Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hey CD. I've got an accounting department again...but about 1/3 of my total budget is tied up paying the CEO's very close lady friend and her sidekick. Whatever the two touch, they generally mess up. While situations like this totally make me long for the overpaid elevator button pusher roles for patronage jobs in Chicago, I need to give these two clowns something that will make them feel important and keep them busy so they're not running around gossiping and messing things up for the group.
1 runs around and is smart enough to be dangerous. However, she's allowed to work from home and pretty much stays out of the way. The other keeps wanting new challenges (apparently allocating 6 payments a day leaves her really busy but she wants to learn more), and complaining that people aren't giving her work. Stupidly I tried. She checks cash and dutifully allocates 5-6 payments each morning for 4 hours, so I thought having her map the account numbers to the gl codes of the cash accounts might be an ok ask. 2 weeks later, with nice follow-ups, I finally did it myself. That got me in trouble. I asked her to fill in an information form, sent all the input information, and gave the two of them 3 weeks to do it. We filed late. I get in trouble.
So I need something to give them. Something that sounds important but could be literally FUBARed and it doesn't matter. Open to ideas.
1 runs around and is smart enough to be dangerous. However, she's allowed to work from home and pretty much stays out of the way. The other keeps wanting new challenges (apparently allocating 6 payments a day leaves her really busy but she wants to learn more), and complaining that people aren't giving her work. Stupidly I tried. She checks cash and dutifully allocates 5-6 payments each morning for 4 hours, so I thought having her map the account numbers to the gl codes of the cash accounts might be an ok ask. 2 weeks later, with nice follow-ups, I finally did it myself. That got me in trouble. I asked her to fill in an information form, sent all the input information, and gave the two of them 3 weeks to do it. We filed late. I get in trouble.
I don't know what tasks in your office could be allocated to these two. However, one thing that can improve is your management of them. With the gl accounts, you asked nicely for status before giving up and doing it yourself. As a manager (with an employee whom you state wants to try to challenges- i.e., wants to become more competent and useful), you need to give more direction. Especially in situations like this, you need to provide more direction. You should have given her the assignment and deadline and answered any questions she had. However, then you need to schedule check-ins, and ask to see what work has been performed to date and any new questions that may have arisen. This way, you can know if there are issues in meeting the deadline, and can document performance issues (which would help cover your rear).
Similarly, with the information form, it appears you gave them the information and then didn't follow up. Maybe that's the way it should ideally work. However, given that you think these two are useless, that's even more reason to have a first check-in a week and then two weeks later, making sure things are on track. These two are taking up 1/3 of your budget, and you make it seem like you have no choice in the matter. Well, you do have a choice. You can take the time to do all sorts of rework and correction after deadlines are missed, or you can use that time giving direction and managing your staff before it's too late.
I think of some of the employees who write in, asking for more responsibility or complaining that management wants them to do something but doesn't give them direction. Sure, they could and should ask you for help and guidance if they don't know how to do something. But if you huff, roll your eyes, and growl, "What is it this time?" whenever they pass by your door, why would they want to ask for your help?
Again, I haven't read your backstory or other threads when you may have talked about these two. But from your examples, I see issues with management as well as staff.
I don't know what tasks in your office could be allocated to these two. However, one thing that can improve is your management of them. With the gl accounts, you asked nicely for status before giving up and doing it yourself. As a manager (with an employee whom you state wants to try to challenges- i.e., wants to become more competent and useful), you need to give more direction. Especially in situations like this, you need to provide more direction. You should have given her the assignment and deadline and answered any questions she had. However, then you need to schedule check-ins, and ask to see what work has been performed to date and any new questions that may have arisen. This way, you can know if there are issues in meeting the deadline, and can document performance issues (which would help cover your rear).
Similarly, with the information form, it appears you gave them the information and then didn't follow up. Maybe that's the way it should ideally work. However, given that you think these two are useless, that's even more reason to have a first check-in a week and then two weeks later, making sure things are on track. These two are taking up 1/3 of your budget, and you make it seem like you have no choice in the matter. Well, you do have a choice. You can take the time to do all sorts of rework and correction after deadlines are missed, or you can use that time giving direction and managing your staff before it's too late.
I think of some of the employees who write in, asking for more responsibility or complaining that management wants them to do something but doesn't give them direction. Sure, they could and should ask you for help and guidance if they don't know how to do something. But if you huff, roll your eyes, and growl, "What is it this time?" whenever they pass by your door, why would they want to ask for your help?
Again, I haven't read your backstory or other threads when you may have talked about these two. But from your examples, I see issues with management as well as staff.
Oh, I've been quite good to them. We meet weekly, if they show up. Both skipped work today. The one that doesn't do anything is fine...I think she's the girlfriend. Her friend is the one that wants to "learn and grow". So with her I'll come by, chit chat for a bit and then segue-way into the project and offer to help. The problem is that she then gets all confused and if I'm not right there, she goes off the deep end, gets frustrated and starts talking sh*t around the office. Then the girlfriend gets pissed and starts telling people I'm being mean. How high up? How's having the outgoing-CEO stop by sound?
It's SV...I'm used to having to carry worthless protected lackeys...that's fine. Just looking for things they can do, feel good about themselves, but not break anything. Keep the distraction level low.
Reports.
Huge weekly reports.
Have them generate reports.
Reports that no one will read.
I tried that, but she loses interest and then starts looking for other people to do it for her. She was making pretty good process on finding which credit card receipts were missing from the credit card charges, until she got frustrated, I wasn't there, and a colleague accidentally blew my game when they told her January had been done in February. Eventually calmed her down by letting her know I had a deadline, so I had to do it fast, but I really needed her to make sure because I only looked at the receipt labels, not the receipts themselves.
We have 5 charge cards, 42 charges that month, all receipts in the folder separated by cardholder....and she wants to change the process to have the cardholders send the receipts to her via e-mail.
Don't get me wrong, would love to toss them both out, but we're all just waiting for the CEO to exit stage left.
I tried with the department outing. They concluded that I should demand play-off tickets to the warriors games, which is completely out of budget.
Give them a budget. The lower the budget, the more planning it's going to take. And of course, it will have to work with everyone's schedule, not be too far from the office, has to be at a professional-type place (no Hooters), must accommodate food allergies, be large enough for the office (but not too large), and be kid-friendly, but not kid-oriented. Free parking is a must.
Testing Procedure Specification reports, indeed reports on anything whatsoever with summary write-ups, intranet, team building events with specs that include strict budgets,
If he one who wants more challenging work wants to take accounting classes or some type of training to upgrade her skills, pull strings to get her time off.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
