tangirl

Stacy has a problem keeping up on her job. You talk to her about it. Immediately things flare up. Stacy tells you that she is doing as good as she can do, and if you don't like it, you can just have her job. Stacy appears upset and tells you that she needs time to recover from the confrontation and she is going outside to have a cigarette.

What would you do? What discipline is appropriate? How would you write it up?

Bronze Star

Well first of all, my first impression would be that something serious is going on with Stacy other than work. So, I'd allow her a cigarette and watch to see how her day goes. If she is affecting clients I'd give her other tasks to do to keep her separate. Once I felt she was feeling a little more like her usual self I'd approach her to find out if everything is okay and was there anything I could do to help.

Now beyond that... it would depend on her reaction or what she revealed to me. However, I wouldn't pry or try to be too chatty unless she indicated that's the direction she wanted to take. Once in a training class I detected serious attitude from a young woman and simply asked her to step outside for a moment. I asked her if everything was alright and was there anything I could do to help? She then indicated she had taken an allergy medication and was feeling out of sorts. So... sometimes, we just don't know until we ask.

BooBop

I don't know if I could be that tolerate. I tend to be one of those that if you flare up in my face, I will flare right back and she would be without a job. Maybe not the right way to do it, but my employees do not tell me where to get off.

tangirl

Bronze , you are right on the mark. Sometimes, there are other problems going on in people's lives that we know absolutely nothing about. There could be a flip side to this situation also. If this person were to have a poor work history, it would be time to hit the door.

Bronze Star

I agree... out of the gate if this person has poor performance they may have just earned their pink slip with a manuever like that. However, if this employee is suddenly acting out of character... say even in the last week or month and has been with me faithfully for awhile, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. I am not for treating my employees in a soft manner by any means and can be quit blunt with them. However, by approaching things logically and matter of factly, you can often dig to the root of the problem without exacerbating the situation. Tact is not necessarily a four letter word.

Phiper

We had a similar situtation with an employee that was getting irritable with the customers. Little things would just "set her off". We couldn't figure out why she was acting like this, had a talk with her and ended up letting her go. About two months later she stopped back, we sat down again, and come to find out her doctor had changed her medication (she has advance stages of MS). She is on a different medication now and is "back to normal". She is a wonderful employee... in fact, one of our best.
She didn't realize at the time what the old medication was doing to her (and we didn't know it was the medication) until she got off of it.

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Viper


Jon@phiper.fws1.com