Her Comment: "It's Not Life or Death!"

I currently have an employee who is underperforming...to say the least.

In her defense, the job she has is mundane. She's the only one in her particular position. While I've considered changing the position to include more variety, the truth is that her skill limitations don't exactly allow for that. Nor has she shown much of an interest when I've posed the idea.

Lately, her productivity has started to fade...so it was time for a talk.

I called her into my office and started the discussion on a very open note, asking her how she felt things were going. She basically shrugged and said, "OK, I guess." I explained the issue at hand and asked her why it was happening. Was she dissatisfied with her job? Did she want a change at work? Was there something going on outside of work? Was she planning to leave? Is there anything I can do to support improvement? Her responses: No. No. No. No. No.

After a pause, I asked, "Well, given the situation at hand, what do you suggest I do?"

Her response: "I don't understand why you're making such a big deal of this. It's not like this is a life or death thing!"

OK...a few thoughts:

1. Life or death? Of course it's not literally life or death! When you're working in an entry-level, office position, what would actually be life or death? Nothing!

2. Why am I making a big deal of it? Maybe because she's starting to suck at the ONLY thing she has to do!!!

3. Does she really want to morph into that guy who eventually ends up working for free in the basement in Office Space?

Bah!

What Am I Supposed To Do? She replies in SECONDS!!!

A fellow manager, Margaret, runs a department that works closely with mine. As a result, we work together on many projects. We work together so closely, in fact, that when others have a question that pertains to one of our departments, they usually include both of us on the email.

Margaret is very outspoken, a classic extrovert. She thinks quickly, has strong opinions, and is consistently among the first to speak up on issues in meetings. She is also very on top of her email. In our office, when one receives an incoming email, a bubble pops up to alert you. Clicking on this bubble will take you directly to the new message in your inbox. Ignoring it will cause it to fade away within a second or two. Personally, I prefer to ignore it and glance through my email every 10-15 minutes. I've sat with Margaret at her desk when working on projects; she always clicks the bubble.

Over the months, Margaret has developed a routine. When an email is sent to both of us and the question at hand is something I should address, she will forward it my way with a message like "this one's yours" or "it's all you!" She literally sends it my way within a minute of us receiving the original message...before I've even had a chance to read it myself.

I've never asked her not to do this...mainly because I never really thought it was a big deal. Until today anyway, when she approached me.

Margaret told me, in a very serious tone, that she feels I need to step up more. She said that there is no need for me to hesitate in responding to these emails to see what she'll say...she wants me to be comfortable responding without being prompted.

WTF?!?!? In my mind, I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me?!!! How can I reply with an intelligent response before you forward it to me with your three-word message!?!"

Instead, I went with the mature response. "I think that most of the time, it's just a matter of you seeing the email before I do. I'm certainly more than willing to field questions related my area. Going forward, when an email comes through that pertains to me, don't worry about forwarding it my way as well. I'll just plan on responding to it."

Ugh!

The Boss Is On His Way Out!

A couple weeks ago, my direct manager announced that after several years of service, he would be leaving the company to work on independent consulting projects. Phillip has given us about three months notice, so we have plenty of time to get our act together.

Naturally, he is gradually being phased out of projects he once contributed to and some of his more central responsibilities are being moved to others. This means he suddenly has more free time. In his desire to be a strong "team player" until the end, he has offered to help his management staff (me included) with a variety of tasks. While his intentions are good, I cannot help but cringe every time he approaches me with a potential project he could help me with.

Phillip's interest started out with spreadsheets. As if I don't already have enough spreadsheets to maintain every day, he wanted to run reports from our database in order to create more! Not only is this a nightmare idea for the obvious reason I've just explained, but the idea makes me crazy for many other reasons as well.

First of all, it should be known up front that I am somewhat of a perfectionist. When I put a document together, I'm not only concerned about its content, but I obsess over appearance as well. Desperate to infuse some creativity, I spend time finding just the right balance of basic professionalism with a hint of unique style. Phillip, on the other hand, brings out his creative side by making his reports as flashy as they can possibly be. In the context of an Excel spreadsheet, that usually means large text, varied fonts, and many bright colors. Given his lack of understanding of some of the nuances of Excel, the result also tends to involve inconsistent formatting, cells out of alignment, and information that is simply difficult to follow.

A second reason I'm opposed to him working on anything that I'm going to have to maintain going forward is his lack of basic mathematical understanding. I've always found it ironic that someone with poor math skills could get so far in a business, but apparently his charismatic presence makes up for it. The thought of him putting together countless spreadsheets with complex mathematical formulas to calculate cost and projected revenue brings on a surge of anxiety. After all, once he's gone, guess who's going to be held accountable for their accuracy!

The final reason I've continued to talk him out of his various spreadsheet ideas is because there simply isn't a need for the sheets he's proposing. Even if he were an Excel whiz, it still wouldn't be necessary to spend time plugging countless figures into a spreadsheet that can easily be accessed from our mainframe program with just a few mouse clicks. Now, I realize that some data is worth tracking in an alternate form for the sake of being able to compare it to other data or to simply look for trends. But trust me...with the data he is proposing, it really isn't necessary.

Please tell me that this won't go on for the NEXT THREE MONTHS!