The Water Cooler - 2014-11-20

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12:06 AM

We shall see, your answers are awesome though, hope it didn't raise flags I did not mean it to

Nah it just might reverse your votes

Alright

14 hours later…

1:46 PM

Good morning all life forms!

I was wondering if some of the regulars could help me out a bit. My question was put on hold and I'd like to make a case against the reason given

Now in the old days I'd make an appeal for it on Meta. Is this still the way?

2 hours later…

4:00 PM

@rath yeah that's by far the best way

though you will have to address this comment I think before you get much support or reopen votes:

The answer to this would depend on the company doing the interviewing and their culture. It is impoosible to predcit in advance. I would use your preffered style because you want to get hired by someone whose coding process is similar to what you feel confortable with. If you hate over engineering, would you really be happy on a day to day basis at a place that requires it? If you hate cowboy coding, you face the same problem in the opposite direction. — HLGEM yesterday

1 hour later…

Enthusiastic Student

5:28 PM

hi

I am looking for a question about a worker who refuses to completely do his chores

He says yes to the orders, but after a while I see that he did not do his duty

But always has excuses for his activities

Also, because he is recently employed, we can not easily change him

How should I control this kind of worker?

I am searching for such question in workplace.se

but I don't find a question related...

5:43 PM

@EnthusiasticStudent there is this question, but it is from a coworker's perspective, not manager

15

Q: What can I do to make a coworkers lack of effort more visible?

There have been a number of questions where people have been dealing with coworkers who were not pulling their weight. The common perception seems to be that this is due to lack of effort or ability. I realize that it is not my decision on what to do with this coworker, but I also fear that my ...

professionalism colleagues politics

@EnthusiasticStudent I don't quite get what you mean about not being able to change the worker. Are there some laws or regulations preventing you from getting rid of the worker who is not productive?

Enthusiastic Student

6:10 PM

@MattGiltaji We have a one year contract with him, so we can not change this worker sooner. I am seeking for a way to have more control on him and have his duties done...

@EnthusiasticStudent there really is not a way you can "control" an employee

you can try to motivate them to get their work done

can you tell if this is a problem with motivation or with skill level?

does this worker have the ability to do the duties and not want to or are they unable to do the duties?

Enthusiastic Student

I am not sure.

But I can give you an example

k

Enthusiastic Student

Once I asked him a very simple thing.

For instance, something like changing a light bulb

or closing a door

He told me: OK, I will do it after I finish my work

tomorrow moring

I went to check those duties,

and it amazing... they were not done

I think there are two things here.

The worker absolutely knows how to lock a door a change a bulb

but

he is not completely aware of how a worker should obey his employer

he may think it is not really necessary to lock the door today

so he will do it in the next coming days

have you spoken with him about why the lightbulb needs to be changed or door needs to be locked?

Enthusiastic Student

6:24 PM

Yes...

the light bulb was not working and the door was required to be locked due to safety issues

@EnthusiasticStudent but did you explain to the worker what the importance of these things are to the overall organization?

Enthusiastic Student

@MattGiltaji Yes. Completely... I explained two times.

@EnthusiasticStudent so you explained it multiple times, but did the worker actually understand it?

also, is it that all of the duties are being dropped or just a few important, simple ones?

Enthusiastic Student

The duties were simple... I explained it two times.... I think he understood it but did not care

He is a service worker and most of his duties are this much easy... but he has some more important duties too. But I think he is not that kind of person who really cares about his duties

@EnthusiasticStudent so this person does not report to you, they are part of the building maintenance crew or something like that?

Enthusiastic Student

6:35 PM

Yes

ah, I misunderstood, I thought this was your direct report

Enthusiastic Student

@MattGiltaji sorry I think I did not understand your last sentence

@EnthusiasticStudent I previously thought that you were a manager supervising this employee. Since you clarified, I don't have that misunderstanding any more

Enthusiastic Student

Aha. Let me tell you more

This person is employed by the building with two or three other employees

to do maintenance services

Such cleaning the building

or keeping the building safe

got it

Enthusiastic Student

6:39 PM

We have a manager at the building

who pays this person's salaries from the building's budget

and some people at the building

is there any way you can talk to the building manager then? To let them know that your issues are not being resolved appropriately?

Enthusiastic Student

manage different problems in the building

for instance

one of the building members manages the garden, the other one controls the cleaning issues, one other construction issues and electrical

k

Enthusiastic Student

the works of the buidling is devided between its members to avoid too much management work for a person

so, those workers usually work under supervision of these building members

but, they have to obey all the members of the building. They should never say that I only obey that person because he supervises me...

and I tried to get this worker to do his works completely by talking to him directly and talking to the main manager

I am thinking that

may be I have a wrong moderation attitude towards this worker

may be I have to encourage him some way

once I thought it may be a good idea to give him some prizes when he does his work perfectly

but I don't think it is fair; because other workers do not receive such prizes...

@EnthusiasticStudent it may not need to be a big thing

Enthusiastic Student

6:45 PM

to observe his works

in my area, just being polite to the building workers is sometimes enough of a prize, because most people are rude to them

Enthusiastic Student

or may be I have to stand besides him

I'm not sure what would be appropriate for your region

Enthusiastic Student

but I have my own work outside the buidling, I can not really spend lots of time for voluntary work at our building

then I tried to control his duties two or three times a day

@EnthusiasticStudent maybe you can leave a note with some sort of small prize

Enthusiastic Student

6:47 PM

by calling this guy by phone: "did you do this or that"

but it did not work...

"hey X, I know you're busy, but I just wanted to thank you in advance for fixing our lightbulbs"

we have a saying, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

namely that being nice tends to work better than trying to force people

Enthusiastic Student

Ah... I try to be really polite even to the workers

I am not trying to say that you are not polite, I'm sure you are

Enthusiastic Student

I don't think forcing workers to do their duties really works...

@MattGiltaji I have to leave my desk for a work. I will read your comments as soon as I connect to the internet. And, thank you so much for your kind and talking to me. You are so kind. :)

@EnthusiasticStudent glad to help

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