According to the near 3,000 … Aside from submitting reports or complaints regarding both their co-workers (36 percent) and boss or manager (34 percent), most respondents went to HR for a helping hand. Morale is a for real serious issue in offices, and constant complainers of Cynthia’s type can turn an entire workplace toxic. If Cynthia is unhappy then she needs to decide if this workplace is the right one for her. You must define the issue as a business problem, not a personal complaint. Manager – you might also find it of value to look at a few prior letters Alison has addressed from people who were in Jessica’s position regarding how to handle employees that keep circumventing them and going to Grand Boss and examples of dialogues to provide them when handling a Cynthia-type employee. If Jessica isn’t scheduling fairly or timely, that’s an issue. Scene: library empty except for a high school aged study group who occasionally laugh louder than would be appropriate normally. (And I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Type B personality.). I’m not sure if LW or Jessica should convey that message though. How so? I’ve seen this happen in library jobs, which often attract people who like detail for it’s own sake. I’m picturing Cynthia is the kind who keeps doing things the 15 step way with the typewriter because that’s how it has always been done, who insists that the middle-schoolers who come in to study after school are too disruptive to the “real” patrons, doesn’t want to give up on chasing that $5 fine for another 6 months on principle, whereas what is required is more along the lines of letting the computer keep track of that task, welcome patrons of all ages and give them something to enjoy, and stop wasting their salary chasing $5 and making people feel bad about the library. She could also mention that because Jessica wasn’t shelving books, she was able to handle XYZ that came up unexpectedly and that’s why flexibility is desired over strict book shelving. In our case, my boss was kind of taken aback by the whole thing and wanted to seem fair even though he supported me… so for a while he patiently heard her out… eventually we figured out that he just had to shut it down. >it’s not an employee’s responsibility to adapt to their manager, the manager should adapt to the employee. I replaced expensive Lysol wipes with cleaning vinegar and paper towels for a while because the staff were going through a container of wipes a day cleaning little smudges off books. My leader makes … This. I think it’s likely that other employees are picking up on this dynamic, and it’s leading to a less happy workplace for them. Perhaps Jessica isn’t as competent as she should be? I would not want to be managed by someone whose management style would be best described as “loose and fun.”. Sure, from grandboss’s perspective, staff is complaining constantly about different things. where did you get “friends and kindred spirits” from in that letter? I’d have a hard time imagining Jessica doesn’t know this is happening… or, at the very least, that something is happening with Cynthia, given how much she apparently keeps going to OP. No, an employee needs to adapt to their manager. 2) Make it clear to Cynthia that you take things seriously and that you want to address her (valid) concerns. Just want to flag that a lot of libraries are union environments, so that might affect how closely you could follow Alison’s recommendations. I let them know this in my exit evaluation. Jessica may be good at certain things that are important to the library but also not be an appropriate manager for Cynthia. Yeah, this happened to me more than a few times when I was managing a department. He came in late, took a long lunch, and cut out early, leaving employees without breaks and in some situations short-staffed. Nothing OP has said has indicated that Jessica is a problem and it’s really telling how many folks are more willing to insist that the problem is there than it is with Cynthia. And your comment just illustrates that flexibility is needed even in technical services! OP gave specific examples about teen training that you yourself have referenced in these comments. She took each and every single one of these faults of his- and they were significant- as a personal slight against herself and others. On another tangent, I wanted to chime in as someone whose boss had to tell her to “knock it off” when it came to certain complaints about an employee and their manager–it made me frustrated at the time and I still feel unsupported here and there when it comes to the subject but I DID ultimately appreciate my supervisor telling me with absolution, “I need you to get to a place where you are happy in YOUR realm and are not concerned with others.”, That might have been a subtle remark to others but coming from my supervisor, I was able to really read between the lines. about transferring to a unit that’s more in line with your work style.”. If not, you can work with her on when she should come to you with a personnel issue. ‘No, Circulation told everyone this because I asked her to reinforce it. But I am troubled by your ease at blowing off someone you describe as a “hard worker.” Seems a bit passive aggressive to me. Getting people to respect and not attempt to circumvent their direct supervisors is hard. You need to follow procedure.’