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I have been at my job for 90 days as a manager.

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Anonymous

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I have been at my job for 90 days as a manager. I walked into a department with 300% turn over rate, sales team not meeting revenue goals and my position as the director is new for the company. I have a team of 4 and have spent the last 90 days training, observing and implementing minor changes. My management style is open door, collaborative and friendly. One of my employees routinely gives directives to the group during our morning meeting, comes in late too frequently and tries to leave early. When observing her follow up reports with customers, she on average has only done 11 emails in any given day when she has 63 customers. When we had an event, she purposely scheduled a one on one meeting with a client at the same time knowing 3 weeks ago we were hosting this event and all hands on deck. Mind you this was not a new customer but a repeat. I reminded her and the team to please do not schedule meetings with clients when we have an event. She tried to tell me she didn’t know we had one,etc. I confronted her that yes, it was on the morning meeting board, emailed to her and gave her invitations 3 weeks ago. She has now gone to HR and I don’t know how to deal with this. Please help

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  1. Sandra Swearingen

    Sounds like a want a be boss who wants to come and go as she pleases. Make sure she is meeting her competencies. Work with her on those with the help of hr. Ask hr to assist you-don’t leave them out of the loop.

  2. Anonymous

    Document, document, document! Keep detailed notes, including dates and others who can corroborate the information. Every meeting, email, screen shot of communications to her that she denied. The impact of her actions and lack of performance. Not showing up as directed. Leaving early when she had a responsibility. You are going to need this to counteract what she is telling HR, perhaps put her on a PIP or potentially terminate.

  3. Me!

    Have uncomfortable conversations regarding expectations with any direct reports early and often, don’t let it pile up. Document the discussions and send a follow up e-mail to ensure the information was clear. Discuss with HR the companies procedures regarding write ups, review and understand company policies (time and attendance etc..). Identify if your HR department is transactional or collaborative. In some cases you may find they are open to offering guidance and support to improve this employee’s performance without formal involvement. Directing the group in morning meetings for example , this would be an immediate discussion right after the meeting, so you have an example to refer to. If it happens again correct this employee kindly during the meeting. The team and this individual need to see you assert yourself. Good luck

  4. Diane-Sam Adkins

    Document, document, and document. Please reach out to HR and share what you are noticing. You have a digital trail. Sooo…you can prove everything that you sent. Pick one or two pertinent issues you want to address immediately and start with those…can’t eat the entire elephant at once. Also, create a digital notebook that you both can be a part of for ongoing meeting notes. Highlight things that are going well and “Goals” to continue to work on for improvement with timelines. If…this does not work…May be time for a formal PIP.

  5. Frances Sadler

    Make sure you document info provided in morning meetings in an e-mail. Follow-up with calender invitations and REQUIRE staff to accept or decline within 3 days.

  6. Anonymous

    Wow! I’m sure you’ve documented it all. The sales performance is one of your best pieces of evidence to use when you go to HR and let them know all of this. Emphasize that you had hoped to avoid having to go to them, but that you wished you had.

    How is this person’s pipeline? Is it BS and is why the person is not communicating to these supposed prospects? That’s a common tactic with ineffective salespeople, as I’m sure you know. But it needs to be part of your documentation.

    This person is an antagonist, but you don’t want to say that. But I do wonder if either s/he was disappointed when the last person left, or even better, may have wanted the job for him or herself. As much as I despise these because they’re often abused, this person needs to be on a PIP.

  7. Anonymous

    Document and write her up.

  8. GirlBossanova934974

    Having worked in Sales and Marketing for a few decades, I am asking myself what's going on here????? First and foremost, is this out of line salesperson hitting her sales goals/numbers and why didn't you bring it up? If she's not hitting her numbers, well you know why. If she is hitting her numbers and , that says something about your system. Making "minor changes" to a sales team which has a 300% turnover AND cannot meet its sales numbers is probably NOT going to work. Suggest you dig deeper on the quotas and find out if they are realistic and if your team members are cut out for their roles. Time to work with the numbers and find out where people are falling short. Are they losing big accounts and just bringing in new accounts to replace the ones they lost? Are they wasting time with junk leads? Are the lead qtys enough considering the win rates?

