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personal work on company time? long
I work at a law firm as a clerk- I am the only clerk at our office, so we hired a HS student to come in on some afternoons to help lighten the load. Her first year (last year) was her junior year. She would come in Mon-Thur from 4-6, and every other wednesday she would get here early (around 3) and stay till 6. Over the summer she was here for 2 6-hour work days per week. She is not really slow.. but I could not trust her with a lot of the work I was hoping to give her to lighten my load. It seemed like she never learned how to type, so helping me with follow-up letters was out of the picture. She complained that she could not lift heavy boxes, so asking her to help me send old files to our storage unit was out, too. Then she would "forget" her alphabet when she was putting files away and we would find them out-of-order (for instance, the "M"s would all be in the correct drawer, but not in order in the drawer). Obviously, all of the "help" she was here to give me just turned into a headache. We decided that I would simply make labels for files, and she would be responsible for putting them on the appropriate files. It wasn't much, but it was something.
When her senior year started, she informed me that her school district no longer did early release days on every other wednesday (which I found out was a LIE months later), so she would just be here from 4-6 mon-fri. Then, about a week later, she went to our administrator and asked if we could cut back her hours, since she is very busy with schoolwork. She asked if she could only work Mondays and Wednesdays. It was approved. So, since August, she has only been working 4 hours a week. Needless to say, it is not very helpful to me, and although she does not have an attitude, I can tell she just does not listen. I say "Work on "D" files," she says, "No, I want to work on "S" files." It may seem silly, but it annoys me that she does not respect my authority, even if it is not much.
Two weeks ago I had had enough. On Monday I left her with a list of very simply things to do, such as re-stocking the kitchen supplies, starting the dishwasher, and breaking down boxes throughout the office. When I got to work on Tuesday (she leaves an hour after I do), nothing was done. At all!! Nothing! So I did something bad: I logged into her computer and checked to see if she had been surfing the internet after I leave. She is unsupervised for an hour and a half of the two hours she is here- there are usually two other people here, but they don't talk to her. So, of course, I see that she was on the internet; she had been working on homework. I searched back as far as the computer would let me, and I found that for at least the last 3 weeks, she had been doing homework while she is here.
I was infuriated!! She is only here 4 hours a week! Why does she need to use her time here on homework?? AND she is on the clock while doing it!! It was unacceptable. I informed our supervisors. I let them know that when she was not productive, I checked her history, and gave them a screen-shot of what I found. This was on Tuesday. I hadn't heard anything by Wednesday when she came in again, so I emailed our supervisors again, letting them know that I would leave a list of things for her to do, as usual, and if they wanted me to do anything differently. I heard nothing back. I heard nothing Thursday or Friday. Finally, Monday afternoon rolls around, and my supervisor called me and said we were taking away her computer log-in, so she would have no way of getting on at all. That was it.
I am not trying to be harsh to this girl, but I would really like it if someone would say something to her. Today will be her first day without a computer, and I am very tempted to tell her that working on homework while on company time is completely unacceptable, and that's why her computer was taken away. Still, I don't feel like this is my responsibility- I feel that I should not have to reprimand her- that is the Administrator's job, right? My supervisor said I could say something to her ("a slap on the wrist") if I wanted to- but I don't want to seem like I am over-stepping my boundaries. Also, it is clear to me that the girl does not respect me- as she hardly listens to me already.
What would you do if you were me?
Re: personal work on company time? long
She can't be doing schoolwork on company time. On lunch or on break but not on company time.
Go over company policy with her -- if you are a small company, let the boss make the call -- or see HR if it is a large company -- and let them come up with a ruling on a "no homework during work hours and on lunch is okay" issue.
Let it be known she cannot do this and if she does it again, you will have to terminate her.
Then go over the ruling with her and have her sign it; you sign it also and give her a copy.
If she violates the agreement, she's gone. Simple as that.
Sounds like she was never qualified for the job. Next time hire an individual who has office experience, typing and software platforms included.