. Either way, OP needs to intervene much more strongly, or this will create morale problems for all the employees who are exposed to it. I think the line to walk is to shut down complaining and still be open to feedback. Week 3 it’s another something similar. Because if there is some point of consistency, that might be something you can grab onto, and see if you can shift things at all to cut off a lot of the complaining at the source. I shut down and refuse to communicate with anyone unless it’s a requirement when someone is constantly venting about colleagues. It will save them a lot of useless hope that you’re going to deal with the “problem.” If–like me–Cynthia realizes she needs allies in her workplace, she’ll knock it off. I won’t dissect the description of Jessica, but I think that this paints a picture that can be troubling. Yes, he’s cheap, so am I, next problem? If I had an excuse every other day to leave early, again, she could not do this. I wondered about that in particular too, because ‘works at her own pace’ can be fine for an individual contributor but can make for a terrible boss. Cynthia has made it clear she is a complainer, so I think it’s just a matter of touching base with Jessica and assessing if you think what she is doing in the areas of complaint (scheduling, communication, feedback) is enough. In the real world, if you’re known as someone who can get along with ANYONE, you can get ahead. If I’m continuing to complain to my boss it’s because the issue hasn’t been resolved, and the other coworker has continued with the bad/dangerous behavior. Jessica may have a laid-back persona for her team so that she can be seen as approachable to her reports. She is far more concerned with enforcing the rules than she is with meeting the public’s needs. All sorts of things that could have been being done better than they were! Interpersonal challenges with their managers and/or coworkers. If my former boss’s boss had taken this approach, it would have benefited everyone involved. I so agree. ... My boss lets some people walk into work at 9:15 and … Hard to say more without specifics. I think it comes down to details that aren’t explicitly included in this letter. “widen your vision” is worth a try (once, anyway), though I admit I’m projecting. Do you discuss personnel and managing people during those check ins? Example: Cynthia has created a very intensive training for teen volunteers. Problem is, libraries are changing, there’s a greater emphasis on customer-service, and building relationships with the community. Whether you redirect her to Jessica should depend on the complaint. It’s not cool or fun to not provide your employees solid and concrete structure and guidance on a day to day basis. This is what I thought. I think the type-A is a flattering way to say fussy. “So and So is making ALL THESES ERRORS and I have to spend a LOT of time fixing them!” When I kindly ask for examples, I end up with one or two after waiting for a month for those examples. After reading the letter and the later comments by the OP, the whole situation seems fuzzy. (Example: "My boss is really snippy with me, and I … Telling someone that that can’t escalate past their manager is a common tactic for keeping people from reporting actual and significant problems. Do this in a casual and approachable way (I’d be concerned if you aren’t already doing this type of thing). That’s life. Then we get the letters that say “My coworker is always negative and it’s making me so miserable, I love my job but hate working with all the constant negativity!”. And she probably thinks she should keep advocating for change because you haven’t clearly told her that you don’t agree with her take. If Cynthia is the problem factor, and is not actually having genuine issues with Jessica (as others have very eloquently pointed out), what is her potential motivation for constantly going around her boss to you? As a leadership coach, I constantly hear people complaining—sometimes with good reason. I think OP and Jessica need to come together to both use language to make it very clear that it is not okay to escalate past your direct supervisor for issues that do not merit escalation. I know you investigated the first and second-time allegations. Make sure that while you’re sighing over the drama that you’re not missing something important. 11 Things Employees Complain Most About Their Leaders. You want to make sure they’re getting adequate training, but if you make the training too hard or too long, you risk them not paying attention or not remembering the important bits that they’ll need in their work because there was too much information to sort through. My boss kicked me out of work when she found out I left a sick dog at home. It sounds like she is just not a fit. It was definitely, “I don’t want to hear this line of reasoning from you anymore and I need you to get on board.”