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I am a manager at a large accounting firm and deal with all the politics and drama everyday. I have been here 7 years and have seen over 50 people leave since being here and our group is rather small. We normally have around 15-20 people. People basically do whatever they want here, work from home whenever, no respect for authority and work the system. This one employee who works for me had threatened to leave recently because she was moving but we got her to agree to stay by giving her 3 months unpaid leave to finish her CPA and then she will come back and work almost entirely from home. She only lives an hr away but didn't want the commute. They told her she will lose her accrued vacation for the time she is gone so she decided to take it now, in the middle of one of our client cycles. There was no reason she needed to take it now but obviously wanted to get out as soon as possible. So no one checked with me to when she could leave but she agreed to finish a portion of the project were on, which she didn't. Mostly due to the work not all coming in. But this is not the first time she has done this. She has never completed a project we are working on together and always has an excuse and then I have to do it straight. I am not even sure how she has vacation left because she took off 3 weeks in November (during our busiest time) and has taken off multiple days for the CPA exam because she has failed at least 10 times. So anyways normally I would do nothing but this time I was fed up so I had wrote her an email that does she plan on completing the work even though her vacation was scheduled and she wrote a whole email that no she is on vacation and has things scheduled so she will not complete it and that I knew about her vacation and she was helping me out by completing what she could. I found the tone of her email completely disrespectful and rude. Am I in the wrong here for thinking she should finish her project before taking her vacation? This was all scheduled without my knowledge and very recently and she did not have anything pressing that she needed to take off for immediately. So she obviously just scheduled this vacation without considering an impact to anyone else. If she had stayed one more week there would have been no issues as she has nothing else to complete then.
Help me understand something......you have an employee that is allowed to take time off without your approval? Who approves her time off?
Also, if she is such a drain on your department (always away when needed; never finishing projects); why in the world would you want to convince her to stay and work for you with added benefits like working from home? Why wouldn't you just let her go?
And finally, why in the world, after all of this would you normally "do nothing"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by phillygirl123
So anyways normally I would do nothing but this time I was fed up so I had wrote her an email .
Sounds to me like you have no idea how to manage a team.
Sounds more like the OP is venting because of the realization that there is absolutely zero control of this group, and how ineffective their leadership has been through the years.
I've never worked for a manager that tolerated such disrespect in the work group. The bad apples eventually get kicked to the curb.
I'm quite amazed that the OP would not only allow themselves to be a doormat, but would beg and grovel subordinates even when such subordinates act in subordinately.
Well I am a manager among a bunch of other managers. Us managers report to the partners, who make the final decisions. They were the ones that offered her this plan, which none of us managers were too happy with. If it were up to me I would have just said bye! I basically have no authority except to make sure the work gets done. Anything HR related/staffing I can only give an opinion. The partners here look at everyone as "bodies" so when anyone tries to leave they don't care how problematic they are they just find anyway to convince them to stay. Very frustrating!
Well I am a manager among a bunch of other managers. Us managers report to the partners, who make the final decisions. They were the ones that offered her this plan, which none of us managers were too happy with. If it were up to me I would have just said bye! I basically have no authority except to make sure the work gets done. Anything HR related/staffing I can only give an opinion. The partners here look at everyone as "bodies" so when anyone tries to leave they don't care how problematic they are they just find anyway to convince them to stay. Very frustrating!
Who provides performance reviews? Who approves their timecards?
Well I am a manager among a bunch of other managers. Us managers report to the partners, who make the final decisions. They were the ones that offered her this plan, which none of us managers were too happy with. If it were up to me I would have just said bye! I basically have no authority except to make sure the work gets done. Anything HR related/staffing I can only give an opinion. The partners here look at everyone as "bodies" so when anyone tries to leave they don't care how problematic they are they just find anyway to convince them to stay. Very frustrating!
Hon (I don't mean this is a chauvinistic fashion) but I'd be applying for other jobs if this is the way this place works....
OP, it sounds like you are the "process" manager and not a "people" manager. This is fairly common. Just get clarification on your role and work within your boundaries.
Yea I am wondering if I should do anything else at this point or just let it be? Should I send her emails to the partner or respond back that this has not been the first time she has done this and going forward it is expected that she complete all her work or communicate appropriately before taking any vacation.
Gotta be honest with you. When you have an organization when people don't give a flying you know what about anything, it's usually not the employees that are the problem.
Get her off your team ASAP. Let it be someone else's headache. There is no way she is going to be productive from home when she can't get any work done when she is in the office/on assignment.
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