h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whatever you do don't try and pull rank... unless you're a manager it just causes more problems. I speak from bitter experience.

This guy's just not a team player... I mean, I was speaking to one of his group of clients just a short while ago when he was speaking to someone else in the office and finished up by saying that we would get the necessary paperwork to the client and naming the colleague as the named account manager.

I then emailed this chap friendly-like to say, can you please just write a letter to the client introducing yourself as the account manager as it's important to let the client know you will be dealing with their account, and to explain the paperwork further than the standard letter - and he emailed back with a brusque "Could you let 'X' know about the LOA/NCP in future as she sends them out".

Well, so much for the personal touch. Also makes me look a bit of a crumb for saying he would be in touch

in Opera-speak.... 'kick im to the curb'

sound like a plonker to me i'm afraid.....

It's not clear if you are working a Quality Management System in which case complying with procedures and working instructions should be a part of his employment terms and conditions and job description. You should point out to him that failing to comply could effect the overall performance of the company and would be picked up at audit.

...is he on a probationary period or anything like that?

It sounds to me (hi, sorry, eavesdropping over here..) likerunning him through a 'formal' procedural induction and getting him to sign a summary could be a good idea... Perhaps if the MD is having to refer him to you all the time, you could suggest to the MD that he hasnt been properly inducted as he doesnt seem to understand how things are working, and the email you just cited is a good example... So you're going back over the top, through the MD. Not making a complaint but making a suggestion so it comes from the person he's obviously turning to (and presumable bugging the hell out of?). He may well like your solution to the problem and take advantage of the opportunity to be really clear with this guy about who to go to when, which will put you all in positions of clarity and ready to push things if necessary. Once you all KNOW you're reading from the same hymn sheet and someone's STILL insisting on singing gospel, you can start doing something about it.

I love the hymns and gospel bit!

Anywho, I'd be all concerned and tell him that for his own sake (speaking as someone who cares) if he doesn't get his act together and so on, it would be picked up on in audit. Offer to help and go through the procedures with him, and let him know you're sure of his capability.
If this one doesn't work- I'd go straight to the MD. It's not your job to nanny this guy, and if he doesn't answer when opportunity knocks, then so be it.

that email sounds to me like he wants to use you as an assistant...

I get that all the time - and you can pull rank if he is the newbie - even if he has shedloads of experience, it's not in your company and each place works differently.

good luck though, because the more I read the more I think it's an age/male thing. There's no cure for that.

Nope, no cure for what my MD like to call "dangly-bits syndrome" - in other words you have nothing worthwhile to contribute unless you have the right dangly bits!!

I found out today that our youngest member of staff has actually been taking work off him to do herself so he doesn't get behind NOT why we took him on I can assure you as he was meant to relieve some of the pressure existing staff have to cope with.

I'm not quite sure if it is a flouting of procedure as such, or just that he doesn't quite have a handle on the job yet - but nevertheless, I'm concerned...

Perhaps a little refresher course on his job responsibilities might help. I like the idea of getting him to sign off a training sheet at the end too - that's something we never do unless it's for a formal disciplinary, which happen once in a blue moon.

And yes, he is on three month's probationary period. It's company policy.

"I like the idea of getting him to sign off a training sheet at the end too - that's something we never do unless it's for a formal disciplinary, which happen once in a blue moon."

Definitely time to institute a training procedure then. Otherwise, how does anyone know if they're doing the job right? And how does anyone else know whether they're able to do the job or not?

Recording training has two benefits:

1. The employee can point to the sheet and say "There, you see, *you* signed to say I'm a trained widget dibbler. Therefore I should be paid widget dibbler wages." Benefit to the employee because if there's a bit of paper saying that job is in their description, the employer then can't defensibly not pay them for it.

2. The employer can point to the sheet and say "They, you see, *you* signed to say you're a trained widget dibbler. So get on and dibble some bloody widgets, you lazy sod, and do it properly otherwise you're fired."

Everybody's happy...

SoRB

"Widget dibbler"

Oh, yes, it would be nice to have a defined job description, mine says "Business Manager" which covers a multitude!

I have a feeling this is to degenerate into a discussion of the laxness of our training processes….

At the moment I am being referred all the "techy stuff" to do with tariff masks and pricing but I am still doing an advisor's job too. I trained our young advisors but the new chap was trained by his illustrious predecessor, whom I love dearly (particularly since he has invited me to his villa in Cyprus), but who also undeniably was a little ‘idiosyncratic’ when it came to his working manner and, to be honest, it’s entirely possible that he’s unclear on the actual job.

We are still so small at the moment (despite having 1000's of clients ) that time to sit down and do intensive training is very limited - I remember having a few days "formal" training in UoS and MOP (anyone else understand that? ) when I started, and feeling that my brains were going to come dribbling out of my ears. I started to understand it when I had to actually use it.