. This. You may want to consult HR on this, since you said that you manage a public library, and there may be union factors that need to be considered. It still needs addressing. I wasn’t sure until the OP made the following comment: “I keep asking myself, if Cynthia were not here anymore, how would the department suffer. Yeah, I had this same reaction- to a degree, having teen volunteers at your library is a public service, not something you expect to gain beau-coup value from. My boss’s manager had assumed they’d told me my issues. I’m sorry things didn’t go as you hoped or … Yeah when I read “intense training” coupled with *”teen volunteers”* my shoulders went up around my ears. As someone who has also been told to knock it off after repeatedly bringing up a serious issue that it was clear my manager was not going to address, I’m glad she told me straight out. If Jessica isn’t scheduling fairly or timely, that’s an issue. Cynthia: *standing there with a decibel meter*. Those might be insightful as you potentially prepare to speak with Jessica. Alison is spot on, this needs to be shut down. Agreed completely. OP has not detailed the complaints and has not said they are “just whining”. I can’t entertain a complaint about one thing and then shut down another. Jessica may be a poor manager, Cynthia may be too fussy. to have a well rounded library staff. That has never been my experience (as an employee) with any of my superiors. And define sulking–is Cynthia scowling, rolling her eyes, etc. If Jessica wants to handle this herself with you out of the way that’s her call but I’d be tempted to have a tag team sit down with the two of you making it very clear to her you are united, unimpressed and questioning her professional judgement. Take a moment to share your 2021 challenges/concerns in our latest poll, and stay tuned for insightful information and events that can help you conquer these areas and beat out the competition. When Cynthia didn’t get what she wanted from Jessica’s boss, she started going to HR and the boss’s boss, over and over, trying to get someone to do what she wanted. 4 Times When You Should Complain About Your Boss. And that leans to a bias because the vast majority of people cut a lot of slack for people they like. is a great example of the kind of inability to put things in perspective that I suspect Cynthia shows. “I can’t entertain a complaint about one thing and then shut down another. In any given team there are a variety of styles and personalities- what makes an exceptional employee is one who is self-aware of their own style and adjust it to work with all types of styles. Most likely, it’s a little of both. The highest percentage of respondents (35 percent) either didn’t know what the proper channel was for filing a formal complaint against their boss, or didn’t have one. Some of us have had Jessica for a boss before. Complaining and gossiping is incredibly toxic and immature and can cause so many problems on a team. Well yes, of course — I said *respect* their employees equally, not treat them equally. In forward facing positions you have to be ready to drop whatever project you are working on and be prepared to answer a reference question, or just a question in general. They got here at 10:01! I think it’s valid to compare both methods. You never know until you get involved and determine whether complaints are valid or not. Poor Manager got terminated before the one year mark, and I think Drama Llama found a new job right around that time as well. I would absolutely leave a workplace over it (and maybe Cynthia should!). Resolving a Complaint of a Bad Boss. I would have no problem saying, “This is your boss. Talk to other members of the team (not Cynthia or Jessica) find out how things are going. before getting put on a PIP for the original problem, her unpleasant and disrespectful behavior towards a coworker. (My friend was checking on him during the day.) If you start not taking Cynthia seriously at all about anything she will either get worse about complaining or go completely the other way and stop caring about things you want her to care about. Sorry, we cannot afford to buy books because the cleaning supply budget took over. Good lord. She might be good at wearing a lot of hats, working with patrons with different needs and personalities, and dealing with a shifting task structure. Bosses who purposefully embarrass employees in front of others. Your already dysfunctional relationship could worsen if your manager believes you're talking behind her back. You put it so much better than me! If the complaints are more nebulous, though, it could be harder to explain. OP, take Alison’s advice and do this. You can’t let that kind of behavior fly. If this isn’t already a thing, would it be possible to give Cynthia a small area of the library to reign over and direct her energies towards, something that would benefit from a more…detailed..approach (say, periodicals/newspapers or cataloging on a daily basis or signage or documenting workflows as on-going projects)? Yikes. It doesn’t sound like anyone else is complaining about this but Cynthia. Is Cynthia being held to a higher standard just because she is a high performer? I disagree with the “shut down” sentiment. But OP in the comments mentioned she needs to investigate more, that she is not sure. Reading “OP likes this person better than that person and therefore this entire letter is favoritism at work” is a bad-faith reading of the letter. The easygoing, non detail oriented can be a horrible person to work for simply because they can’t manage. It makes it sound as if Cynthia is attempting to train teen volunteers in a library in a way that a different sort of organization that gets a lot of teen volunteers trains them. It’s the manager’s job to determine if that is the case. You’re adding all this speculation that simply doesn’t have evidence to support it. One smudge. Just…because she was deaf). “the fact she’s complaining about things that don’t need to be changed”, Do