Early headache as supervisor?
By K31
@keihimekawa (2009)
Philippines
February 23, 2013 11:25pm CST
Just hours ago, I shared that I was promoted for a supervisory position in my team. I was about to post this one as soon as I'm done sharing the good news but was immediately called out for some errands :P
Anyway, my boss was giving me some orientation on what I will be doing and he raised that one of his biggest headache is my 2 office mates who happen to be on our team. They have been together for 2-3 years now and our team is not that strict when it comes to inter-office relationship but this one's just out of the line.
1. The girl have her permanent seat but she kept sitting beside her BF's area. Imagine the lovers being cramped up in one cubicle.
2. The girl was supposed to attend an orientation. The whole team under that project was there aside from her. When my boss asked why she wasn't able to attend, she answered in a rude manner "I'm auditing something"
3. The girl was under the QA team. When her supervisor (who happened to be a good friend of mine) got irritated about it, he called her attention and asked her why the heck is she still not in her rightful place. She answered that she was doing something (not related to work) and it irked her supervisor more. So her supervisor said "So it means you have been auditing the same data for 2 weeks already and still not done?" She didn't answer to this line. A few hours later, her BF came storming in our room and said to the her supervisor "What you did is not amusing..."
These are the major 3 issues. There are a lot more and they are all concentrated on these two people. her supervisor, me and my boss are considering this as a major headache. To think the girl is under "probation" for promotion. Well, I won't blame my boss and supervisor friend if they decided not to give her promotion a go.
Anyone here ever experienced the same scenario or at least a gist of what I shared? How were you able to overcome it? We tried talking to the girl and her BF and still, no improvements.
6 responses
@teotimoponcerosacena (1551)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Issue a memorandum related to office decorum to stay on their table during Office hours and to refrain from subject not related to Office work. Punishment will be warning on first to termination / re-assignment on the last. The Memorandum related to violations of the Circular duly signed by the Office personnel can be a ground for their termination from service without additional damaged cost for the office. Being a Supervisor you must not go down to their level when it comes to Office Decorum.
@SIMPLYD (90721)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Correct my friend. I agree with you.
In an office there are code of ethics to follow. Have it a a guide to issue a memo. Usually, you would give an incident report to the HR. Then HR will investigate it and would issue the memo to the erring employee.
That's the way it should be. Their 201 files will have a red mark.
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
@Teo: I already told my boss and her supervisor that this should be the next step that we take. We gave them a week's time to change everything and if we didn't see any improvements, we'll raise this matter to HR. It's not only their personal tasks that's affected but as well as their team members'.
@Simplyd: I agree with you! Actually I'm planning to move those two out of the room and into a more public, visible area.
@TriciaW (2441)
• United States
24 Feb 13
You poor thing this is never a good situation to be in. I had something like this and it got worse because they got married. I learned from it believe me. I would suggest all of this be put in writing. A written notice given to each of them stating the issues and what the expectations are for the future. Have them sign it and give them a copy and keep one for yourself. This way you have everything you need for HR which I have no doubt will have to become involved in this. Good luck but it is best to get this one out of the way so you can enjoy your new position without this headache.
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
27 Feb 13
Thanks so much for suggesting this.
We are seriously considering giving them written notice about their behavior. I'm currently coordinating with my manager and her supervisor on what to put in the letter.
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
24 Feb 13
Well I don't envy you. I have been a supervisor in my working life and I would like to offer you the following advice:
1. People who are involved as BF and GF should never be on the same team. Your first task is to re-assign one or the other to another team.
2. Seconly rules of conduct at the workplace should be discussed at a staff meeting and then posted. Items such as Breaktimes, lunch times and personal use of computers or other equipment, needs to work at one's own cubicle.
3. There should be Regular performance appraisals.New employees should be on probation.
4. Do not emphasize your personal friendship with your supervisor or disclose if you socialize outside the workplace with him or her. This makes for bad morale. Good luck to you.
