How do you deal with employees who are "coasting"

I've already downsized my department by one person, and it came down to it being between two people. The one who we DID let go was clearly in way over his head. The one who we kept, knew how to use AutoCAD better and had a lot of experience behind him (however he has had troubles in the past).

The person we kept is starting to (again) display signs of not caring, or what we're calling "coasting." You see, he's getting up there in age and is probably close to retirement. When he releases a drawing, it's almost like he didn't take the time to go over it to make sure that the errors were fixed and when someone comes in to ask him why there is an error, he has a sort of "eh, it happens" attitude. He doesn't really have any sense of urgency or motivation to complete a job by or before the due date.

Do you push him into retirement and show him the door or try to kick him in the arse to get him back on track?

How many chances has he had to shape up already? You state he had troubles in the past.

Push him towards retirement. In the meantime, how does one apply for his position?

How many chances has he had to shape up already? You state he had troubles in the past.

I'm not sure how many chances he's had, but my supervisor said that he has been "talked to" a few times before I got there.

Push him towards retirement. In the meantime, how does one apply for his position?

You lookin' for a job?

I presume you have some form of performance related / discipline procedure in place.

If he's not up to the job, get someone who will be (and they will probably be cheaper also).

Many things come into play with this. Company policies on dismissal vary so greatly so you're first step would be to speak directly with the employee and if that get's you no where then check your HR's policy.

Your situation sounds a little sticky. The guy has experience and that's worth at least something. But it can easily be outweighed if there are other problems. The cost of hiring and training a new employee is not exactly cheap even these days.

If the guy's attitude is "so what" then you've got to lay down the law and let him know that it's shape up or ship out. And remind him that in today's market there's lots of people ready to step up. I just lost my job on Thursday and the owner of the company was almost in tears when she was giving us the news. Lot's of qualified people are out there looking for work right now, three more of us just hit the street last Thursday.

Whatever you do, document the fact that you have discussed the issues with him and have him sign the memo of the discussion.

Past that, Bill had some good ideas. When I was managing folks during my corporate period, focusing on employees ... aka "sitting on them" ... usually made them shape up or ship out without me having to go into a lot of talking/documenting loops.

Good luck and tell us how it is going, so we can all learn more about the management process.

"Coasters" come in all age groups and the only way to deal with it is to know what steps your company allows you to take. Almost always there has to have been a talk to get them to understand there is a problem, and you document that. Next time they sign a document saying they have been told there is a problem. Next time it is either out the door or a weeks suspension.

But, going beyond the discipline approach a manager has to ask what they are doing to motivate people. And I know many think we should just be self motivated, but please, if that were true then what do we need managers for? Maybe this individual is more valuable doing other tasks or they just don't see the relation between their performance and continued employment and or more $.

And don't forget that a once a year raise are in no way related to performance, or once a year evaluations for that matter. There have been countless books written on managing and motivating people, pick one up and see what you think.

Some people are just not worth the effort and need to be booted, others are diamonds in the rough.

But, going beyond the discipline approach a manager has to ask what they are doing to motivate people.

 

There have been countless books written on managing and motivating people, pick one up and see what you think.

 

Some people are just not worth the effort and need to be booted, others are diamonds in the rough.

Good points.

I have said for years that a managers most important job is give his team members the tools for success and remove all barriers to their success.

Many respond and some don't.

As far as motivation goes, I've tried leading by example and positive reinforcement. I've also tried to spice it up a bit by offering to buy a pizza or something if a project is finished earlier. He seems to respond to it for a while, but then goes back to his old "whatever" ways. It's cyclical and we have to repeat the motivation boosts every so many months/weeks.

I did buy this book a while back called "Why employees don't do what they're supposed to do... and what to do about it" by David F D'Alessandro. There are a lot of good tips in there and I'm trying to figure out how I can apply them.

Problem solved. After talking with my supervisor, we decided to let him go. We looked at the long term goal for the company and right now we don't have enough work for three CAD users, but when we do get busy again we want to hire someone who is more versatile and has more experience with AutoCAD.

So where does one apply?

What's the weather like there?

The answer to this is simply host weekly/monthly meetings where the tasks and projects are listed and people keep a record of what they actually do, then you will see who's "coasting" and who's actually doing the real work that's on, then spread it out or start giving out warnings telling them to shake up because they are not entirely doing what they are paid for.

COLD!

We only have two seasons in Wisconsin: Spummer and Finter. It's either really cold (-20) or really hot (+95) with maybe a week or two of decent weather (60ish). The other downfall is the number of Packer fans that live here.

I ask again, you lookin' for a job, ReMark?

The answer to this is simply host weekly/monthly meetings where the tasks and projects are listed and people keep a record of what they actually do, then you will see who's "coasting" and who's actually doing the real work that's on, then spread it out or start giving out warnings telling them to shake up because they are not entirely doing what they are paid for.

We have a meeting every week to go over the CAD schedule and assign new work. It makes it very easy to see who's leading the pack and who's falling behind. The first person we let go was averaging around 600% OVER the quoted CAD time, with one being 850% over. The person mentioned in this thread regularly takes two to three weeks to complete a week's worth of work. Myself, and the other remaining CAD member, are usually finished well within the time frame that is needed. I think I'm at around 86% and the other guy is at 93% of the CAD time requested.

COLD!

 

We only have two seasons in Wisconsin: Spummer and Finter. It's either really cold (-20) or really hot (+95) with maybe a week or two of decent weather (60ish). The other downfall is the number of Packer fans that live here.

 

I ask again, you lookin' for a job, ReMark?

LOL here in Canada, we have two seasons also.... Winter ..and Construction LOL