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Writer Whirler reports: <<My group recently merged with another group in
another city. That other group has a
writer (let's call her Betty), who now reports to me, because Betty's
previous manager (who is not a writer) no longer wants to deal with her.>>
Don't you just love it when someone who's paid substantially more than you
to manage a group can't hack it and dumps the responsibility on you?
Cowardice of the most extreme kind--though don't even hint to the manager
that you're feeling this way. I hope they're planning to pay you more for
this extra responsibility and the stress that accompanies it.
<<Betty has a reputation in her office as being defensive, argumentative,
incompetent, and stubborn. The previous manager told me that she would often
take the Betty's work home with her and rewrite it because it was so bad:
poorly written, poorly organized, and showing almost no comprehension of the
product she was writing about.>>
That's a really bad mistake. If there's a problem, you need to bring it to
the attention of the writer, discuss what to do about it, and set
_measurable_ or at least reasonably objective goals for fixing the problem.
This serves two crucial purposes: First, it establishes a collaborative
relationship of the form "I'm going to do my best to help you solve this
problem" rather than an antagonistic relationship of the form "you're a bad,
childish person and I'm going to do my more mature best to fire your sorry
ass". If the person is trainable, wants to improve, and is worth keeping on,
you can often work with them to solve the problem. Maybe not quickly, but at
least you can hope...
Second, it covers your ass in the event that you have to subsequently fire
the person. If you can document the problem, with confirmation from others
(e.g., the SMEs who do technical reviews of the docs), and can set targets
for improvement that both you and "Betty" can agree upon--or that you and
several others can agree upon as being fair if Betty won't work with
you--then you have concrete grounds for dismissing her if things don't work
out. Without that documentation, you can turn an already ugly situation into
a nightmare if the person tries to sue you for wrongful dismissal. If you
think that's the direction you're headed, get your Personnel department
involved ***now*** so that you can do this by the books and protect yourself
from a lawsuit. The more manager-level people you get involved in doing this
fairly, the less likely anyone can claim that you didn't exercise due
diligence.
<<The first drafts I received from her pretty much confirmed what Betty's
previous manager told me. The documents were poorly written and very poorly
organized... I did an extensive editing job and sent them back with very
explicit
instructions about what to change and why... However, I got two of the
drafts back this morning, and they are truly
awful.>>
Now's your chance to explain that this is unacceptable, and why. Put it in
writing, and keep copies of the before and after documents, plus your
suggestions for revision. (If you're really paranoid, keep them at home so
Betty can't loot your file cabinet and dispose of the evidence later on when
it becomes obvous that you're going to have to fire her. Of course, you can
ceremonially burn them together if you both succeed in saving the
situation--kinda like burning your mortgage document once the house is paid
off.) Don't spank her; explain the problem calmly, along with what you
expect her to do about it, and put your instructions in writing so she can't
claim she didn't see them. (Again, if you're really paranoid, get her to
touch your copy of the prinout so you've got her fingerprints on it and can
prove she saw it. <g>)
<<how much time and effort should I put into trying to get her to improve
her work?>>
As her new manager, start with a clean slate. You owe her at least a
fighting chance to clean up her act, and shouldn't be unduly prejudiced by
what's gone before; those problems may have resulted from serious
interpersonal conflicts, not Betty's inherent incompetence. If the manager
gave up on her and never tried to explain and correct the problem, and never
indicated a willingness to force her to work on solving the problem, why
would she have any incentive to improve? Moreover, just think of the feather
in your cap if you can turn an unproductive slacker into a productive
worker! Given how long this situation has likely been developing, I wouldn't
expect quick results. But I can tell you that we adopted a very similar
approach here with a colleague, and it's worked wonders. You just have to be
very patient and persistent.
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