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for the input. Here are my own two cents:
1. They are actually on different teams but same department. The guy's a programmer and the girl's a QA Assistant. They are not even handling the same projects. We decided to pull the guy away from the girl's project to avoid such issues (but unfortunately it did raise)
2. It is discussed and they both know it. Our company's policy is really not that strict. Just to share, I've been in the company for 7 years and we haven't experienced such issues before since we believe that we are mature and old enough to handle our own professional conduct. It's like... We won't bother you as long as you deliver the necessary output. We do have policies and such but when it comes to interpersonal relationships, we don't really dwell on it too much.
3. There is. She just went through the Personal Appraisal/PA just last December and these problems are brought up.
4. Not really. Our personal friendship not with just the supervisor but with the whole team is pretty open for all to know. I'm not too sure if this is a negative factor in your workplace but here, it's not that much of an issue. Like I shared before, in our department, our team members are pretty close with each other.
Thanks again for your inputs. I appreciate it :)
@Gemini909 (17)
• United States
24 Feb 13
Having previous supervisor experience myself, I would put them both on a 1 month probation period. I would make them sign a contract which clearly states the conditions of the probation, including that if the unprofessional behavior continues at any time during the 1 month probation or after the 1 month probation period has ended that they will be terminated imediately, at will with not further discussion. I probaly would have terminated the female a long time ago with the disrespectful behavior to her supervisors, however she continues to do it because "they" have allowed her to do them and continue to do them as well as her bf, and there have been no reprocussions on disiplinary actions taken to stop them. That is where the 1 month probation period starts. This will give them both the opportunity to see that it is serious and of it does not change, and stop happening all together they will be out of a job!! Good luck with your new job and congrats on the new position! :)
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Hi Gemini,
Thanks a lot for the reply.
Actually she's not like this during her first few months. At first her supervisor and our manager let her get away with it because we thought she's busy and she was able to produce output but this 2013 is the worst! I'll suggest your points to her supervisor. It's just sad to see that her career's going down. Her supervisor even gave her the promotion evaluation thing since he believe that she can handle the pressure and task. I just can't seem to place what's happening to her. Maybe she got too complacent since she always sticks with her boyfriend?
@Raine38 (12389)
• United States
24 Feb 13
Ah yes, I had the same issue with my staffs. 2 of them starts to have some romance budding between them. In our company, office relationships like this is not tolerated. So I handled it while it was still at its early stage. I talked to them separately, then together in the presence of our human resources manager. We gave them 4 months to figure out what they are really heading to, and what their priorities are. If they still want to work in the company, one of them shall be transferred to another branch and they will cease the relationship or be discreet about it. If they don't want to be transferred, then one of them has to go. After 4 months, they asked for 2 weeks extension and then they decided that they really are in love and so the girl will resign.
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Thanks so much for this Raine. I'll take this into consideration. We did talk to them separately but never thought of talking with them together. I'll raise this up to our manager and her supervisor so we can think about what we can do next.
@Scoopzz (54)
• United States
24 Feb 13
I was a supervisor in an office over a small crew of 5 and when my supervisor was not available they had to report to me, one gal said I will not report to her, why should I, this is a small,office and I don't need her telling me what to do, I can do it myself, I don't need supervision.
My supervisor just got up and walked away leaving me there alone. The girl looked at me and went back to her work. My supervisors should have demanded that she should consider me her supervisor and not leave me to feel foolish.
I later found out that one female employee and one male employee would go behind a locked do and do their "thing". They were fired after I complained. Can't have "friends" or "lovers" in the same office.
As for your situation, reassignment is in order.
@keihimekawa (2009)
• Philippines
24 Feb 13
Ugh~ Good thing you complained and they got fired.
As for the "friends" or "lovers" in the same office, I'm really not against it since I was able to see quite a few number of couples in the same workplace and teams. They were able to separate their personal relationship with their work one. These two were able to do it before but I think we got too lax and we're unaware that they got too comfy with their setup that they failed to see how it's affecting their work.
Btw, I probably retorted back to the girl and say "Then find a new team" as soon as I heard those words. Lolz!
