I work in an office of 5 people, 1 manager, 1 assistant manager and 3 employees. Out of the 3 employees I am the one with the most seniority, last November a new person got hired, in his first week this new employee left early once and then called out the next week. Since his hire date this new employee literally calls out once a week, even when he is working he is no help and he still asks simple questions that he should already know over all he just has terrible work ethic and my co-worker and i feel like we have to babysit him. I am not the only one who feels this way so does my other co-worker, should I let my boss know about my concerns? and how do I go about bring up these issues?
Anonymous2020-06-11T18:00:29Z
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I've been reading AskAManager.com long enough to know how to answer this with authority.
Yes, you need to tell your boss, ideally several of you scheduling a meeting in which you all share your concerns.
You frame it in a way that makes the well-being of the business the bottom line.
"When Stannis leaves early or calls out, which happens once a week, the rest of us have been doing his tasks. Do you want us to continue to do that, or focus on what you've assigned us?"
"I have reviewed the procedure for Task X with Beric four times and walked him through it start to finish twice, but he what he turns in needs to be corrected every time. If you want me to focus on training him for X until he does it right, I'll need to have someone cover my part of Tasks A, B, and C." "Because we have to wait for Jorah's work on X to be completed before we can begin Tasks Y and Z, we cannot finish our own work without staying late. The company pays us overtime, of course, but is there a better way that costs less?"
"Petyr continues to need hand-holding to do the simplest tasks, which means I cannot complete my own work on time."
"Sandor has been in our department for six months now but is nowhere near up to speed in spite of lots of support from all of us. We agree on a number of areas in need of improvement which may not be apparent to you because we've covered for him, because he was still learning."
Bear in mind that the new employee may be a "friend's son" or a "favorite nephew". One way to handle this situation would be to quietly allow the guy to sink or swim himself. Everyone could continue to do their own work, and be reluctant to drop their tasks just to rescue Bozo from his own incompetence.
The other way, calling a formal meeting to notify management (in detail) how Bozo's incompetence and poor work ethic is making everyone else's work much more difficult, has its risks but might be more effective.
Tell your boss about this coworker especially if you find yourself having to "pick up the slack." State the facts and what you personally observed. Don't include any rumor or the fact that your other coworker feels the same way. It's up to the boss to decide how to handle things from there.
No. It is not your job to assess your fellow workers, it is the manager's job. You speaking up would thus be an insult to your boss, or your boss's boss. And considering the small size of the company, it is more likely that both the manager and assistant manager are fully aware of everything you want to share.