MY administrator (not the attorneys) said I could say something to her (read: no one else is planning on saying anything). I am just not sure if I am in the position to. Yes, I am her direct "boss" but I am also just a clerk- the lowest position here. And I don't know if I want to deal with any potential fall-out. BUT on the other hand, it is 100% unprofessional and irresponsible. If it were up to me, I would have her fired. Because this is really the last straw for me. First, she is un-qualified, then she has a bad attitude, and she lied about her availability.
IDK.. maybe I just want to rant instead of getting actual advice...
What was the expectation as far as supervision when she was hired? Does she direct report to anyone else? Does anyone but you assign her duties and goals are? If not, seems to me you are her supervisor, or at the very least her lead, even if you can't fire her or write her up. If you aren't comfortable with reprimanding her in an appropriate way then you need to sit down and discuss with whomever oversees the clerks (your boss presumably would also oversee her?) She will not respect your authority when you aren't comfortable giving it.
I would add that if you aren't comfortable correcting her, you probably shouldn't be the one delegating her duties, but rather letting her supervisor know what you need and allowing them to delegate. I wouldn't hesitate to request a meeting to discuss the issues. I'm not sure that going through her browsing history was the right way to go about it. You don't want it to appear you are seeking out ways to make her look bad or being disrespectful of other's workspaces.
BFP 11.8.12 * EDD 7.17.13 * MC 12.20.12
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over!
Is she a family member of a current employee? Or, is she the child of an employee's friend?
No, her family goes to church with two of our top attorneys- that is the only relationship.
I think that you are over thinking this.
Its obvious that your bosses don't really want to do anything about it, and I understand your frustration (both with her and with them) but I think they've made up their minds.
Just continue to leave her a list, and if things aren't better, report her to the supervisor again.
The top two attorneys got her the job, then - it is fair to say. To save face with the peeps at hurch, they probably can 't let her go....
Ditto.....sounds similar to this girl that was hired to "help out" at my mom's office. The girl was slow and never really helpful. In fact, they hired my brother to come in and do what she couldn't (he does it a whole lot faster than she did).
Why did they keep her around? She was the daughter of someone in the city clerk of courts office. So when the attorneys at my mom's office needed something in that city pushed through, they used their connection with her mom. To them it was worth paying her to have that connection.
I had a similar situation, in that my company hired a receptionist part-time to help us out in the office - but then my boss was never there to ensure that she was doing anything. I would give her things to do and she would either do them "her own way", not how I had told her .. or not do them at all. I spoke with my boss about her and she just said she would directly supervise her from now on - but never did. So I just stopped giving her anything to do. I didn't care if my boss wanted to pay her to do nothing, but she was useless to me and could not be trusted to do even the most simple task.
Eventually she quit because she was so bored and had no work to do. My boss has a problem with firing people, so I think this was the desired outcome...
I understand your frustrations. It's very hard to work "with" someone who disregards good work ethic and responsibility, when you have little to no say in their consequences. It sounds like the main issue is that there is no clear answer as to who she works for. Are you her immediate supervisor, or does she work your superiors to help you? I would agree with some of the PPs that you need to sit down with your immediate supervisor and get this answered. If her contributing or not affects your ability to do your job well, then it is absolutely your business. If by her not contributing, she is holding the position from someone else who is willing to do the work that you need help with to be successful, IMO you have the right to get involved.
I think I would ask the partners to better define her responsibilities and who she will take instruction from and answer to. If that is you, then maybe making a list each day of delegated tasks would be helpful. Come up with a system that requires her to follow up with you or whoever is there, whether it means someone signs off on her completed tasks or whatever. Hold her accountable somehow.
Also, if her hours were cut back does that mean there are more hours available? Could you hire or suggest to whoever does the hiring that you get another assistant? If so and the new assistant is more productive, start giving them her hours based on performance. She would step up her game or quit, I assume.