Office trouble: what would you do?

[Independent Gal]

I have an administrator who is not very good at her job. She is a very nice lady, but not very bright and extremely forgetful. About 1/3 of the time, if you ask her to do something, it doesn''t get done until you nudge her about repeatedly for a few weeks, and then it''s often not done properly. If something SERIOUSLY needs to get done, the only way to make sure is to literally stand behind her and walk her through the task, step by step. When she messes up, she often tries to place the responsibility elsewhere.

The thing is, if she lost her job, I don''t know what she''d do. She''s an older lady who makes a long commute to this job, and her daughter and grandchild live with her. Maybe she supports them? I''m not sure.

Now someone higher up who knows she''s scattered and has had issues with her in the past himself, has asked me to give a candid evaluation of her performance. I had mentioned in passing that she had made an error that will result in me not getting paid properly this month (which, truth be told, is a DISASTER! But I''ll find a way!).

If you were me, would you be gently honest about her not being up to her job? What if she is fired and can''t find work elsewhere? Or is that not my ''problem''? I''d feel so guilty. But it sure would be nice to have staff that could do her job without us babysitting.


Help!

 

[Skippy123]

Oh gosh, that is a tough one. I always feel bad when those things happen. Can you talk to her about trying harder??? I would hate to give her a bad eval but that is just me. Also, you don't want her to mess up stuff. Has anyone talked to her on how she can improve??? I would have a heart to heart with her.

 

[chiefneil]

That''s a very tough situation. However for me, business is business. Anything that makes my life at work more difficult also makes my life at home more difficult, either through increased stress, longer work hours (and thus less time at home), or a more frantic pace at work (leading to me being more tired at home). Given a choice between someone else''s quality of life and my own, particularly when it means I have to do their job for them, I''ll always choose my own. Sorry if that sounds like I''m a hard*ss, but I''d give a very honest review of her job performance and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[Mara]

i gotta agree with chefneil. when i am at work if someone else is not doing their job and it makes my life more difficult, i am not inclined to feel sympathetic, because the rest of us have to pick up slack and we are swamped to begin with and there are always so many good people out there who would love that job.

on one hand it'd be nice if you felt like you could say something to her but if you are not her supervisor then it's really not your place to try to give her career advice and it could be taken the wrong way by her as well. if you were very friendly with her i might say you could talk to her about it (aka you seem a little slower to perform lately, is everything okay, and give her an outlet to discuss with you maybe) but if you are not close then that might not work.

i say, when you give your eval i would be honest about what you feel but also say that you feel as though she does has redeeming qualities and maybe just needs a bit more supervision or assistance from upper management to realize her full potential. that way you can be honest about both your feelings. is this person her supervisor? if not, then maybe go talk to whoever is and mention how you feel. it really is the supervisor's job in general to try to help their employees suceed...sounds like hers is not doing their job.

 

[scarleta]

If you want to help her then try to find out what is the reason for her poor performance.If it can be fixed then help her out if possible..Maybe she is simply not capable of performing the duties asked of her.It could be that her memory or vision are poor and no matter what you do she won''t be able to do it.
Having said that maybe its time for her to find another job and if she is willing she will find something that suits her.You may in fact do her a favour by letting her know how poor her performance has been.If she is able to improve then you have got a good worker and if not I m sure she will find something more suitable.These are always difficult situations to deal with , but in a year from now it will all be forgotten...

 

[Cehrabehra]

My husband has been in this situation a few times and it has never been deal with it or fire the person... there''s steps between where the problem is confronted and strategies are put into place to help her figure out what she needs to fix the situation with periodic reviews... that way if she ends up needing to be fired she knows ahead of time exactly why this is and when it will be and can begin looking elsewhere if SHE feels she isn''t going to cut it. Put the onus on HER. It doesn''t have to be black and white, but the responsibility needs to be on her. Doesn''t mean you can''t help her out by showing her where she''s coming short.

 

[snlee]

Date: 6/23/2007 12:52:13 PM
Author: Mara
i gotta agree with chefneil. when i am at work if someone else is not doing their job and it makes my life more difficult, i am not inclined to feel sympathetic, because the rest of us have to pick up slack and we are swamped to begin with and there are always so many good people out there who would love that job.

Ditto! I feel the same way. However, I would not give her a bad evaluation before you try speaking to her first. Have you ever expressed to her that you don't feel like she's dependable and she often makes mistakes? I wouldn't bluntly say she's not dependable and makes mistakes but I would give her some instances of when this happened and try to go from there. Do you know if her manager or others have talked to her about this? If they have and there's no improvement, then I'd just give her an honest evaluation.

