Ever Lose Your Cool

LouBelle

I work in the advertising world - I run the department and have 5 staff memebers that report to me.

1 accountant, 2 sales reps and 2 layout and design.

My one rep is sluggish, no drive, no umph, does the bare minimum and no matter how times he is warned, encouraged, you name it his attitude doesn't change. I've lost my cool on a couple of occasions with him becuase he has a total disregard for authority. The thing is our labour laws in this country protect these people!!!!

The second rep works hard-ish, but she's big mates with the brand manager - the brand manger literally does a lot of work for this 2nd rep - so in essense we have 2 people doing 1 persons' job - thus not a true reflection of 2nd reps capabilites. This is a more senior person than I and she doesn't like taking instructions from me.

The accountant has a shit attitude and that is all I can say about her

My two layout girls do not take any initiative at all and if anything is amiss it's always my fault.

I'm a very patient person, I understand not everyone has the same high standards I may set for myself. I will encourge my staff, I do help them when I can - sending them on training and that. But I lose my cool when I am blamed for the slack work habits - I did that today (not crazy losing cool but letting them know that it's just not good enough)

These very staff members then run to the editor (I report to her) and moan about how unfair I am. That makes me even more Livid (though I don't show it).

How does one deal with these kind of people - I really really am lost for words to describe how exasperated I get. My hands are tied because as mentioned the labour law in this country protects these dimwits and you can't fire people unless they've done something like stealing and even then you pretty much need to catch them red-handed.

If you have the same problem - how do you cope?

hillbilly

So at the end of the day

Does your dept. hit it's marks?

Do you have established objectives for the staff?

Are results measurable?

When they do hit the mark is it celebrated?

Do you give work out only to take it away? (micro-manage)

Are you getting flack from above for staff performance issues?

Not every one will do as we think they should. If your folks have the training, tools and a clear understanding of the objectives you have for them things should be ok.

Most managers take a person at his motivated peak... and take everybit of their managerial training a de-motivate those employees. If a person comes to us asking for a job... we end up killing his desire to work in many cases... mixed messages, unclear objectives and no praise or even false praise will kill the spirit of staffers.

~Hill

dawg

What's up there Loolu? I used to have 30 drivers under my supervision, they wern't educated, they were always tired as the work was hard and here's what I did... I documented; if I had a person that wasn't pulling their weight, I'd write them a repremand and have them sign it, then file it in their personal file... seems this made them feel quilty, as it was in a permanent file after all...

Also, if they ask you a favor, within reason, do it... help them out... as long as it's in the of hours work... that's how I did it, and I had only one really bad confrontation between me and all those burly men..

5go

My two layout girls do not take any initiative at all and if anything is amiss it's always my fault.

It is. It's like being a captian of a ship if the crew screws up and wrecks the ship it's your fault. Like it or not you can't blame them or else the crew will wreck the ship and you get the blame.

hillbilly

then again... you may want to read some stuff on dealing with passive-agressive people. Being the boss is fun... being the boss is fun..being the boss is fun.........

~Hill

sooner7nc

Dawg's right. Document, document, document, you cannot document too much. I've got 18 people working for me, and alot of trouble has been averted because I had records to prove my point and fall back on. I better get off here before someone documents it, and gets me in trouble, I'm at work right now.

Whats up big dawg?

sooner7nc

Layla33

Just so that I can follow you, when you say "these people" what kind of people are you referring?

Second, I am not sure how it is there, but as a manager and supervisor, you hire people that are qualified to do the job, you do a background check, get references from other employers and you hire the best person for the job. You then have a three month probationary period, where you access the person's skill level, fit with the company and work ethic, in that case anyone that is not a good worker or has issues, you fire them, it's really that simple.

I have always believed that if one person is giving you a problem, look at the person, but if two or more are giving you the same kind of problem, it's time to do an analysis of yourself...

Tired of the Hypocrisy

I documented; if I had a person that wasn't pulling their weight, I'd write them a repremand and have them sign it, then file it in their personal file

I agree with Dawg on this one. When I have had charge of a group and someone is not pulling their weight or otherwise being a pain, I would give them a verbal warning and a reference to it in their file which would be removed from the file in 90 days if they corrected their course. If not it stayed. Next time a written warning that they would sign that stayed on their record. After two written warnings (rare scenario), I would suspend them from work and suggest they find something more to their liking as they would be on 90 probation upon their return to work. Finally any occurrences within that 90 day probation would result in their immediate termination.

Now you need to consider your labor laws in South Africa (I am in the USA). Either way a paper trail is the surest way to put the noose around their neck................Please stay calm, nothing makes a rebel more rebelious than proof that they have torqued the boss.......

ninja

right now there are some workers from south africa writing to their friends about their boss from hell........he he

Tyrone van leyen

You sound like a very valuable employee. A hard worker. It sounds like hard workers are scarce. You can always threaten to quit. If they start to lose money, someone's gonna take shit!

Or.... how about you, dropping your standards and taking it easy like everyone else. If they don't give a damn, why should you? You must be protected by the same policy. If they say your performance is lacking, tell them, you have become despondant over the bad attitudes, laziness and poor work ethics, of those under you and feel powerless to do anything about it. Also mention, that if they wish to rake you over the coals, they can try the same, in raking those lazy asses over the coals.

I imagine there would be chaos, if their was no cooperation forthcoming. They're just tryin to set you up as the fall girl, so they can sit on their asses. I wouldn't take that shit for a minute.

Dawg has a good suggestion, but I suspect people with the ethics of this bunch of twats don't respond to guilt like normal people do, because they have given themselves a sense of entitlement. Threatening to quit, is the only way to pass the buck. You are playing a rigged game. Let them stand in pile of their own shit. I have my own story about that but its a little long.

I did, just what I suggested you do, and I swear the company I worked for, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They severly mistreated me, and the incompetance that came after I left was the worst effin nightmare they have ever had, and are still having. Good help, competence and a strong work ethic are very hard to come by. They'd give just about anything to have me back, and it ain't gonna happen.

Because of my work ethic, the manger above me in Montreal, looked terrible afterwards, cause he couldn't get anyone to work.

That's just my opinion though. You are there, in the flesh and on the ground. So you are far better off to decide what the right thing to do is. I wouldn't want to see you unemployed and down and out if your bluff didn't work. Life really sucks sometimes eh.

Ever Lose Your Cool

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