Now it’s the Managers / Owners Turn – How do Employees Fail?

[M.D. Holloway]

The failure of a business can be attributed to the Boss and/or the employee. So what makes an employee suck? Feel free to share a story or two - this stuff is pretty interesting.

[TerryH]

The #1 on my list is the bad attitude/complainer. He/she can bring down the morale of an entire department. They are on the short list for an early exit.

[RANDY P]

2, 6, 7, 8 and being Cancer will get you canned..

here's a pic of last month's ZERO producer (who incidentally exhibits all of these characteristics..


Mind you, he's 1099 employed and I got him to do this...

Yes, if you are any of the following to keep your job you must do this.

Goose egg and you get full on cleaning and trash duties for the month, or get canned.

rjp

[ledhedsymbols]

The biggest problem that I face is a little bit different than most. I'm a watch commander at a military prison. Because the organization is so different than the civilian world, some of the problems are unique to a military organization.
I have a number of personell in my watch team that are marking time until they either retire from the Navy, or finish their enlistment. What this means to me is that these people are doing the bare minimum to keep out of trouble. I can't fire them because it's the military. I've also had my throat slit by the chain-of-command. The facility is understaffed, and they like their short workdays and long weekends. If we were to lose more people out of the watch teams, that would mean some of them would have to take up the slack, which means 12 hour shift work like the rest of us. Because of that, they refuse to follow through anytime I try to discipline the slackers. With no teeth, there isn't much I can do.
Some folks respond to positive tactics, and because of that I use them whenever I can. Unfortunately there are always some that refuse to be part of the team no matter what I do. Since I have no disciplinary authority, and the chain-of-command above me refuses to support me or take their own action; I'm often left holding the bag.
That is the single biggest reason I'm getting out of the Navy. I'm just plain tired of all the above.

Micah

[M.D. Holloway]

Micah - maybe time for a transfer or go private?

[bryanthompson]

6) No Sense of Independence – Requires Constant Supervision

This one drives me crazier than anything. I hate employees that *always* need to be told what to do. I can't stand the type of script kiddies that want to work with me that have zero creative vision, no idea of how the process works, and need an entire walkthrough for an entire project. My boss is great, he totally lets me have the freedom to work on things with my own style, and I have a lot of input in prioritizing tasks. In my own side-projects, though I work best alone, even if that means only sleeping 5 hours per night.

[craigster59]

If employees spent as much time working as they do worrying about what the "other guy" is doing, a helluva lot more ***** would get done. I also agree with the "complainer/gossiper", they can be a cancer on the whole department..

[DavidI]

Originally posted by ledhedsymbols
The biggest problem that I face is a little bit different than most. I'm a watch commander at a military prison. Because the organization is so different than the civilian world, some of the problems are unique to a military organization.
I have a number of personell in my watch team that are marking time until they either retire from the Navy, or finish their enlistment. What this means to me is that these people are doing the bare minimum to keep out of trouble. I can't fire them because it's the military. I've also had my throat slit by the chain-of-command. The facility is understaffed, and they like their short workdays and long weekends. If we were to lose more people out of the watch teams, that would mean some of them would have to take up the slack, which means 12 hour shift work like the rest of us. Because of that, they refuse to follow through anytime I try to discipline the slackers. With no teeth, there isn't much I can do.
Some folks respond to positive tactics, and because of that I use them whenever I can. Unfortunately there are always some that refuse to be part of the team no matter what I do. Since I have no disciplinary authority, and the chain-of-command above me refuses to support me or take their own action; I'm often left holding the bag.
That is the single biggest reason I'm getting out of the Navy. I'm just plain tired of all the above.

Micah

Wow Micah, you have a very difficult situation. As a military man myself, you may want to force feed discipline into your men. In the military, the standards are set and it is everyone's duty to meet or exceed them. Although you do not have the support of your superiors, you yourself can mandate the military standards.

I would like to recommend a movie called Twelve O'Clock High. It is about a undisciplined unit that is taken over by a strong leader (Gregory Peck). Positive enforcement and peer pressure may work with the majority.

I think the most important person in the realm of change is not the first person who seeks change. It is the second person who supports the first. This team can multiply the positive change and encourage internal improvement.

Good luck, David

[VaSteve]

I'm running a team of three right now on a consulting gig. They had to set up a bunch of meetings and interview some folks and document what they talked about.

*I* ended up having to set up all the meetings and introduce these guys. Then *I* had to intervene and ride most of them like horses to get them to do the interviews.

1 guy told me that he "wanted to exceed expectations". He basically called me every hour with some issue: the template didn't work, he couldn't reach some guy via email (pick up the phone dammit!). They upon completing all of the interviews he could barely write 4 sentances about what he did. The ones he did, were packed full of big "scrabble words" and used incorrectly no less. Furthermore he sent in work with obvious logical questions I had to send back for clarification and numerous mispelled words (still had the red underlines). He's barely meeting expectations.

The female told my boss she was having health issues due to the stress. This job is all stress. I can't stand people that go over my head (what little authroity I have) Her work is better, but it was like getting blood froma stone. Left it all till the last minute.

The most junior guy was a replacement for a guy that left the project and I had no time to train him. He went to work, did what he needed to do with asking me 50,000 questions and finished the work before everyone else. Takes initiative, and turns stuff in without being asked. Since he's the most junior guy, he's far exceeed any expectations I had. I gave him minimal instruction on a slide show I needed pronto and he knocked it out.


In my business, I can't/don't wait for perfection. It's never perfect out of the box. I think people want to craft the perfect thing and are afaid to sned me something they don't consider "perfection." I want "done". Makes logical sense, spelled and formatted correctly, takes review notes from me and follows up. I will do the final polishing. Hand me crap and don't take any initiative to fix it and I have no use for you.

Do I sound like and ass? Sometimes I worry I do...

[Oh Haha]

For me, it's 5 and 6.
In our business, our drivers are our first line of defense against competitors. We train our people very well and give them the tools to do the job. We empower them to make decisions based on good customer service. I have an employee with 30 years of experience and this person STILL has to call and ask what he should do for the simplest of problems. Although I have spent countless hours in the truck working on organizing his truck and the route, the old ways have always come back ina week or so. If I pursue discipline with this employee, I get the "you are harrassing me" grievance thrown at me. I just keep reminding myself that they can't live forever and will have to retire someday, most likely before me.

[techweenie]

Definitely a combination of the above and others.

Accepts assignment without comprehending assignment. blows off deadline because of 'personal reasons.' Finds non-linear excuse for failure ('that would have meant working on Saturday.' "You specifically volunteered to work Saturday." 'Well, I had some arthritis pain and took a pill and laid down and went to sleep through the morning.' "You could have told me that in the afternoon, when you woke up." 'Oh, yeah.' "Or the next day." 'Un huh.' [Fired her ass]) Does such lame work that the boss (me) has to redo it.

Damn. I hate remembering those things... I had several employees who worked for me 5+ years in a demanding environment. When I closed down my office, the one remaining gave me a card that read: "Going to work for you was like winning the lottery every day."