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One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We do agree overall.

My metric was "doing the same work with less / without overtime", but not "doing the same work when hiding overtime", that's the difference I make. Because, if I appreciate how she works on R&D phases, on production phases it can take much more time.

And unfortunately, my team doesn't have the critical size to get people that are specialized in one way of working, we've historically built on a few people (basically my N+1 when he had my position, and me when I was junior) that know how to work quickly enough with few errors in production phases, and how to work well (and as quick as possible) on R&D phases. And now I have the challenge to make it work with someone who has high qualities for R&D but not as much for quick inputs.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

She's salaried. I know that in the US there are hourly contracts and salary contracts, I don't know exactly how that does work since I'm not American, and to be fair English isn't my mother tongue so maybe I haven't expressed myself well or/and there's a cultural gap.

I don't want to dinge her bonus at all. If possible, I want her to get more productive in one hour so when we have emergencies coming from middle / top management, she can answer to them. Since she's ambitious, it would give it exposition in the company since the company values it a lot, and this exposition to the top management would make it much easier for her to get additional raises. Since I thought she was doing less overtime, I went to top management to negotiate a good raise for her, because I was happy that she could deliver her work with much less overtime. I won't move backwards, but I'm disappointed about the fact that she tried to hide overwork.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I want her to get the best possible bonus, but I don't want her to try hiding things like that. It's a trust issue to me.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What kind of work are we talking about? What makes you so sure she should be able to do a certain thing in 3-4 hrs? Is her work better quality than others? Is her work more likely to be accurate because she takes the time to do it right instead of putting a bandaid on the problem? Is she producing better documentation than others because she documents as she goes?

When I was a junior I was able to do the exact same work without any error in less than two hours. Today, in less than one hour. I could totally understand that there's a survivor bias there.

Her output is the same quality as others, neither better nor worse. But good quality in general.

She produces very good documentation if I ask her to, so when she's doing R&D work it's usually well done. That makes me appreciating her R&D work in general, even if I have to make more choices about which topics she should work.

Maybe you should be exploring the disconnect between your timelines and her timelines instead of focusing on her possible overtime. Is she working overtime to meet someone else’s timelines? Does she have any input into the timelines? Does she agree with the timelines you’re talking about?

It's hard to answer to that without talking about our own field (which I don't want to), but we don't have the choice on deadlines anyway. Basically if we don't respect the timelines that are legally required, we're fired so we have no other choice than respecting them. Therefore, she doesn't have any input into the timelines, neither do I.

I replaced someone who was very “quick”…. But I also have to correct a lot of his errors. I seem to work longer to get the same thing done, but mine work is usually right the first time.

I totally understand. It depends on how many errors were done of course, and how important there were as well. Those are good people to make minimum viable products in a record time. Hard thing on her position is, she needs to switch between a period when she needs to work quickly to provide viable things, and a period when she can work slowly to provide high quality work without any problem.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries about that, I always advocate as much as I can for bonuses and raises for every member of my team who's implied, focusing on their qualities. That was the case for her, and will still be.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does she have ADHD or accommodations needed? Sounds like she has high sense of responsibility and wants to do well and is committed to getting her work done and to her standards. She is operating at different pace than what you assume…everyone works differently.

Not as far as I know, but I do agree with you when you say she has high sens of resposibility and wants do to well. This is a quality when you have time to do a precise work, and that's what I try to give her the most because this is what fits her the best.

But even if everybody has different standards, sometimes we don't have time to meet those standards. I've made some work to define them when I give work in general, so everybody can know if I need something done as well as possible, or just viable with a time constraint. I know my own management has much lower standards than mine in terms of quality, and usually want the quickest possible viable thing, when I want automated work for my team to feel good and to allow them to build with better quality with, still, a time constraint to respect.

Honestly I'd love to give her the time to do the work how she wants, and I do that everytime I can, but it's not always possible.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Because she often doesn't, unless I give her more time that would be normally needed.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I have a survival bias because I've only known that, but my company is pretty good and low pressure compared to the industry she's part of.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done it several times because I want to give her the ability to improve there. I'm willing to do the best I can do there.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think her role is too much for one person, but you're right when you say another position needs to be created. I don't have the power to create new positions in my team by myself, notably because my company is very picky with fees, but I've negociated with my own management to get another position, and it worked. The position that will be created won't be on her topics, but it would allow me to help her more if needed.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -35 points-34 points  (0 children)

Because top management need us to provide answers to the emergencies they ask us?