And one girl, bless her, couldn’t understand the concept of a Meter Point Administration Number being shortened to an MPAN, and persisted in saying “M-plan”. She didn’t last too long despite having the most in-depth training we have ever provided to a staff member. Mind you, she lied about her abilities on her CV so I suppose it’s poetic justice.

Might be time to review the training as you say.

I suggest you start by taking a look at your quality assurance procedures. It would appear that y'mon has slipped through the net. This is what continuous improvement is all about. No blame; learn from the mistake and revise, or put in place, the process.

I am going to rant again....

Rarrgh! Raaaaargh!!

I’m sorry but he is driving me up the wall.

He has been taught (and this is one of our written down procedures that he has in his induction booklet, which he is still using, I saw him with it just yesterday) that you must, MUST produce estimates for clients by going through the billing table. It lets you see immediately if there’s a valid bill in for the client, and produces an on-screen preview which you can eyeball and check for errors before printing. It also gives you the option to not print unsuitable or invalid tariffs.

I just this minute caught him using the estimate sites button, which, fair enough, lets you estimate a few hundred sites at a time, but which neither gives you the option to check them before printing nor remove tariffs which are unsuitable for the client. We use it for internal stuff relating to consumption but nothing else, since it’s unreliable to say the least.

Our conversation ran thusly:

Him> “Oh, can you go into the database and stop this letter from printing for me.”

Me> “Are you using the estimate sites form? Shouldn’t you be using the estimate from bills button for options?”

Him> “I thought this would be a quicker way to do things”

Me> “Yes, but look, you’ve already been told the way to do this is through the bills table - it gives us more control over the options and the option to check it before it’s printed. It’s one of the processes. Sometimes it doesn’t run properly on first estimate, and if we send out an incorrect sheet to the client it not only looks bad but it could cause legal problems. And the letter on that is badly out of date, so make sure you use the latest version from the word-processing program.”

Him> “So why can’t you just change the letter?”

Me> “Well the coding’s in Romanian and I can’t understand it, and if I change something in the code I might screw the whole system.”

Him> *shrug*

Me> “Please just do it the way you’ve been taught, okay? It’s important that you do as it saves a lot of problems.”

Him> “I just thought I would try to cut a few corners.”

.... NOOOOOO don’t cut *any* corners!! Follow the process! It’s like that for a reason!!! You know this, we told you this in training! Follow the bloody processes and don’t just go off your own way, godsdamnit!!

This short cutting can obviously directly effect the business. Write it down and refer it upwards. Your boss will, I assume, have to answer for any loss caused by this eedyat.

"“I just thought I would try to cut a few corners.”"

Alarm bells should start going off about now.
The only acceptable excuse would be if he was being proactive and thought he had found a better way to do this. But to brazenly state he thought he would try and cut a few corners is, well, a bit worrying. Shows he doesn;t really treat the work he is doing seriously and is more interested in headlines and the final result than in getting the detail right.

I'd be having words with his boss before he accidently lets something confidential out to the wrong person.

The other possible way of dealing with him is to 'share a common enemy'.


Rather than confronting him with his procedural mistakes, make sure he doesn't get the impression that you're the 'bad-guy', telling him what to do.

Try "Look, I know this IT system's a pain in the butt - It was designed by a load of idiots, but if we don't do it this particular way now, we end up in a load of trouble".

The risk with that is in the event of a big cock up, caused by him, our girl could be viewed as complicit.

I can hear the excuse now "It wasn't my fault, it was the system. Even the experienced staff think it's crap"

weeeell, not really, so long as the point is clearly made that the processes and procedures are there for a reason... and theres a difference beween saying something is 'crap' and ' a pain in the butt' (do people really say 'butt' on this side of the atlantic??

anyway.... he needs to go. make a complaint.

1. he's offloading HIS work onto younger staff

2. NOT following outlined procedures.

3. Isn't a 'team player', and displays 'attitude problems.

4. Stupid enough to blatently admit to 'trying to cut corners', or negligence......

... I expect you might feel a bit crappy about having to geet this guy outa there, but it's got to be the only solution for your sanity, and the companys' good health by the souns of it.
And just how did he get the job in the first place???

Personally I never say butt unless you're talking in the context of a water butt, or perhaps a cigarette butt - even then I'm more likely to call it a dowp than anything else.

I think we took him 'cause the rest of the applicants were clinically brain-dead and we were desperate??

Actually, he was sourced via an agency and I'm guessing his spreadsheet skills won it for him because they were very impressive. But ach, it's difficult to judge someone's *working* personality on the basis of one interview. I don't blame the directors for it. That's what the probationary period is for.

yip. and i doubt by the sounds of it, if he's gonna make it to the third month....

I'm normally quite a patient person....i can take all kinds of crap up to a point, then i just snap..... i don't think i could handle someone being as obtuse as this guy sounds....i expect, like most people, your working day is tough enough without his nonsense....