:confused:I am having a problem with an employee in the Purchasing Department of our company. About 2 months ago, our company made some personnel reductions and there has been changes in job responsibilities within the company. I was given the task to take over my Managers position and responsibilities. The 2nd person in our department was hired under contract. She has past purchasing experience and brags about it. She also has past experience in our computer working system we use, more than I have. I have over 6 years experience in Materials Management and over 15 years experience in purchasing. My problem with the employee is she is loud when she talks, interrupts when I am on the phone or likes to interrupt conversations when the question is not directed to her. She tends to ignore me and others when asked a direct question, and pretends not to hear us, so we have to repeat ourselves multiply times. She does not finish quotes or projects in a timely matter and the quotes have to be requoted and resubmitted time and time again. We have lost new customers due to her work style or ethics. She will not talk directly to the suppliers, she emails them. I have given her deadlines for these projects and I get these types of responses. "Oh, they have not gotten back to me yet." or "I don't want to make them mad by calling them all the time." and also "I don't want to push them, because we may not get the best quoted price from them." She has also had an attendance issue that I have already discussed with her. She has the personality of a know it all. She can really talk the talk, but she hasn't showed me the walk. Other Managers and I do not get the respect from her like we should. At this point in time we have to talk to her like and watch over her like a teenager. She does what she wants, when she wants to get it done. She has made comments that she does not want the responsibilities I have taken on and she wants only to do purchasing and leave at quiting time. I really don't know what to do next here. Also, I don't work for an American owned and operated company, so this has been a big problem with dealing with the employee.

Sounds like she needs to be shown the door and told to leave. She cannot be relied upon to do her assigned work tasks properly and has to be coddled into doing it? Then, she needs to find another place of employment as your company does not need to lose potential clients and lose the clients it already has.

Is your company in America but just not American owned?

Yes, that is correct. They don't like to fire employees, they push them out.
I have been taking notes of all these issues and I have contacted HR about them.
HR is also new and they are not able to give me answers or help me at this time.
I would like to say there's the door, believe me.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Sounds like she needs to be shown the door and told to leave. She cannot be relied upon to do her assigned work tasks properly and has to be coddled into doing it? Then, she needs to find another place of employment as your company does not need to lose potential clients and lose the clients it already has.

Is your company in America but just not American owned?

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A couple of issues here to be addressed. The blatant one is lack of responsiveness. My suggestion is to gain her attention prior to asking a question. Call her name once normally and increase tone and inflection every 5 seconds after. Once eye contact has been made ask the question. Sometimes people are ignorant of the actions. If she interrupts a call, pardon the call and ask "if there was a particularly important reason she interrupted?" Interrupting conversations could be an attempt to fit in. Facilitate the conversation by halting the break-in and allowing her to add her piece when others have finished. I

F you are her supervisor, contact some of these customers and see what work has been done. Do this with her in a "team selling" atmosphere so you appear to her as helping instead of watching over. It could be she needs a "closer."

Respect is a delicate symbiotic thing. Giving, earning and receiving respect changes with each interaction. If she is disrespecting you, then you must address the issue. If you continue to help her grow, then the respect you want will be earned.

Thank you for your advise. :)
Just last week I had to talk to the HR Supervisor, because other issues have arrised.
She spoke to my employee and it was amazing how her attitude and responsiveness changed all of a sudden.
I am taking it upon myself also that in a month or so I will be taking a 1 day class for women how are supervisors. I hope to be able to use somehting from this.

Thanks again! :D

I would suggest that first of all, you need to be very clear in your expectations. I suggest you write a letter and deliver it in person in a meeting:

"Mary, there are some issues that have arisen in your work that must be corrected and I want to be very clear with you about them. Please know that this is a formal warning and if you do not make the corrections immediately and consistently, there may be consequences.

First, your other colleagues and I cannot be expected to repeat ourselves routinely. If you have a hearing problem and can document it, we would be willing to look into accomodations to work with you. We are not aware of any such difficulty though, and it appears you choose to ignore us when we speak to you, which is considered to be inappropriate.

Second, when a customer calls you, you are expected to call them back at your first opportunity - not necessarily at your convenience. If they phone you, you must phone them back. Customers do not like when they call you and you email them back, and whether you think they are right or not is immaterial - we are here to serve them as they wish to be served....

Finally, your attendance is problematic. You need to be here on time every day. If you will be late, you need to call. I would suggest you get here 5 to 10 minutes before your start time so you have a chance to settle in and be ready to work at 8 am. You should know that being on time is not an issue that we will discuss with you again, as we consider it a basic responsibility that should not have to be explained."

Start and end the meeting by pointing out the things you do like about her. "Mary, we are so pleased with your expertise about the program, and want you to be successful here..." and, "I know it's hard to recieve criticism, but please do not take this out of context. What we are telling you is important and we expect fully for corrections to be made, and when those corrections are made, we all feel that you will be a very valuable employee with great future potential".


Have HR and your manager review the letter.

I would focus on three things at a maximum and not be nasty or punitive about it, but do be very clear.

If she argues, let her know, "every company has their culture and expectations, and this is the culture and the expectation here. We expect that you comply if you wish to be part of hte organization".

Further, and please do not take offense - my intent is to help you - I would strongly suggest you have any letter you might write reviewed by someone with very good writing and editing capabilities as there are several errors in grammar, spelling and word usage in your post. Not a big deal on this site (I probably have several here, too!) because this is a quick posting, but errors in formal documents can undermine your intentions by giving the recipient ammunition for finding fault with you... best to be very correct when criticising others.

And finally, there can be a tendency sometimes for people to become the scapegoat when they get on the bad side of a few people at work - don't become a lynch mob. Once you give the direction for her to change, make sure the whole team supports her improvement and does not make it impossible for her to become a better employee. As for the practice of just trying to get people to quit, that's really aweful. If anyone has been through it, they can tell you that being railroaded out the door leaves very bad feelings about the individuals who do the railroading, and the company as a whole. It's better to document things, and if you must, fire the person. If you can, give them some notice and support in finding another job, and don't poison their future opportunities by giving bad references. No point throwing people under the bus.

Best wishes...

So re-assign her to the janitorial staff, they laid off ( cut back) so they must not mind getting rid of people,

Show them the money she is costing the company