they, though? Work on her interactions and come up with alternative ways to communicate and accepting different styles of leadership… In libraries, you are dealing with people and people throw you curve balls all the time. Cynthia’s constant negativity created a really unpleasant work environment, and was a major factor in my leaving when I did. I would involve Jessica and have a performance conversation right now… But she continues to complain about Jessica to others and to me, and I don’t know what to do about it. Or on feedback, really. Or it could be that Cynthia is uptight and anxious and would be about the same at any job. This is one of the parts of management that sucks, when we have to be firm if firmness is not in our personality. I generally look at outcomes with evaluating these types of complaints. Copyright © 2007 - 2021 Ask A Manager. At some point the compentent worker bee will get burned out and leave. “how do you think you can better work with Jessica, knowing this is her style?” “Shut down” sounds disrespectful & censoring. Jessica’s management style sounds like my nightmare – but for some people it would be great. But I will mention that it sounds like there’s a consistency problem at the core of this. Similarly, in my experience, when you have valid complaints about a coworker (or especially a manager) that just continue to not get addressed or fixed, after a while they just become a Fool Eating Crackers, and it’s easy to start complaining about every little thing. If there’s something Jessica wants done, it she not telling her reports in a clear manner or does she spring stuff on them? I’ve found that managers that often focus on making work “fun” often miss their targets or force the more competent worker-bees to compensate for the less competent workers. I’m surprised we haven’t already had a letter from one of those teen volunteers…. You really need to make sure that Cynthia isn’t bearing all the work and being forced to rescue others. Things are going fine with the new trainer.. but the second something goes wrong with a teen volunteer Cynthia will jump on it to point out a supposed “failing” of the new system. Cynthia is managed by Jessica, and I manage Jessica. My thinking is this is a two part problem. Communication and feedback – is this a question of how it’s done, or that there’s not enough of it? It’s also absolutely possible that the OP is happy with Jessica’s work in spite of and not because of this approach. For example, is it organization/advance planning? Just because you think Jessica’s a good worker, and does her work great, doesn’t mean she does the manager portion of her work great. That’s fine but do the complaints actually have merit? OP has responded (their screen name is “Manager”) and they actually said they’ve been reluctant to push back on Cynthia’s complaining because they want to give her the benefit of the doubt about the validity of her complaints. IDK, but as soon as I get some (big) personal stuff dealt with I’m out of there. I’m not saying that a manager should know all the gory details of the team being managed by their employee, but there should be a pretty good basis to know the what’s going on in the team and have a good pulse as to the performance of those working for them even 2 layers down. How big is this bug? Make a decision and work on the steps of that decision. Not to mention the one time where I had an overly critical employee complaining about her not so great manager. If she survives the time it takes to get there, Cynthia will some day make an entire team/office send letters to Alison about their micromanaging boss who just invents unnecessary work for them. I def think that OP needs to be more supportive of Jessica, I mean “put your foot down supportive”. The fact that Cynthia’s grandboss (OP) is fine with Jessica’s work tells me that Cynthia needs to find a different job. Conversely a laid back manager cannot allow themselves to be walked all over like a door mat. I think she knows that Cynthia is trying to undermine her, and she needs your support in her efforts to manage her. Here are … My way makes the most sense! Make her stop.” What kinds of complaints do employees typically bring to HR, and how should I handle them? I work in the archives within an academic library. 6) Make it extremely clear to Cynthia that further complaining will result in disciplinary action. So each new time she comes to you, you can remind her she needs to take it up with Jessica first. The first thing to do is to create a system for employees to lodge complaints or grievances so they can be addressed. It sounds like in general you don’t want type A behaviors going on in your workplace,OP. From the tone of OP’s letter, it doesn’t sound as if those standards are necessary for this library (akin to over/under debate for the toilet paper roll). What do you mean? Jessica is a fun person, OP likes her, but Jessica may be a not so good manager. It happens, it’s not because either Cynthia or Jessica are bad at their jobs or as humans, they just don’t have the ability to work well together. I thought I was the Cynthia, but I’ve worked with people like her and they are insufferable. Is she slow to submit things? She is the face of our mission and other people do the detail work. Cynthia sounds completely out of line, but it might be a good idea to keep an ear out for similar complaints/frustrations from the other staff.