environment before (accounting certainly may count -- my husband said nothing ever happened on time at his accounting firm -- hell, they blew important deadlines all the time because they were busy), he may be used to a similar culture.

[cosmos]

Feb 1, 2015 10:02:26 GMT -5 v said:

Feb 1, 2015 0:34:37 GMT -5 cosmos said:

Being late to meetings may be a work culture thing that he doesn't get.

It's acceptable and common for people to be late to meetings in my company. I'm shocked if a meeting begins on time. And I'm in an average of 6 meetings per day.

So, he needs to be told that it's not acceptable in yours. I wouldn't assume that he knows.

I agree with this.  At the law firms I worked at (very fast-paced environments), no partner was EVER on time for anything other than a court appearance.  Meetings, conference calls, etc. always started late -- *because* so much was going on and they couldn't just drop everything to get on a call.  It drove me crazy as a ridiculously prompt person, but there was nothing I could do about it because of where I fell in the food chain.  If he's worked/interned in a different fast-paced environment before (accounting certainly may count -- my husband said nothing ever happened on time at his accounting firm -- hell, they blew important deadlines all the time because they were busy), he may be used to a similar culture.

I should note half of my meetings are with legal. Haha.

But others are late too. My boss and director are always late. Strikes you are stuck in another meeting and can't lwave. We have a lot going on and people stick things on your calendar.