Handling Protective Overworked Employee

Question

I am a middle manager at a company and we have a developer who works on our site. He does not report to me. He is overworked and upper management doesn't want to hire someone to help him, but at the same time they are requesting things to get done quickly and new projects coming down the pike.

The site is managed by someone else again.

I have suggestions on how to get things done, either:

1. Getting a part time freelancer or
2. Getting technology that will allow us non developers to develop certain pages

The developer is reluctant to change the approach, because he thinks it will replace him or make him obsolete. My job is to get things done.

I'm not sure if I should tell upper management his concern, or his manager his concern. Any suggestions on how to approach this?

Answer 1

My job is to get things done.

Then your job is to report to your management that things are not getting done as fast as required.

You can also report why things aren't going as fast as required, either because the schedules given to you slip, or because the schedules given to you are too long for your requirements.

And then let your manager handle this. You cannot reach the goals set for you because of something you cannot solve. There is a reason your company has build this chain of command. Use it.

If you want to be friendly, give the developer a heads up that their schedule is not matching with the requirements you were given by your management and you will need to report this to your management. Make sure they understand that you do that to cover your own ass, not to blame them or throw them under the bus.

How it will be solved when the problem travels up the chain and down the chain on the other side again is none of your business. It might even be that the problem is known already and your manager will come back and their boss told them to set less ambitious goals then. I guess they either cannot or will not hire another developer. Having "one developer" on a project is already a clear sign that they don't have the budget to pay another one. It doesn't matter what your marketing goals are, if there is not enough budget for "production".

Answer 2

This developer does not report to you, and has already refused an offer of additional technology that will reduce his workload. Unless his being over overworked begins to negatively impact his performance in a way that affects you or your team, you would be overstepping by getting involved in the situation. Trust his manager to be able to handle the situation and stay out of it.

Answer 3

Have you already talked with the employee about this, or are you just guessing his intentions? If not, I would suggest to do so.

As the employee is not your report, getting him to do something would fall into the responsibility of someone else. Have you brought that manager on board?

You have laid the options out. As a manager it's your job to decide what to do. Discuss it with all people who need to be involved and start the change. If someone blocks because reason "xyz", it's your duty to build good communication and resolve that block.

Answer 4

To the employee - it does the company no good if this employee burns out, gets sick, or otherwise can't contribute and has no reasonable backup. Also, in most companies one person being the one hero is a big risk on an important project/subject area - and many companies don't incentivize this type of behavior.

To the manager(s) of the employee - this person's behavior is a risk factor. I probably wouldn't disclose any information about self-image or fears that the employee entrusted you with. But one employee overworking and trying to be the one and only essential factor is a huge "bus factor" for an important area of work. If this person's managers don't have a backup plan that involves developing an alternate expert - they aren't acting responsibly for the company. In doing that, they really should look into building more trust and understanding with this person... but that's where telling other people how do their jobs gets rather sticky and can be in the form of unwanted (and unlistened-to) advice.