How to advise subordinate that second job is not in his long-term interests?

Question

A junior member of my (small - 4 staff members) department has been with us full-time for almost three years. However, he has also kept a job working in a restaurant for three nights a week, and I'm concerned that it is affecting his ability to advance.

As his line manager, I'm happy with his work in general - he gets work done, and is at work for the 37.5 hours a week he is required to be. However, there are times when he is obviously tired, and while his work is solid, he never seems to push beyond the minimum effort (other staff will put in extra time as required and then recover it as TOIL later) - mostly because he has to go to this other job.

At the moment, I am not able to point at his contributions and make a case with my managers that he deserves anything more than a standard increase - whereas a jump in grade would easily cover the money he's getting from the other job.

We have nothing in our contracts that prohibit second jobs - and I'm aware that I'm not in a position to force him to quit the other job.

How should I approach him with advice that by working the second job, he is actually hurting his chances of promotion and more money within his primary career?

Answer 1

The way you explained it here should be perfectly ok for your subordinate as well during a one-on-one meeting.

However, there are two other things worth taking into account:

1. Before promising a raise you need to be absolutely sure that the raise can actually be accomplished. Otherwise you'll risk to break your subordinate's motivation.
2. Your subordinate might actually love his job at restaurant. If that is the case, the extra money he earns there isn't really the important factor. So be prepared that he'll refuse to leave his second job for this very reason. In this case you could consider explaining the benefits that the higher grade can have. Focus on the new and more interesting aspects/perspectives that a jump in grade could open to him rather than the higher pay.

Answer 2

As his line manager, I'm happy with his work in general - he gets work done, and is at work for the 37.5 hours a week he is required to be.

So he performs as should be expected...

However, there are times when he is obviously tired, and while his work is solid, he never seems to push beyond the minimum effort (other staff will put in extra time as required and then recover it as TOIL later) - mostly because he has to go to this other job.

The tired part is not germaine. The question is whether he is doing the assigned work; which it sounds like he is. So one potential option is to just leave it alone.

Your statements seem to imply that over time is very common in your company. If this is the case, the I'd suggest talking with your managers about how to be properly staffed. Regardless, there are many many reasons that people won't normally do overtime such as strong desire for family/personal time, etc.

There are also many reasons why people keep part time jobs. At 37.5 hours a week, it sounds like he's only part time. If this means he doesn't have benefits like health insurance then it's entirely possible he's keeping the restaurant job for those items... unlikely but possible.

How I'd approach this:

If I felt that he would be a stronger employee then I would contact my manager and get prior approval to bump the guys pay to an amount that exceeded what he's making in his part time job. If he is considered "part time" then I'd also see if moving him to full time, with all the associated benefits, was possible.

Once secured, I would approach the employee and let him know that if he is willing to quit the restaurant job and focus on this job full time then he'd get this raise. His reaction at that point will tell you everything you need to know.

However, if I couldn't secure the above from management first then I would drop the issue entirely. His work appears to be acceptable as is which is far better than a lot of people out there.

Answer 3

I believe it is best to asses the performance of your subordinate by strictly considering his/her on the job performance without taking into account the second job.
We know you have knowledge about his/hers second (part-time) job but otherwise an employee can be also tired after a week-end or a night-out with friends.

The fact that you know about the second job, biases how you rate your subordinate's job performance.
Anyway, the best way to handle this situation is to have a talk with your team member, to inform him/her that his/hers job performance ratings are declining and that you would like to help either by increasing (permanently) the base pay if the cause is in fact the need of a higher wage (and implicitly to work part-time) or by doing something else if the reason for low performance is determined by other factors (obviously you know the cause but you need to give the other person a way to feel at ease, if not, he/she can choose to quit or lie to you).

On the other hand, if your employee (team member) does his/her job well and you just want the extra effort for which the other employees (team members) are not rewarded but makes you happy (because you like seeing people they dedicate all their resources for you cause) well, this is another discussion. What if this employee in fact is more effective and more efficient than (or as mas as) the others or what if his/hers interest is to work the extra hours somewhere else?
If this is the case, it comes to what you expect from your employees. If you want people who put extra hours of work regularly for your company and individuals that keep only one primary job then, maybe you should search for someone else to replace your current employee (it is obvious that in this case there is a misfit).