In my office, we have several subordinates and several supervisors. I am one of the supervisors. So one day I saw two of the subordinates chatting, being relaxed. Mind you, they have work to do, plus they perform poorly in other areas. In addition, upper management does not really want them conversing for too long. So I asked one of them what he was doing, implying that he should be working. He turned to me and asked if I was working, and then proceeds to look at my computer screen and then made the remark... "no, you're just checking your email and chilling" while shrugging. There are more than one ways I could handle this fool, what do you think is the best thing? As far as relationships go, I am not an with these subordinates, I try to mentor them, help them and encourage them to talk to me, so I could help build morale. I am definitely not an a**hole which I can easily be. What do I do?

Well what are your options for dealing with him? If you ignore it, his behavior will continue and others may follow his lead. Write him up for insubordination? Sit down and have a talk with him? And what does supervisor mean in your line of work? Some places supervisor doesn't seem to mean much. My cousin was a shift supervisor and all it meant was that people came to him with questions when the real managers weren't in. do you actually have authority of your own here? Or do you need to bring the higher ups into this?

I have difficulty with your language - namely the word 'subordinates'. Today's workplace doesn't actually work in this hierarchical fashion and younger people in particular do not relate in a subordinated fashion to people that are their superiors.

Mostly these days you have to earn people's respect. There are 2 issues here - one, you believe that they perform poorly and two, you saw them chatting and wanted them to stop.

If they perform poorly then that needs to be dealt with at a performance review - or sooner. If you don't like them chatting and want them to get back to work then you would do best to be direct, and say so.

You also talk like you're doing them a favor by not being an a/hole, but I suspect your hierarchical attitude speaks for itself.

Earn their respect instead of being so condescending and you may be better equipped to deal with the office 'subordinates'.