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 6/23/2007 12:52:13 PM
Author: Mara

on one hand it''d be nice if you felt like you could say something to her but if you are not her supervisor then it''s really not your place to try to give her career advice and it could be taken the wrong way by her as well. if you were very friendly with her i might say you could talk to her about it (aka you seem a little slower to perform lately, is everything okay, and give her an outlet to discuss with you maybe) but if you are not close then that might not work.

i say, when you give your eval i would be honest about what you feel but also say that you feel as though she does has redeeming qualities and maybe just needs a bit more supervision or assistance from upper management to realize her full potential. that way you can be honest about both your feelings. is this person her supervisor? if not, then maybe go talk to whoever is and mention how you feel. it really is the supervisor''s job in general to try to help their employees suceed...sounds like hers is not doing their job.

HA - this is why Mara is my soul-sister.....because we see so many things the same way. She has PERFECTLY summed up what I was thinking as I read your post.

It''s overstepping your place to give her career advice or take it upon yourself to attempt corrective instruction. I don''t think that''s the right course of action, no matter how gently done.

I think all you can do is be *gently honest* in your evaluation. I''d candidly say "I like her, and I enjoy working with her, but to be fair, I also become frustrated at the lengthy turn-around time to get tasks completed, and I feel that she could improve and benefit from increased training/supervision. Perhaps she might benefit from tasks management training that would help her better track her to-do list. Perhaps providing training in how to complete some of those tasks more effectively/efficiently might improve the turn-around time."

 

[Independent Gal]

Thanks for the input, everyone! Usually, if she screws up, I say something encouraging like "You must be pretty stressed out right now, don''t worry, we''ll get this sorted out" and then I help her fix it. So it''s kind of like I''m good cop. Except for once when she just totally TRAIN WRECKED something important and I about lost my temper. Bad cop is Mr. Higher-Up who has, on several occasions, talked to her about her disappointing performance.

Honestly? I think she just can''t do the job. She seems to be trying, but it''s like she just can''t keep it all together. If she faces a difficulty, she just stops instead of trying to solve it. It''s like she has absolutely NO capacity to problem solve at all. She doesn''t even ask for help. So we just find out somewhere down the line that something stalled or stopped or was never started in the first place.

My dad used to have a strategy where basically if someone wasn''t doing their job properly and nothing helped, he "fired" them by finding them a new job more suited to their skills and abilities. I always admired that. But I''m not in a position to do that.

I think I will be candid, but phrase everything as positively and constructively as I can.

On a side note, the thing that kills me is that our other administrator is a ROCK STAR, and could easily do both jobs and still have time to take an extra long lunch. She always goes above and beyond. And she gets paid substantially less because she''s been with the organization for far fewer years. What''s up with that? I mean, I get it. But still.

 

[KimberlyH]

I''ve been the other administrator (the one who can do things 5xs faster and accuarately, than her counterpart) and having been in her shoes I think you have an obligation to give the woman an honest eval. It is more likely than not that the other admin has had to do more than her share of work to help this woman to begin with. While it is unfortunate that the woman isn''t capable of doing her job and may need to seek other work, the alternative, that the rest of the staff pitches in to fix her constant mistakes, is not reasonable.

 

[snlee]

Date: 6/23/2007 5:43:23 PM
Author: KimberlyH
I''ve been the other administrator (the one who can do things 5xs faster and accuarately, than her counterpart) and having been in her shoes I think you have an obligation to give the woman an honest eval. It is more likely than not that the other admin has had to do more than her share of work to help this woman to begin with. While it is unfortunate that the woman isn''t capable of doing her job and may need to seek other work, the alternative, that the rest of the staff pitches in to fix her constant mistakes, is not reasonable.

Ditto!

 

[Finding_Neverland]

Personally, IG, I think if you aren't in a position to make the decision about her job, other than your evaluation, I'd stay out of it. I've been in your shoes. Tried to warn a good friend of impending doom and wound up being labeled the bad guy. It's just human nature to shoot the messenger.

While you have the best of intentions,...... Trying to help her and all,........ She may not see it that way later. If she does get terminated, she may wrongfully believe her termination was your fault. That you were the one who bad mouthed her to your superior causing her to loose her job.

Some times it's just best to leave sleeping dogs lie. If she is terminated, let her remember you fondly like the good and caring person you really are.

JMHO.