  9. Anonymous

    Sit her down, read her the rules. Let her know that you are tracking her stats and what you expect. Let her know what the minimums are and that going forward your expectations are that she follows the schedules as set. Make sure you memorialize everything in writing and if need be bcc or openly cc HR. Let her go to HR she is just going to whine, but that is irrelevant because you need to manage her into the same path as others. Don't let her gaslighting affect your leadership, stop it before it festers and infects others in the team. You got this sister!

  10. Anonymous

    I agree with all the suggestions mentioned about reframe and manage. Document everything. And, you may in the next 90 days start letting 1-2 folks go--or move them to a new department.

    Keep in mind, you entered a difficult situation. I've seen many Directors burnout hard and fast (we're talking trips to the ER for major health issues brought on by stress). Do the best you can. But keep in mind, you alone cannot turn this ship around. You may just be another cog in their wheel that they'll gladly burn. I'm not trying to be negative, rather, highlighting that if this starts impacting your health, it's a sign.

    Do what you can,- reach out here for advice, read management tips online, and get whatever wins you can.

    Good luck!

    Leah

  11. JB09718

    Document everything and follow up any in person conversations in emails moving forward. (Send with a read receipt if she’s going to deny being informed of things.) I would also look into your company’s discipline policy, her contract, and any other policy (working hours etc.) and pull from that. There isn’t going to be a way to return to your friendly open management style now that she’s gone to HR. I would suggest being more formal and make sure you’re managing/enforcing policy to the letter, she’s probably going to be looking for faults to report. (Would also dig into her history at the company too, has she always underperformed? Or was this a recent change with the new leadership structure? She seems resentful being managed, did she apply for the director position and was denied? Is she friendly/close with others on the team? Her attitude could be toxic and spread to the team, would try to give the team extra attention to make sure that doesn’t happen.)

  12. Rebecca Milliken

    Why does this salesperson have this attitude? Does she have high numbers? That's the only reason I can see she'd think she can get away with this behavior.

    If everything you have done is documented, i.e. invitations to the event, clear directive it's all hands on deck, etc. etc. she has no reason to complain to HR. She can whine all she wants but so what? The only thing I can see that would give her clout is, again, if her numbers are super high.

    You came in to fix something. That is your objective. Don't allow anyone to undermine you. Don't be cowed by someone running to HR because they got schooled.

  13. Abbylala

    I experienced this at my last company (though one person complained to my boss instead of HR about it) and it is happening because she was never managed or held accountable by her last boss. Just know you are doing the right thing and document everything.

  14. Anonymous

    Start a pip explain to her what start documenting everything she is undermining your leadership and has no interest in doing her job

  15. Anonymous

    Write her up officially.

  16. Liz Milne

    I think you've found the reason for the high turnover rate. Who is she related to?

  17. Anonymous

    You need to go to HR and put her on a performance improvement plan. She clearly doesn’t understand her role and thinks it’s higher than that. Have all the evidence of all the communications with her. Any oral communication with her needs to have a written follow up that summarizes your conversation. Give her clear Deadlines and instructions.

  18. Lisa OGrady

    Yes! Document, document document ALL of it!

  19. Anonymous

    I had a peer like this once, she tried to have a utopian work environment for herself. I called her out on it in an email by stating to "stop passing her job responsibilities to me that are hers" . Not quite the same situation as yours. But HR got involved they did not talk to me once. The other person starting making a half arse effort in meetings!!!

  20. Anonymous

    Feel free to stop using the word “please”. She has abused the word and it seems she has no intention of changing her ways. Some people just need to be documented disciplined and fired.

    By the way, she may be the reason for the 300% turnover.

  21. Anonymous

    She's undermining your authority in front of your team, and you letting her continue just sends the message to your team and the entire company that you're okay with her behaviour.

    My advice: Fire her!

    It's only by termintating her will your team see that you're serious about turning the department around.

  22. Celena Barton

    You’re her manager and she is clearly violating the team rules. I wouldn’t worry about HR; she should be worried.

  23. Aria

    She can go to HR all she wants, you still have to review her performance an can easily back it up...

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