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Trying to get a direct report to improve in their primary job function because of too many mistakes that are impacting too many people and holding up due dates.

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Trying to get a direct report to improve in their primary job function because of too many mistakes that are impacting too many people and holding up due dates.

There have been performance issues with this employee for the entire time I've worked with them. I tried to address these issues in the past with them, was told by them they didn't like how I asked them to do things and that I needed to be nicer to them. Because these issues did not involve their primary job function, I kind of let it go.

Almost a year later, I'm seeing the same issues with their primary job function, and it has been causing a lot of issues. I and other people are spending too much time cleaning up the mess these errors are causing. I am spending the most amount of time correcting their work.

I've kind of had it with this, so had a very serious meeting with them today saying that this really needed to change and this employee needed to make some serious improvements and the impact their errors and behavior were having on other people. I did not say anything in this meeting that was giving this employee praise because I don't think this will help the employee improve.

They told me I was being rude and disrespectful and was finding too many errors (this is my job to make sure things are correct) and I was the problem because I was pointing out too many errors. The majority of these errors are things this employee has been trained and retrained in, so it's not like they are being thrown to the wolves and then criticized no matter what they do.

Generally what is happening is I will send written communication asking them to correct a mistake, and many times the mistake isn't corrected as instructed so I have to follow up and generally say something like the below instructions are saying to make this and this correction, and this fix still hasn't been made.

I don't really think I was being rude or disrespectful and told them it was my job to make sure things are done correctly. Am I in the wrong here or is this employee just trying to manipulate me anytime I give them constructive criticism?

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  1. Anonymous

    Your tone just in this post is offensive. If you are going come at someone with a laundry list of mistakes, you aren't leading, you are criticizing. Not helpful.

    You need to meet them as a leader with am aim to remedy the issues not stand in blame. Find out why the mistakes are happening, what you can do to support the correction and how to set a tone of cooperation.

    YOU must dismantle your tactics and figure out how to be part of the solution.

    Write the new process, have another team member oversee the process and then take note of improvements and failings. Your fix-it follow ups should be person and you need to understand why she didn't complete them. I seriously doubt she is just blowing off your direction.

    It just sounds like you're missing 80% of what is happening here

  2. Anonymous

    I don't understand your reply at all, because if I don't ask them to fix their mistakes, then someone else will have to fix it. They have been given a lot of extra training time and tools to perform better and they don't use them or follow instruction at all. I've already tried your route and it has resulted in no change and wasted time. I would also be held for professional negligence by the state board if I wasn't catching their errors.

  3. Anonymous

    Managers can expect good performance and ask for errors to be fixed. This is not the manager’s fault.

  4. Anonymous

    I really have to wonder about your personal work ethic if you feel

    your boss has to tiptoe around you when you make mistakes in a job you were trained to do. In this case it sounds like errors are erupting in a job she previously did without this extent of errors.

    I generally agree that taking time to find out “why” can be useful but in the mean time team morale is falling and errors continue. Not ok whatever the cause.

    In this case the employee is clearly rejecting feedback. Give the OP a break. As I read this she has already given this employee too much lenience.

  5. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

    What has happened to accountability.

    It's not rude nor disrespectful to ask/or expect an employee to do their job correctly. Especially if they've been trained and retrained. By you and your co-workers cleaning up their work, you are in essence enabling them to continue to do shoddy work.

    PIP them and document everything. Unless you want to keep doing their work for them.

  6. Janet Parkhurst

    I'd just get rid of this drain... immediately!

  7. Anonymous

    Is there any way for you to have someone job shadow this employee for a day. Perhaps watch and see where the mistakes are being made. Are these simple things she is overlooking or could it be something she is genuinely confused about.

    Have you done a 5 Why to get to the root of the issue at hand? Just telling someone how to fix an issue isn't really training them. It also takes explaining why this will fix the issue. When I ask for help with an issue, I want to know why the answer fixes the problem. It takes longer to explain to me but once I "get it", I never ask again.

    Good luck.

  8. Wanda Shaw

    True, some folks do need to have the “why’s” answered before they’re able to connect the dots. (Lol). I’m that way. And I thank the Lord everyday that I work in an environment that accommodates my learning style. However, I know that’s not the case in every industry. In many cases, you have to come in qualified and capable of doing the work from day one.

  9. Anonymous

    The tail is wagging the dog here! Your direct report knows that any time they claim you’re rude or mean, you back off! This has been your pattern, several times over. As others have said, PIP this person and get rid of them. You’ll destroy your credibility and office culture if you continue to accommodate this low performer to avoid uncomfortable conversations about accountability.

