My team’s function is highly sensitive and exposes my employer (financial institution) to court cases, costs and reputational issues any time we mess up.

There is this guy that I supervise that is giving me grief. His output is poor and can be very unreliable. Every effort we have made to help him remains largely unfruitful. If it was my business, I would have since sacked him, but on the other hand there is the usual Nigerian sentiment of not having to negatively impact another person’s career, particularly as the guy lost his father a couple of months ago (his output was poor before then).

So what would you do if you were in my shoes?

cant he be moved to another department?

go to extra lenght for ur own concience and help him,maybe he is naturally dom

amdman: My team’s function is highly sensitive and exposes my employer (financial institution) to court cases, costs and reputational issues any time we mess up.

There is this guy that I supervise that is giving me grief. His output is poor and can be very unreliable. Every effort we have made to help him remains largely unfruitful. If it was my business, I would have since sacked him, but on the other hand there is the usual Nigerian sentiment of not having to negatively impact another person’s career, particularly as the guy lost his father a couple of months ago (his output was poor before then).

So what would you do if you were in my shoes?

If you were this guy would you wish to be sacked? Try to help him on his weakness or try him in other departments at least he was asses before employed.

yamakuza: cant he be moved to another department?

Trying to see how to move him to another department, but the question is 'why do you want to move him to us if he is not good enough for you?'

achina boy: go to extra lenght for ur own concience and help him,maybe he is naturally dom

This guy has been counselled by several people yet not much has changed.

amdman:

Trying to see how to move him to another department, but the question is 'why do you want to move him to us if he is not good enough for you?'

based on his strenghts and weaknesses.

front office vs backoffice, number crunching vs people facing, etc.

i'm sure there'll be something he'll be good at. even if its just serving coffee.


[s]
afterall, he was hired on merit, not so?[/s]

You probably have to let the person go. But first you need to put the person in a Personal Improvement Plan.
They are earning salary, so no sympathy. Even if they lost their dad.

I wouldn't sack him, i could consider putting him on probation with a performance target.

You should also consider if you are the one with the poor leadership skills required to bring out the best from your team. I used to have a supervisor who was bossy and demanded that things be done her own way even if there are other ways i can achieve better result. I hated this, and it reflected on my output. During a conversation i had with her own supervisor who also happen to be the global CIO of the firm, he immediately recognized that my skills are not well employed, so he decided to work with me directly himself. Three months later,the results were staggering; Got exceptional performance reviews, a nice pay bump and a really juicy bonus.

I guess my whole point boils down to the fact that unless you can objectively determine that the dude does not have the requisite skills for the job - and i don't see how you can do this given you are already bias and have concluded that left to you, the dude would have been a gonner - you must continue to look for ways and avenue to develop and bring out the best in your team. This is your primary responsibility.

Speak to him and find out if he has personal issues that the company's counselling team could help with.

Ask him to come up with his own goals for the team and how he intends to achieve those goals.

I imagine, from reading your email, you may have already passed across the message that you are fed up with his output. This itself is a damper on morale and no matter how hard he pushes himself to impress you, he would always end up coming short. Show gratitude and express some praise for very little efforts. There are some employees who would put in 100% just to hear their supervisors say "Woah, that's a real smashing effort, good work mate!"

Additionally, losing one's mum or dad is not always an easy thing. The least you should do as a supervisor is offer him any support you can afford. Yes, he earns salary, but he is NOT a servant, he is YOUR COLLEAGUE, you should treat him the same way you would treat your mates and your superiors - with respect and with the knowledge that no human is born a vacuum.

Am sorry I might sound harsh but truth must be told . . . . .

I don't know why in this side of the world we support mediocrity but then bristle at its consequences.

The guy said his department is sensitive to the health of the organization and you guys here are supporting he keeps an incompetent team member just because of sentiments.

My dear friend, that is the begining of the end.......


The RIGHT thing to do is, act as if it were your own company and your livelihood depends on the success of your department. or are you in Nigerian civil service (where the rules of employment and productivity seems to be quite different).

More often than not, a staff is unusable not because of his aptitude and (lack of) skills but ATTITUDE meaning people who are useless in one department will more often than not be useless in others. We all have our core competencies no doubt, but if you experiment by moving a very productive staff from one department to another random dept, you'll be surprised that he will still emerge a high performer in his new position regardless (even though he might not be as effective as previously).

The question is, if every supervisor and dept head indulges unprofessional staff, what will become of the company ?

Nigerians can be so 'foolish' (pardon my expression). We are ready to risk the success of the organization to satisfy petty sentiments yet if the company starts going down tommorow and you read in the papers that XYZ bank has sacked 2000 staff, we'll be the first to shout 'this is wicked'. Without knowing that the 'wickedness' started from our table by not doing the right thing.

I am not against being patience, I am not against motivation or second chances but all I am saying is , after all said and done, when you've carried out your assessment as a leader, just make sure you do the right thing, even though it looks harsh.