462
votes
Engineer refusing to file/disclose patents
I find it interesting that your company has devalued patents significantly, and then seemed surprised when some of your engineers have decided it's not worth their time.
You talk about trust, but it'...
- 60.6k
368
votes
Employee (my direct report) underperforming due to religious fasting - how to address?
My question is: how to address underperformance and mistakes with an employee who's a poor performer anyway but it is at "breaking point" due to religious fasting?
Don't treat it as a fasting problem,...
- 224k
361
votes
Engineer refusing to file/disclose patents
30 patents in two years is roughly $75k a year that's been changed to $15k. So he's been given a $60k a year in pay reduction.
So, yeah, he's probably going to quit and go work for someone else. ...
- 8,052
316
votes
Employee (my direct report) underperforming due to religious fasting - how to address?
In my opinion, your biggest problem is not Charlie or his fasting, it's this:
we are short staffed anyway and typically working in "overclocked" mode to meet deadlines. We are a team of 3 including ...
- 4,489
205
votes
Accepted
Probably terminated or laid off soon; confront or not?
Don't confront them.
Here's why:
If they say they aren't going to lay you off, will you believe them? You shouldn't. So you are no closer to resolution or closure.
If they say they are letting you go....
- 8,363
202
votes
Accepted
How do I address poor performance that is exacerbated by religious practices?
Stick to the facts.
How do you know it is their religion that is causing the issue? It could very well be some form of issue with their home life, or maybe they lost "the spark" and are not happy ...
- 15k
187
votes
Confessions of an incompetent worker. How to cope with colleagues hating me and failing in self improvement?
Your post really struck a chord with me as it is very similar to how I felt at my last job. My previous job involved working in a very corporate environment on a complex system. The work involved a ...
- 7,054
178
votes
Extracting work from people who are on PIPs but who we also cannot fire?
There is no way to “turn around” these devs. Short of some come-to-Jesus experience where they decide to work hard for no good reason, they are doing the reasonable thing for the position they are in....
- 38k
177
votes
Accepted
How do I know I'm not unknowingly messing up my software apprenticeship?
The first sign that you're not is the fact that you're concerned that you might be.
Give me someone who's a little insecure over a know-it-all any day. It means you're going to ask questions, ...
- 160k
174
votes
Employees are gaming their performance metrics, instead of doing what's best for the company
This is pure and simple a management problem.
It's one of the tasks of management to set goals in such a way that by achieving their goals and getting praise and recognition, employees will also ...
- 170k
152
votes
How do we improve the relationship with a client software team that performs poorly and is becoming less collaborative?
Please don't mislead yourself, you are nothing more than an external contractor to the company. You are NOT part of the company, so there is no legal or moral reason to grant you anything more than ...
- 1,409
133
votes
Accepted
Employees are gaming their performance metrics, instead of doing what's best for the company
This observation (which I have seen myself) has been one of the most unexpected thing I've experienced in my professional life, as opposed to university or school. This is a such a complicated issue, ...
- 2,328
132
votes
Extracting work from people who are on PIPs but who we also cannot fire?
You want favours from those you tried to get rid of but couldn't.
You openly admit that these people would be out the door but for company hiring rules. You know it. They know it. Everyone knows that ...
- 47.9k
128
votes
Accepted
I just got an invite for a meeting with my boss and boss's boss titled "Performance Improvement Plan". Should I be worried?
While there may be some workplaces in which the PIP is actually used to improve an employees performance, it's usually management's way to provide documentation to justify an employee's termination in ...
- 3,454
105
votes
Employee (my direct report) underperforming due to religious fasting - how to address?
Document specific mistakes and the effect they have on the business. Treat this employee the way you would any employee that was not delivering the level of performance required by the job.
- 989
105
votes
Interpreting a negative self-evaluation of a high performer
Ask for two different self-evaluations, an official one that can be used to give them a raise and an unofficial one that can be used for self-improvement. Make sure they don't confuse the two. In the ...
- 59.3k
104
votes
Accepted
Employer says they want Quality & Quantity, but only pays bonuses based on the latter
Based on your statements in the question, I'm going to write the answer(s)
How to cope with this situation?
If you want monetary benefits, shift your priority to produce quantity rather than ...
- 73.8k
100
votes
Extracting work from people who are on PIPs but who we also cannot fire?
Instead of defending your teammates, who act reasonably, like the other posts, I will give you advice. This is the part of your post we need:
Extracting work from people who are on PIPs but who we ...
- 6,955
97
votes
Probably terminated or laid off soon; confront or not?
I think you should double down on effort AND interview for other roles. I was once put on a PIP, it was shocking at the time and I didn't totally agree with it but I realised it wasn't totally unfair.
...
- 7,054
94
votes
I just got an invite for a meeting with my boss and boss's boss titled "Performance Improvement Plan". Should I be worried?
No, do NOT seek a lawyer. The last thing you need is expensive litigation that will only result in large legal bills and being blackballed in your industry as being one who sues employers.
Yes, you ...
- 160k
87
votes
Engineer refusing to file/disclose patents
Your best alternative really sounds like it is for you to walk away; You are throwing good time after bad trying to entice/squeeze your employee for the new patent. Giving it to you now is an ...
- 1,009
85
votes
How do I address poor performance that is exacerbated by religious practices?
I think you should not touch religious ground here at all. One, because it is totally irrelevant, two, because you can get yourself into all kinds of legal difficulties.
Why is it irrelevant? Because ...
- 170k
82
votes
Confessions of an incompetent worker. How to cope with colleagues hating me and failing in self improvement?
I just needed to know what am I doing wrong in my job after 2 years of
minuscule improvements at my performance.
It's not clear from your question what you have done so far.
If you haven't already ...
- 387k
81
votes
I'm on a PIP but really need this job. Should I ask for a lower salary?
So my question: is asking for lower salary an option? How it will be
perceived by my boss? How to formulate it? What to avoid? Did someone
successfully pulled it off?
You can ask, but it's almost ...
- 387k
81
votes
Under performing employee will be fired if I ask for him off my team
This strongly sounds to my like "inner resignment" has already happened. This is a tragedy personally as well as from a management perspective as this is also lost "human capital" which is undervalued ...
- 22.3k
76
votes
Engineer refusing to file/disclose patents
This engineer has filed over 30 successful patents over the past 2 years, and all of these inventions are used in our products.
This was indication enough for your senior management to not call off ...
- 73.8k
75
votes
Interpreting a negative self-evaluation of a high performer
One thing about self-evaluations that many managers don't understand is that many folks dread the inauthenticity that comes along with the process. They also dread having to "prove" their ...
- 22.6k
74
votes
Dealing with conflict between co-workers for non-work-related issue affecting their work
Fire the "anti-vaccer"?
This. They have no business pretending to be a medical professional.
Being an anti-vaxxer is essentially being anti-science based medicine. Which is what a medical ...
- 110k
69
votes
Accepted
Annual bonus changed this year. Is there anything I can do about it?
I did speak to my departments Assistant manager regarding this issue and she said she wasn't aware
"OK, will you find out what's going on for me please?"
- 115k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible