# Advice for review with bad attitude employee



## remey (18 Jul 2012)

Hi,

I'm carrying out employee reviews, most will be fine. 

One staff member in particular has a very negative attitude, always whinging etc. He just about does his job under his job description but will never ever go the extra mile, stay late (by late I mean 10 mins) and will log off at lunch and back in again after 1 hour regardless of how busy we are or what needs to be done, always last to answer the phone etc. We're small and with annual leave we've really been pushed to our limit.

How much of this can I say at a review? Its hard to change an attitude and he probably thinks he has a great one.

Any advice?

Thanks


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## elcato (18 Jul 2012)

> One staff member in particular has a very negative attitude, always  whinging etc. He just about does his job under his job description but  will never ever go the extra mile, stay late (by late I mean 10 mins)  and will log off at lunch and back in again after 1 hour regardless of  how busy we are or what needs to be done, always last to answer the  phone etc.


He sounds like he sin't the only one with an attitude. You're joking right ?


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## peteb (18 Jul 2012)

sounds just like me! So he does what you tell him, starts punctually and finishes when his working day is finished.  I'd expect it to be a favourable review for him!


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## Purple (18 Jul 2012)

elcato said:


> He sounds like he sin't the only one with an attitude. You're joking right ?


How so? There has to be give and take in a small business. That's the nature of the beast. I thought the "work to rule attitude" was a thing of the past. It seems I was wrong.



peteb said:


> sounds just like me! So he does what you tell him, starts punctually and finishes when his working day is finished.  I'd expect it to be a favourable review for him!



Does he get his work done and does he do what others do around him, is he pulling his weight relative to the people he works with. That's the issue.


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## Tired Paul (18 Jul 2012)

If he turns up when he's ment to, does his work and leaves when he's entitled to what's the issue. Unless there are incentives for him to do above and beyond his role. I know where I work we are graded depending on our "attitude", attention to detail, willingness to go the extra mile etc. For this we get a bonus. If we just do our job so to speak we still get a good review but our bonus is affected. Its our own interest to above and beyond if we want more of a bonus. Thats what the incentive is all about.


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## truthseeker (18 Jul 2012)

remey said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm carrying out employee reviews, most will be fine. One staff member in particular has a very negative attitude, always whinging etc. He just about does his job under his job description but will never ever go the extra mile, stay late (by late I mean 10 mins) and will log off at lunch and back in again after 1 hour regardless of how busy we are or what needs to be done, always last to answer the phone etc. We're small and with annual leave we've really been pushed to our limit.
> 
> ...



Besides the whinging, what exactly is he doing wrong? What does he get if he goes the extra mile? Is he not entitled to take his lunch break? 

In the last place I worked I went many extra miles, missed plenty of lunches, stayed late or started early every day, answered my phone, your phone, everyones phone!! And I got nothing for it, then one day the powers that be decided to get rid of my department and there I was, out on my ear with absolutely no one to care that Id gone all the extra miles. Id never do it again unless I got something for it. Clock in, do the job, clock out. End of. No one cares if you go the extra mile. They only care if you dont.


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## ajapale (18 Jul 2012)

Moved from  Miscellaneous Non-financial Questions to Employer/Employee section.


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## mathepac (18 Jul 2012)

I'd be inclined to agree with the majority, although as already stated I don't know what the whinging is about or how it effects others.

If the guy has a job description / role definition and he does what's  defined or described there then he Always Meets Job Requirements,; whinging aside, that's a very favourable review.

If there is an unwritten or unspoken expectation that to get a favourable review he must Always Exceed Job Requirements, then that is pretty sneaky on the review system / reviewer's part.

Is this guy being used in a role that allows him to use all of his his capabilities? Is he over-qualified for the role he currently has or has he previously worked at a more senior level in another organisation (maybe a bigger one?)

You can'r give the guy a bad review, but you (or maybe someone else) need to get to the bottom of whatever seems to be bothering him.


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## remey (18 Jul 2012)

Ok maybe I've been too vague...

I've had complaints from 3 staff about him also, about the fact that he will rarely answer the phone only when nobody else is or I shout for the phone to be answered. He will always keep one item in his tray and when he's asked to do something he refers to his item that he needs to do. 
When he hangs up from our customers (not the end customer) he will regularly give off using all sorts of language where others will say to him just relax.

We need the Internet every so often for work and he was always using it personally and switching over when I walk back in to the room. The other staff members complained that he is browsing the Internet while they are up to their eyes getting work done. I challenged him and he said he wasnt so I got a monitoring package in place for a month and the first day I got the results it showed he had been on the previous day for 4.5 hours. We possibly refer to the Internet 7 or 8 times a day to do checks so it wasnt for work. He showly cut down the time but I know as soon as I leave his view he's sending epic emails (not for work, I can see them on his screen from my desk) and browsing again. I only had a month trial on monitoring, I thought it would be sufficient. 
He practically grunts if he is asked to do anything and will never ever offer to help anyone else out or get something else done if he's quiet.
His attitude is effecting others. He recently was off for a week and most commented that we were a happier bunch in his absence.

He is paid a decent salary with additional 25% bonus. Last year he received half his bonus. Even though we're a small company (10 staff), they treat us very well thankfully. We regularly have nights out fully paid, lunches paid for the odd time and we've all been told on a couple of occassions to have a meal out with the other half or whoever, keep the receipt and work will cover it. At Christmas time we're very well looked after.
I think its fair that there's some give and take and that some will go the extra mile when required. I'm not expecting anyone to waive their lunch hour on a regular basis by any means but when you're short staffed one particular day and an unprecedented workload I thinks its fair to ask someone to cut their lunch in half and give an extra dig out here and there.


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## browtal (18 Jul 2012)

It is very hard to work with people with attitude, unfortunately with todays employment laws 'attitude' is not considered a problem. I for one would prefer not to share a workplace
with such an individual. 
With employment scarce today such a person is a burden on everybody - he must be a happy individual - he must be nice to live with to. Browtal


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## mathepac (19 Jul 2012)

remey said:


> Ok maybe I've been too vague...


As in chalk and cheese.


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## elcato (19 Jul 2012)

Thanks for clarifying your original post. An employer is entitled to see emails being sent and received by their employer so if he's using the work email for other purposes he can be warned about it. (If he uses gmail/webmail then that's a problem). you need to clarify all hours he spends on the web and give warnings on it. 
But, are you sure that you are just not listening to others who have a gripe against this guy and may be clouding your judgement ? Quite often someone can give a bad first impression that seems to last for a long time.


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## truthseeker (19 Jul 2012)

Thats a totally different situation to what you indicated in your original post!

Why did you keep him on when you discovered the level of internet access?

Why is he not getting a warning for not answering the phone if its part of his job?

I think your real issue here is not his job review which no doubt happens only periodically, but his day to day management. In your situation I would take the hard line and follow up on him daily for a while until he either gets the message or gets himself fired.

From your more recent post it seems you are not the overall boss, what does the overall boss say about this?

Why do you keep the guy on at all?


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## Tired Paul (19 Jul 2012)

Do you have an Internet policy for the workplace?? I would suggest that without such a policy then use of the internet is open for abuse. If a policy is in place and employees disregard the policy then there are grounds for a form of action ie termnation of contract, probation period etc.


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## partnership (19 Jul 2012)

I agree with the post about having an internet policy because if he is using the internet and there is no policy then he may have a defence so draw one up quicksmart and circulate it to everyone.  I think most organisations will be flexible in allowing people do personal stuff on the internet but it has to be done during lunch time or after hours, same should apply to personal emails.

With regard to things like the phone, use of bad language, if it is something you have witnessed then you can bring up and say that it is not acceptable.  I presume you work as a team and this should be in his contract - so it can be brought up what you have observed about his team work. Do not say that people have complained about him unless they are prepared to be named - often people give out but dont want the person to know and then you can't do anything.

You obviously had issues with him in the past if he did not get all his bonus - how did you manage that?


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## Romulan (19 Jul 2012)

There are plenty of open source proxy servers (internet filtering) available that do not cost anything to purchase and can be installed by whoever supports your IT.

OPENDNS - configured from router

or

CENSORNET, ENDIAN, UTANGLE - all you need is an (old) PC with 2 network cards.


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## Leper (20 Jul 2012)

I think you got a guy here who just does not want to be where he is. Of course, that is if you are telling the truth. Taking your first post and your subsequent post it appears to me that your performance needs to be reviewed. The other staff are suffering while you play your fiddle to the dosser's tune. But, there are two sides to every story and we have not heard that of the alleged bad attitude employee.

I believe formal staff reviews to be a load of monkey-dung. Many managers seem to review staff on their appearance, punctuality and ignore the output. Instead of praising, managers are hell bent on finding faults and then finding more faults. Perhaps it is part of their ego trip? Most managers (from my experience) ignore the amount of positive output and effort good workers do and then come down hard because a break was extended by a few minutes or some other paltry scene.

Monday morning meetings, formal staff reviews, white walling, ego tripping are counter productive. They are just a means of recognition of the role of the manager. If it ain't broke dont fix it - how often have we heard this? But, no it appears that the syndrome of break it more wins the day.

A private informal chat with any employee should alleviate most situations. Managers, learn to manage or you will be managed by your employees. Great idea:- should manager's performance be reviewed by the workers?


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## Purple (20 Jul 2012)

Leper said:


> A private informal chat with any employee should alleviate most situations. Managers, learn to manage or you will be managed by your employees.



I agree completely.


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## Complainer (21 Jul 2012)

remey said:


> we've all been told on a couple of occassions to have a meal out with the other half or whoever, keep the receipt and work will cover it.


Perhaps he has lost respect for an employer who encourages tax evasion?


remey said:


> We need the Internet every so often for work and he was always using it personally and switching over when I walk back in to the room. The other staff members complained that he is browsing the Internet while they are up to their eyes getting work done. I challenged him and he said he wasnt so I got a monitoring package in place for a month and the first day I got the results it showed he had been on the previous day for 4.5 hours. We possibly refer to the Internet 7 or 8 times a day to do checks so it wasnt for work. He showly cut down the time but I know as soon as I leave his view he's sending epic emails (not for work, I can see them on his screen from my desk) and browsing again. I only had a month trial on monitoring, I thought it would be sufficient.


Be very, very careful how you interpret this information. What do you mean by 4.5 hours? Is the package measuring the amount of time the browser window was open? If he switches from the browser to his email, while leaving the browser window open, is your package counting this time as part of the 4.5 hours?


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## truthseeker (21 Jul 2012)

Complainer said:


> Perhaps he has lost respect for an employer who encourages tax evasion?



How is work paying for a meal tax evasion?



Complainer said:


> Be very, very careful how you interpret this information. What do you mean by 4.5 hours? Is the package measuring the amount of time the browser window was open? If he switches from the browser to his email, while leaving the browser window open, is your package counting this time as part of the 4.5 hours?



Most internet monitoring software reports on a number of metrics, time browser is open, time browser window is active, number of web pages visited, etc... Its usually pretty easy to see from the browser history whether or not someone is taking the proverbial.

Although many employees are experts in avoiding detection, using a different browser, browsing through a proxy server etc... I have never found automated software monitoring to be the best fits all solution.


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## Complainer (21 Jul 2012)

truthseeker said:


> How is work paying for a meal tax evasion?


Because it is an under-the-counter payment to an employee for a non-business related expense.



truthseeker said:


> Most internet monitoring software reports on a number of metrics, time browser is open, time browser window is active, number of web pages visited, etc... Its usually pretty easy to see from the browser history whether or not someone is taking the proverbial.


I've never seen any software that can accurately measure browser window activity. How do even define browser window activity? If the employee has a 'weather forecast' gadget on their desktop that updates the weather every 15 minutes, is that an active browser? Of if the employee resizes the windows on screen so that the browser window is visible, but not the currently active window, is that considered active time?



truthseeker said:


> Although many employees are experts in avoiding detection, using a different browser, browsing through a proxy server etc... I have never found automated software monitoring to be the best fits all solution.


Fully agree - it can turn into a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. Good visible management is really the best solution.


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## Leper (22 Jul 2012)

I'm getting a trifle annoyed looking at this subject.  It is a simple basic situation and here we are talking about Dis, Dat and t'other.  Let's assume the employee is a constant malingerer and just punches in the time as a total waster.  A manager should button-hole the employee and sort out the situation pronto by means of a short effective chat.  It is that simple.


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## Complainer (22 Jul 2012)

If the manager approaches the issue with the assumption that "employee is a constant malingerer and just punches in the time as a total waster", the manager is likely to make the situation worse, not better.


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## truthseeker (22 Jul 2012)

Complainer said:


> Because it is an under-the-counter payment to an employee for a non-business related expense.



This is rubbish. Many companies have expense accounts specifically used for things like meals out for employees. How is it under the counter?


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## Complainer (22 Jul 2012)

truthseeker said:


> This is rubbish. Many companies have expense accounts specifically used for things like meals out for employees. How is it under the counter?


Because it is a non-business related expense. Where a company is allowing employees to expense not business related expenses, such as a meal out that has nothing to do with the business, as the OP has mentioned, then this is an under-the-counter payment - unless of course it is declared as a BIK to the employee, and NOT declared as a business expense. But in the context of a benefit for employees, as the OP has mentioned, it is an under-the-counter payment for a non-business related expense.

Businesses cannot choose to put money in the hands of employees without paying tax on it.


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## Purple (23 Jul 2012)

Complainer said:


> Because it is a non-business related expense. Where a company is allowing employees to expense not business related expenses, such as a meal out that has nothing to do with the business, as the OP has mentioned, then this is an under-the-counter payment - unless of course it is declared as a BIK to the employee, and NOT declared as a business expense. But in the context of a benefit for employees, as the OP has mentioned, it is an under-the-counter payment for a non-business related expense.
> 
> Businesses cannot choose to put money in the hands of employees without paying tax on it.


Agreed.


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## remey (23 Jul 2012)

Only getting a chance to check in again now, I dont know where to begin on the replies.

Just as I think of them....

I am only the manager in the company, the MD has made reference to his attitude but not much else as he only pops in and out.

I had very specific points to discuss with my colleague but was asking here for advice only relating to attitude as its hard to measure and one persons idea of a bad attitude vs anothers may differ. I didnt want to say anything out of line on that one.

There is no Internet policy in place which I need to sort out asap. No HR dept or person, I get to do that too! I have sent emails to everyone about personal Internet being used only at lunchtime, dont think that counts though?

We're a relatively new and very busy company so at bonus time last year we discussed how he hadnt been there a year yet and performance needed to be reviewed and improved and that half a bonus would be provided.

The Internet monitoring package was in place for a month and gave details of what websites were hit so I could see for instance how many times facebook, twitter, paddy power etc were hit and browse times.

I cant recall who asked but I can assure I'm telling the truth... I'm probably the worse eejit for caring but I do like my job, everyone else in there does too and I didnt want the attitude and performance of one to bring others down.

We've had the review and he agreed that he has had a grumpy attitude and that he could do more and I'm happy to say so far there has been a remarkable difference which has been commented on by a few others including MD. Long may it last!

Regarding the odd meal covered by work...of course we pay BIK....!!!

Thanks to those for positive feedback and some worthwhile suggestions that I need to consider asap.


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## Ceist Beag (24 Jul 2012)

Fair play remey, sounds like a nice work atmosphere you have there and glad things have improved with this employee.


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## Complainer (24 Jul 2012)

On relation to the BIK thing, as the teenagers would say, yeah righ. What would be the point of paying for a meal, and paying for the BIK? The company would be taking a whole administration workload for no benefit. And if the company is treating the payment as a taxable expense when calculating its own corporate profits, it is still a tax fraud. You'd be far better off availing of the 'small gifts exemption' (not sure if that's the right term) that allows you to give a gift token or similar under a modest threshold (€250 I think).

On the review, it sounds like you got a great outcome. It is indeed hard to measure and manage attitude, but it appears that you handled it well and got a good response from the employee. Well done.


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## johnno09 (24 Jul 2012)

Let's call a spade a spade...the guy is taking the p**s in this day and age. It's fair enough him starting and leaving on time, taking his lunch hour etc. Not a lot you can do about that...but the internet usage, the language, the lonely file on the in-tray. 

You sound like a guy who's too nice for boss material, it may be a management style that works with a motivated workforce but you have a situation to tackle here. 

I'd start the review with asking him what specifically he's doing well at and what he could improve. Sit it out, ride out the silences and let him fill the gaps to answer both sides of the question. 

Then hit him with specifics as in "why are you on facebook, twitter, paddy power during working time?" produce printouts of it all so avoid argument. If he's not at his computer during lunchtime and gone at 5.01 then he has no excuse for that. Tell him you've heard the language he uses and that it's not appropriate for the workplace. Tell him you've seen him ignore phone calls he could have promptly answered and ask why and wait for the answer? 

As regards the everpresent file on his in-tray....don't hesitate to add to it with a deadline attached. 

Then don't reward him with a bonus! Man up!!


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