  10. Sue Gordon- retired Career Coach

    Direct report is gas lighting you to deflect attention. They are 100% manipulating you. Hopefully your organization has

    HR and a performance review process. Document every error and interaction. Take the formal steps to give them the opportunity to improve and if they don’t then work with your company to terminate them. Make it a short timeline.

  11. Pamela Patton

    Are they Gen X?

  12. Anonymous

    what does that have to do with it?

  13. Gail Buckley Crane

    I had a situation like this when I was supervising a "clinical transcription team". This being HealthCare errors could be "life or death". I had a new employee and as usual she was on a 3-month "probation" timeframe. The new employee was very slow in her turn-around time, and her work showed significant errors and general lack of quality. Compounding this the employee was in a "protected ethnic group" so she made a complaint to the EEOC office in our town. I had kept copies of reports with problems... anticipating legal issues? A full investigation was done - and I presented copies of reports with mistakes and comparisons to other similar staff. The investigator was a member of the "protected ethnic group" . She initially came into the discussion very defensive, seemingly expecting a case of discrimination. We spoke for about 30 min and I was able to show the specific issues and errors and to compare with other employees with similar tenure. By the end of the meeting she was clear that there were performance issues that had nothing to do with discrimination. The EEOC investigator reported that the allegations of discrimination were unfounded - I'm so glad I kept good documentation.

  14. Anonymous

    Without knowing the full detail (what the job is, what the errors are, training, obstacles, priorities, etc.), I'm guessing here.

    That said, if the employee is pushing back in that way (saying you're rude and disrespectful) they are either directly manipulating you or not mature enough to handle criticism, or both. If they honestly believe in what they are saying, that you are rude, then that could be referring to your delivery. They could be saying without saying, that they don't understand you or the problem (and don't want to be punished and are freezing when they feel threatened). Now, that was a just a big guess, and at the end of the day, even if that guess were correct (and giving them a whole big benefit of the doubt)- it's really just more for you to consider how you deliver information and how it is interpreted - in future.

    It sounds like a heart to heart with a short timeline is needed. Tell her this is her top priority. Document everything. You may choose to involve HR, consider a PIP or performance review, and follow the process.

    Depending on the job, is there only 1 way to do something? If it is a mistake, make sure proper training is done, not just fixing it or telling her how you'd do it. And, ask her for feedback on if the training helped.

    FWIW- I was once at a job where a woman was blamed for making mistakes, being too slow, etc. While some of that was true, she was really just an embodiment of a broken system that was at capacity -she couldn't handle fixing things. So, she'd pass them up the line to more experienced folks who could fix it (even though that wasn't their job, they just knew how). Really, the issue was that those mistakes never should have been passed to her (they were product and customer support pipeline issues). Sometimes people do the best or least they can do because they're aware of the bigger storm. (Now, that may be an issue that the company doesn't want to address, but I'm just highlighting for you to check the full picture---and maybe you have).

    Follow through on whatever consequences you mention. Good luck.

  15. Barb Hansen

    Along with the miriad of other things we deal with as people managers, my view of people management is that it's my job as a people manager to deal the issues on my team quickly, including working with team members to fix any issues they are having with grace. I'm not a fan of bad apples with bad habits rotting in the corner affecting the moral of the whole team. I'm not saying that your situation is a "bad apple rotting in the corner affecting the whole team", I'm only relating why I like to deal with issues quickly.

    I'll share one story of dealing with a team member's issues quickly...

    I had a direct report who could never complete a project on time—like 95% of the time, her projects were late.

    Even simple projects were late or last-minute. If, by some lucky star alignment, a project was delivered on time, it had mistakes that resulted in additional time in QA.

    I took over doing the QA on her code because I didn't want the additional QA work to fall on the QA team, so I had a close-up view of her work and her lack of progress.

    This person was relatively new to my team but not new to her career, so she had the skills to do the work.

    I met bi-weekly with everyone on my team to discuss issues they were having and their career goals And during her meetings, I brought up her completion stats with her weekly over the course of a six-weeks or so, and every meeting she swore that she'd do better.

    Her "I'll do better. I know I'm running late. I just want to make sure everything is right" excuses weren't cutting it anymore, and she was starting to get defensive, and the rest of the team was noticing, and I had to solve this problem.

    She wasn't lazy or doing other stuff while at work; she worked in the cubicle directly across from mine, so I knew she was working.

    I had a few options: I could put her on a PIP, I could let her go, or I could try another tactic to dig into why simple projects (that she absolutely had the skills to do) were causing her such troubles.

    I decided to try another tactic.

    I scheduled a one-on-one in the cafeteria (remember when we all went into the office?), and we found a quiet corner to talk. I asked her what I could do to help her with her late projects and what she needed from me. No judgment, no blaming—just a simple "How can I help you?" She sheepishly said that she had issues using our job ticketing system. It wasn't anything in particular; she just found it difficult to use and that it didn't really help her with her time management.

    She was embarrassed and ashamed, which was why she didn't tell me during our other meetings, and I hadn't made a safe place for her to discuss the real reason for her performance.

    I asked her what tools she used in the past, and she let me know (those super large post-it notes were her answer).

    We found the office supply catalog, and she ordered the set she wanted.

    Was her cubicle covered in hot pink and yellow 8x11 post-it notes? Yes

    Did her work performance improve? Yes.

    Was she perfect? No, but she moved from my lowest performer to "just another team member who occasionally missed a delivery date" and I didn't have to do her QA anymore.

    I've used the "how can I help you?" tactic plenty over my people manager career and although it doesn't always work (I've had to let go of underperforming staff) but more often than not, it did work.

  16. Anonymous

    OP here, while I don't feel this situation applies, I do appreciate your response and you taking the time to respond to this (along with other responses). This is really good advice that I will put in my toolkit.

  17. Barb Hansen

    Yea, I know my story wasn't a direct answer to your situation but when I read your post, I wanted to help a little :) Good luck with your direct report!

  18. Anonymous

    No, you’re definitely not in the wrong. At the end of the day in business, work has to get done and be done correctly. And everyone in an organization should expect to be held accountable for their job performances, good or bad. Perhaps, your subordinate isn’t used to being given constructive criticism or recoils at the hint of confrontation. Whatever it might be, it’s not your problem. While you want to be fair, but as a manager you shouldn’t cower nor should you be made to feel that you have to hold someone’s hand or coddle them through their insecurities.

  19. Rebecca Milliken

    Sometimes people just can't do the job. If this person has been spoken to and given corrections many times, the issue is them, not you or your way of talking to them.

    Anyone who has been a coworker of someone who is continually messing up and causing issues for everyone can understand the frustration. My last job did not train people well and I was the one who had to clean up messes and I did it all the time. Having to do that on top of my job as well as trying to explain to clients what was going on without throwing a coworker under the bus was stressful AF. There were people I would try to help or try to train but sometimes they just didn't get it. They usually quit after a while.

    This person is trying to manipulate you and refuses to take criticism.

    My sister worked in a job where it was imperative details were correct. She was the boss and was speaking to a group of employees about a spate of recent errors. One employee said, "Don't we get credit for trying?" My sister said, "No. You are supposed to do your job." She was told that was harsh. I didn't think so when she told me. We are all adults. If we can't do the job right, we can't do it.

  20. Wanda Shaw

    Truth. I’m with you on this one. Either you’re qualified and can do the job or you’re not and can’t.

  21. Anonymous

    You weren't. If the direct report is younger they are probably from the annoying special snowflake, everyone gets a trophy mentality who are going to sic their soccer Moms and Dads on you/your firm. I would suggest telling your manager/supervisor that you gave them fair warning and because you were honest and unapologetic that got willfully misinterpreted and to prepare for them to threaten to sue and/or complain on social media, job websites, etc. You need to CYA because firms are notorious for throwing their employees under the bus the minute anyone in their 20s or even 30s show unhappiness about ANYTHING. Good luck because you definitely need it and are going to keep needing it.

  22. Anonymous

    The next time you speak with her, you should have an HR rep sit in on the meeting. This way you have someone to witness the conversation that will be impartial. If the employee is defensive to a constructive conversation, it will be known. If by chance your tone is harsher than what you think, the rep can help you tone it down. This also makes the conversation more "official", perhaps a step before a PIP.

    I once worked in a division where one of the managers and their reports were clashing. The resolution was to have my manager sit in on all of their meetings and be a mediator. Perhaps something like that would work for you.

  23. Anonymous

    Why isn't HR involved?

    It appears that you are allowing this employee to slide. Should have been on a PIP with clearly set expectations and a timeline by which improvements should have been made along with regular check-ins to monitor the PIP, etc. This employee is playing you.

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