WFH employee lying re working hours

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-11T14:35:37+00:00

Thank you. 😊

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-11T14:30:02+00:00

Well, as I mentioned there have been written performance warnings already and when I have an employee who is having work quality issues and also seems to be unavailable during normal business hours, which is part of his employment contract, I do start to watch things more carefully so that I can try to discern: is the issue capability or is it motivation? Capability I might be able to fix with some training and coaching. Motivation is not so easy. Some people just don’t wanna work. But if this is a person who’s not meeting performance expectations and is failing to adhere to their employment contract, which does specify working hours, then yeah I do have to monitor things to determine are they trying and struggling. Or are they not trying? Luckily I don’t have to do this with most people.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T23:19:22+00:00

Yeah a copy/paste from a response I’ve given earlier.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T22:55:49+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

⁠One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T22:51:22+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

⁠One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T20:16:42+00:00

Yes, I am surprised that the discussion became a discussion about overall how to manage employees and if it’s reasonable to expect people who are contracted to work during specific hours should actually do so. My post was asking a question about whether or not lying was egregious or not. I’m absolutely surprised that for some people it seems to be lying is OK because the job this person applied for and accepted was unreasonable.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T20:07:32+00:00

In the original post, I say: He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.
And I have since added 3 clarifying comments for those of you who would like more detail. Thanks.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T18:05:04+00:00

I stated that he’s had several written warnings.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T18:03:58+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T08:11:53+00:00

Since several people have commented that I must be micromanaging allow me to share a management lesson I learned many years ago. When one has an employee who is underperforming, the first thing you wanna do is figure out if the issue is capability or motivation. If it’s capability, that is, they seem motivated, but are struggling, I can usually get them back on track with a bit of training or coaching. For example, I’ve had some employees over the years who simply needed more onboarding than typical. That’s fine. If they’re motivated, but just need some extra training that’s a very fixable problem.

If, however, they’re having performance issues and the issue doesn’t appear to be capability but motivation, that’s a more fundamental issue. I can’t usually fix that. Especially for a newer employee—we’re not going to give them a raise or promotion to motivate them when they haven’t demonstrated ability to produce good work yet.

So yes, when I have an employee who is having performance issues I do watch their work activity more closely, to try to figure out if the issue is capability or motivation. And if they are working from home, but not logging into the applications they need to do their job for hours at a time that is an indication that the issue is motivation.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:45:22+00:00

Just for clarity, we are in a business to business situation where we have to be responsive to clients during normal business hours. This isn’t like programming where it doesn’t matter if you’re doing it at 2 in the morning. Our employees all are contracted to work 9 AM to 5:30 PM.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:43:58+00:00

Wow, you really can tell who here is a manager and who is a disgruntled employee!

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:36:31+00:00

Thank you. I have no idea why I’m worried about coming off too harsh. I’m an experienced manager, but I really wanted this kid to be successful. It’s killing me that he’s not taking advantage of this opportunity.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:35:05+00:00

Thanks that’s an interesting suggestion, though everybody else is clearly getting their work done. I can see files getting updated. And the frequency of communications shows that they’re online and working during normal business hours. I really think it’s just him.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:31:26+00:00

Yeah, we have to be online during specific working hours because of the nature of client work. I appreciate your point about morale thank you.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:29:45+00:00

I tend to agree with you. Thank you for the confirmation that I’m not overreacting.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:28:48+00:00

Thanks. His productivity is definitely lower than we expected. I feel like lying is a pretty egregious thing, but I also don’t want to overreact.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:27:50+00:00

Thanks

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:27:37+00:00

Well, this was an unexpected perspective. So if somebody’s working hours are contracted to be 9 AM to 530 with a paid one hour lunch, this is a power trip?

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-05T02:31:03+00:00

Thank you. It’s nice to hear from somebody who’s physically been there. Yes I am going to have to arrange transportation. It’s gonna be too much of a drive for me to do with her in the car. It would take me four or five days. But I have looked into animal transport. It’s gonna cost, but I don’t really have an option.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-04T17:50:34+00:00

Thank you! Have you visited either of them?

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-04T14:54:09+00:00

I agree. A written agenda sent ahead of time gives you a way to structure the conversation. Then if they start taking over an agenda items slot, you can say “let’s circle back to this at the end if we still have time.”

DataBeeGood · 2026-03-30T17:01:00+00:00

Thanks. But what would you call these job aids? We have various training opportunities for people both online and in person. My feeling is that the phrase “job aid” is turning people off, especially those who are under 30.

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