Advice Line | Bob Lewis » Reviewing mostly good employees

November 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Reviewing mostly good employees

TAGS: General

Dear Bob ...

How do you review an employee who is basically good, but has some blind spots?

I have one staffer who does fine, fine work - he's thorough, he's careful, he is one of the better server admins out there.

Only problem is that he has some end-user client responsibilities, too. And he falls down on some of that. I recently found out that he'd outsourced the replacement of a laptop to the staffer who was experiencing problems (e.g., made them make the calls to the manufacturer, et cetera). Granted, English isn't his first language, and affects his desire to be on the phone. I pointed out that it's IT's assigned job to deal directly with this class of problem, to be the interface between the user and the vendor, and got an argument that the vendor needed to talk to the person who was directly experiencing the problem.

How do you deal with that? Because in his own way, he was right - he'd basically be passing through requests from the vendor. OTOH, since it's our charter to be the interface, I need to impress on him that our value comes from ensuring incrementally better results than the user can get by themselves and to provide a unified point of contact, as in "IT can fix that..."

- Reviewing my options

Dear Reviewing ...

It's easier than you might think.

In fact, the question you asked - how do you review the employee - is quite simple:

• Effectively administers systems - exceeds expectations.

• Effectively troubleshoots technical problems - exceeds expectations.

• Works well with end-users and maintains good external relationships - needs improvement.

Your real challenge appears to be how to get someone to accept your coaching and leadership when they disagree with you and have some logic on their side. Although in this particular situation I'd say the logic is pretty thin.

Beyond the reasons you already gave is this, very simple point: End-users aren't experts in technology. If the end-user calls the manufacturer, chances are pretty good that:

• The end-user will mis-report the actual problem, leading the vendor on a wild goose chase for awhile.

• The vendor will lead the end-user through the standard litany of reboot, re-install, reboot again and re-install again - the level one technician drill. Technical staff can more easily penetrate the nonsense to get to someone who can diagnose and fix the actual problem.

If your staff member still rejects your guidance, your options are limited. You can tell him to do it anyway - you've explained both what's required and the reason for it clearly, and if he still won't do it, it seems likely he's making excuses to avoid work he doesn't like.

Depending on the employee's value in other areas, I suppose you could also give him the option of opting out of this category of work in exchange for a downgrade of his title and compensation.

If your shop is large enough and you think he has a point, you could also decide to accept his advice (because it's good advice, not because he's taken you to the mat and won) and reorganize so that end-user support becomes a separate specialty.

If you decide this is the route to go, you still have to take the step of making note of his refusal to accept an assignment in his performance appraisal. His being right organizationally doesn’t make his behavior acceptable.

If any employee simply says no, it's time for disciplinary action. Managers do have the authority to give specific work assignments, and every employee has to accept the sad reality that not all work is 100% fun.

- Bob

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Posted by Bob Lewis on November 21, 2007 06:58 AM

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