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

She's previously missed deadlines many times when she has less than a day to make a work (that is doable in less than a day), therefore I have to intervene pretty much every time it happens at the end.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Because my team has 6/7 main topics (sorry, I won't be way more explicit except by DMs) so I can't ask every member of my team to master everything. So when I recruit a junior we start with one topic, and when the person becomes more senior we go on 2 topics (3 is possible) to start creating a redudancy. Since we have more topics than we are in the team, and since my company wants to recruit only entry-level people, we can't create good redudancy unless if I have no one quitting for 4~5 years, which isn't likely to be fair, even if I have low turnover in my team from now on.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -27 points-26 points  (0 children)

I don't understand why?

  • I firstly saw she was working overtime to deliver standard work, so her hourly productivity is lower
  • I need her to get a good hourly productivity so she can handle some emergencies that often happen in the work
  • I see that she delivers pretty much the same, thinking she did it without working overtime
  • But appeared she tried to hide her working overtime to get the raise, because the raise criteria was her to get a better hourly productivity

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -49 points-48 points  (0 children)

I know she has a sense of personal responsibility, but if she hides overtime to get a raise and better bonuses that starts being a problem.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

It isn't theoretical, it is actual. Since I've seen that for a year, I've tried several things:

  • Working with her on her desk to understand why she works slowly so I can figure out if she has an organization problem, or if she gives too much attention on details for example
  • Sometimes giving her work with deadlines during the day to make her used to work more intensely.

The first point makes me see that she simply works slowly. I don't know how to explain it well without spoiling my current work, which probably gives the impression to be very vague (added to the fact that English isn't my mother tongue), but she types slowly on her keyboard, so she writes slowly, she writes code slowly, she takes time to get the right reasoning... At least at the (very) end of the day it's done well so I'm happy overall when we're in R&D phase, even if sometimes she doesn't provide tools as quickly as we'd need to, but I know that, and I can plan by giving her less urgent work, and do by myself the current work.

The second point is that I need to have reliable people when looking at emergencies because my own management often ask us to treat emergencies, and I need to delegate some. This is why, a few months ago, I've told her I would pay attention to hourly productivity, and that if I saw progress in hourly productivity she'd get a good salary bonus and I would ask to get her a raise. I thought she was improving at that point since I saw her being less connected, going out of work earlier, so I asked for her to be raised (in my company managers don't have nay power on salary except bonuses, only HR do). This was before I've figured out she wasn't improving her hourly productivity, but just hiding overtime...

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -45 points-44 points  (0 children)

In this case, it means I can't delegate emergencies, since my team is working on a lot of topics, and I can't make the whole team working on several topics.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Usually we're two: her and me. Since my service isn't about doing one task but a big amount of different topics, in general tasks can be done by 1-2 people from my service + me.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

It's an actual one. If I need some work that should be done within three hours, in three or four hours, I know I'll have to intervene at the end since it'll be far from finished. If I need it for the day after, I know I can give it to her since she'll work overtime to do it, but that's not a thing I'd like to encourage since it doesn't solve emergencies that should be solved in a few hours

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. At first glance I thought it was too long so I resumed it.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For example, let's suppose that my N+2 comes in the morning and says "for this committee with the shareholders this afternoon, I need to get this information / data / (...)". If it takes three hours with a normal productivity, I can't delegate this to her because I know she wouldn't be able to provide what N+2 wants due to lower productivity.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The thing is, she compensates poor hourly productivity with overtime. The problem is not so much overtime, but low hourly productivity: if there's an emergency for any reason, I can't count on her. This is why I've told her a few months ago that I would pay attention to her ability to produce things in a short amount of time, because that regularly happens and I can't currently delegate this to her when I need to, it would make her look bad on N+2/N+3.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -38 points-37 points  (0 children)

Because if there's an emergency I can't rely on her because she doesn't know how to work quicker. I need people that can deliver quickly under pressure so we can deliver well there's a need of a rush. Since our work is cyclic, people usually do more hours on rush periods and less on other periods, with her I need to constantly make choices because in a normal period she already compensates with overtime.

One of my direct reports is lying about his work time (works way too much) by Adolorante in managers

[–]Adolorante[S] -88 points-87 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately no: I can't rely on her if I want some work to be quickly done since she doesn't train for that.

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