What is your advice if an employee is passively undermining you?

Anonymous

May 9,2023 at 1:43PM UTC

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What is your advice if an employee is passively undermining you?

My former boss (who has retired) and my former boss' boss (who is now my direct reporting boss) and all know what she's doing and they're all trying to support me while going through this because she’s an employee with an active reputation for being difficult.

I am new to this company but not new to this undistry. I came into this team knowing that there were…challenges. I was advised that active change was needed. I’ve been working hard in 7 months to change the narrative for this team and to offset the petty and trivial things being said by her behind my back by letting my work speak for itself: implementing positive change, working toward progress. But this employee has had a verbal outburst directed at me in the past over a change (that was thoroughly communicated) that she didn’t like.

This employee does not handle change well in any fashion and while does her objectives daily- will not do does not understand her work= just does the steps.

She does not have the interest in understanding her work and has outrightly said so.

This employee will give me one worded answers to OPEN questions during 1:1s, will point out others flaws and as soon as my back is turned, she is questioning my abilities and downgrading me to other teams.

This employee is relentless behind my back but will not directly say anything to me about her concerns.

She's fairly aggressive in her speech and mannerisms and has been reported to have wanted the prior manager back (the one prior to my former boss overseeing the department for a short time after a retirement). If you’re not seeing a pattern here- I’m the 4th manager to oversee this department/team in 2 years.

When speaking to my former manager (who interim oversaw this employee for a short period of time) about the concerns I have, the thought process was to “just wait her out” since we will be going through a major CORE system conversion and the thought is that she won’t stay.

I really like this company. I enjoy more than half of my direct reports; who are on board with the vision I am bringing but this one employee is putting me to the point where I am questioning if I am in the right role to do this job. Even when treated horribly by her, I have never been confrontational with her and have always been polite and tried to do what she wants within reason.

But every day is a struggle.

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AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 2:32PM UTC
Document as you can. No one in leadership wants to address the behavior so you're on your own unfortunately. This emboldens the coworker and further drives home the lack of consequence for their behavior
Shelley MunroMay 9,2023 at 2:56PM UTC
Have you consulted your HR person (Director/Manager)? Have you sat down and expressed your concerns with this employee, with a witness present? If not, I recommend doing so ASAP. That kind of behavior cannot be allowed to continue. In reading your post I honestly don’t see how you can keep her on or “wait her out”. She’s a problem for your entire team and exiting her is your best path forward. The sooner the better. By the sound of it, the entire company may breathe a sigh of relief when you do!
AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 4:34PM UTC
Moving forward, I'm quite sure HR would agree that if it's not documented, it never happened.
And you'd be wise to heed the advice: One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.
You cannot treat one person differently than the others either. That will get you in more legal trouble than anything.
A convo with HR is overdue. Do you know if previous managers have spoken with them? If not, this issue is starting from now, not then and anything from then is hearsay, so to speak. Good luck.
AnonymousMay 9,2023 at 4:56PM UTC
Excellent advice, everyone!
My question would why is she allowed to stay there as it's already been noted that she doesn't want you (or anybody else) there along with the verbal outburst?
This reminds me of a business that I was working at while attending web design school. There was someone similar to this and it was beyond obvious that if she left, everything would be peaceful as everyone got along. I had gotten to the point where although I liked everyone and the work, I just was not going to be around that. I spoke to the office manager who told me that the woman had emotional issues and that was that. Well, it was until other people started to leave.
Athena Emert Gray (aeg&co)May 9,2023 at 10:58PM UTC
Document every thing. Take it Employee Relations. They should be able to guide you and help you weed out the bad seeds.
AnonymousMay 10,2023 at 12:27PM UTC
The bigger issue ( yes your is a big issue) is she is tearing down the team. That behavior and poison is killing you and your team and their moral. Waiting for a major CORE system just allows this to continue. Document actual behavior, put in writing your expectations with her and cover those during your one on one's. Assign her learnings - classes, training sessions. If your company doesn't have a license with Quickhelp or something like this, then ask the company for a license for you to be able to assign the learnings. Linkedin is another good source for learnings you could direct her to. Fill her day with work activities and learnings. Have her create documentation of her job activities. Scribe is a nice tool. They have a free version. They also have a pro version for about 29 a month or so. Let her have it and ask her to become the dept expert and let her document the heck out of her activities.
Wish you the best on this.
AnonymousMay 10,2023 at 4:32PM UTC
I question why she is still there at all but clearly they see something in her. Why not invite your HR person to the 1-1's and start documenting what is spinning back to you from other resources. I would call her on these things and let her know that you are there to support her and the rest of the team consistently but will not allow her to defame or bad mouth you throughout the organization. With HR in tow let her know that you have been made aware of her behavior even before you joined and hope that you and she can come to a good working relationship together for the benefit of her career. Point it towards helping her and if the poison doesn't dissipate with leaderships help you may just need to provide them with an ultimatum its her or me. The only other caveat would be to file a complaint with the EEOC if its severe enough using the words hostile workplace. Good luck.
misskelleypMay 10,2023 at 4:44PM UTC
I'd talk to your boss & HR about managing her out. That kind of behavior is detrimental to the team and company. You are spending so much energy on her that could be spend doing better work for the company and team. Give her the boot as quickly as possible.
AnonymousMay 10,2023 at 5:28PM UTC
Are you her manager? You need to own this and manage her out of there. Document your discussions, 1:1's, etc. Get that documentation started before going to HR. Work with HR on getting her on a PIP. See it through. My boss is a fan of a 'this or that' (we can go the performance improvement route or you can take this separation package) - our attorney is not as much of a fan of that route.
Patricia CrookMay 11,2023 at 2:08PM UTC
As a LMHC, I wonder if there are additional factors that could be adding to this situation. Maybe the employee has legit issues that need to be dealt with by a counselor but the company cannot force this. You may need an organizational coach to lead the company via the reorganization fracas as it is obvious the employee is unwilling to change. I'm curious why there are no written documentation for the behavior -- don't you have it in policy or company manual? Make a paper trail for HR for her departure.
Liz MilneMay 12,2023 at 1:20AM UTC
Tell her bluntly that you've been brought in to implement change because the status quo is inadequate. She can get on board or go, but you won't let her drown all of you because of her inability to learn to swim a new stroke.
And ask senior management to back you up - if they won't, then they're not committed to real change...
Myra DykesMay 12,2023 at 9:12AM UTC
Time for a meeting with all involved up the management chain. Some people are not cut out for managing others and she may ge in a role she can't handle. I am finding out that many managers are never trained to do anything but oversee processes. True leaders oversee people and work hard to develop them. She sounds very insecure and he's probably never been taught a better way. If you have an HR department, it may be time to bring them into the conversation as well. Make sure everything is documented for your own protection. She won't like it that you confront her, so don't take anything personally. No job is worth keeping if you have a horrible supervisor However, nothing will change if the right people don't know what's happening
PebblesMay 12,2023 at 12:12PM UTC
Whoa! This is wholly unacceptable. It’s also insubordination.
Document every exchange. Speak to her in front of HR. Build an action plan and give her 30 days to make changes, then put her on a PIP. This is a dangerous situation and it sounds like her being gone would be an improvement.