The Office-Politics Advisers:
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Why do I have to be here at 7:30 am if this guy doesn’t stroll in until 11:00? October 2005 Dear Office-Politics, I work for a small construction company where the sales and production positions are paid on a commission basis. There is one salesman who has been on board for just about 2 years. He has yet to catch on, his sales are down and commission figures are in the red. Lately, his behavior has begun to have what I consider a ‘negative effect on employee morale’ for the rest of the employees in the office. He is late for work, walks around the office not getting anything accomplished, and when he does get a signed job, there is always a problem with it or it makes hardly any profit. The production staff are getting tired of running his jobs, as they don’t make any money on them. My boss, who is by nature a very good hearted guy, knows that this employee is just not going to work out, and recognizes that he is never going to be able to bring in enough jobs to earn the weekly draw he is receiving. As the office manager, I see and hear all the other employees making comments about him, and then their own work load, wanting to know things like “why do I have to be here at 7:30 am if this guy doesn’t stroll in until 11:00?” and “why should I get out there and work my tail off to bring in big jobs when this guy is getting paid the same every week for doing nothing?” and so on. To this employee’s defense (if there is any), he really has no reason to step things up right now as he is still getting paid every week regardless of his behaviors! I have talked to my boss numerous times about letting him go, or at the very least reducing his weekly draw in hopes that he will just leave. So far, he has done nothing, although he talks about it. What is the proper next step for me to take to impress upon my boss that this employee needs to go, without over-stepping my bounds? Tired
of the slacker worker Dear Tired
of the slacker worker, Your Boss may be biding his time, and gathering evidence of this worker's poor productivity. As the person in charge he needs to be very careful how he handles this situation. He does not want it to explode into a lawsuit. Think of it as the Boss is just giving this guy enough rope to hang himself. When we encountered this problem in our business we documented the poor behavior. We went through several performance reviews to see if the employee could pull up his socks. When no turnaround was evident, we fired him. Ultimately we were not the right 'fit' for him. I hope the world unfolds as it should for you. Thanks for writing to
Office-Politics. Please send feedback -- it is very helpful. Franke Franke James, MFA
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