motivating an employee

[powerslave]

From what I've seen most electricians have social issues.

Hey man, I'm trying. People just make me nervous.:grin:

 

[wawireguy]

It's a crazy business and those that stick it out are not 100% sane so.. You as employer have to "deal" with it if you want good employess. Maybe the OP can figure out what is souring his otherwise good hand. Maybe the guy wants to move up in the shop or wants more responsibility or? I'd say ask him

 

[realolman]

....Maybe the OP can figure out what is souring his otherwise good hand. Maybe the guy wants to move up in the shop or wants more responsibility or? I'd say ask him

Exactly.

He might have a legitimate reason for what ever it is that ails him. The OP has asked for validation from everyone else in the world . Maybe ask the guy himself what's wrong....

Maybe the OP doesn't want to know.

 

[MAK]

Could it be you?

Could it be you?

Is it possible that the worker in question does not respond well to you and that his "poor" attitude is related to how he feels towards you? In other words he is tired of your crap.

Have you asked other employees how they perceive his attitude? I am wondering if he is harboring a grudge against you or if his attitude is the same with the other employees.

Another possibility is that he maybe scared or ashamed that he is not adapting to newer technology and is acting out in a negative manner. Is he not putting out enough work?

Anyway you slice it if his attitude is NEGATIVELY affecting your crew then he should be made aware that it is unacceptable and to shape up. You need to have a sit down with this guy and get your answers ASAP. Good luck with your decision.

 

[LHarrington]

Realolman,
Now that I have went back and proof read my post, I can fully understand why you had called me a moron and a dope in the private message I had sent you. Classic case of thinking faster than I can type. I normally spend most of my time on the floor working with the crew and only jump in this forum when I have time or a question. So unlike the situations you have apparently been through in your career this was quite different, I truly want to be proactive in this guy's career. Together we learn and make mistakes. My crew is very active in the everyday decision making process. So please try to find it somewhere in your mind to view me differently than the dope you had mentioned in the private message.
I appreciate everyones suggestions and the time spent reading even the ones that stung a little. Since posting this question on the forum this person and I have had the chance to sit one on one and talk about our problems and we have selected a direction. In summary he was under the impression because of the resent employment of a couple tradesmen from the Auto Industry that he was training his replacement. We had done this off site over lunch away from the everyday grind.

Thanks again everyone
LHarrington

 

[growler]

employed here at our company for 12 years and has work next to me for 6 years when him and I were the only two maintenance guy in the place.

There is your problem, the guy thinks of you as his buddy and not his boss.

There are a few people in this world that can be both friend and subordinate but most of the time you have to be boss first and friend second.

If you are the boss don't just make suggestions, tell the guy what you are going to expect in the way of performance.

 

[cowboyjwc]

If I understand correctly you have a team of people? Here's the problem as I see it.

If you have a ball team that's got the hottest pitcher out there, but he's a self centered, arrogant jerk, the rest of the team will not play "for" him. Intstead of making the extra effort in the field they tend to hold back and not give it their best. One of the reasons for this is that the team see's that the manager is giving this guy what ever he wants (not that that's what you're doing) and there are no consequences to his actions.

One guy can drag a team down.

Now I don't know if letting him go is the answer or not, but it does seem that you have tried everything in your power to change him, but my guess is he's been there to long.

Good luck.

 

[realolman]

Realolman,
Now that I have went back and proof read my post, I can fully understand why you had called me a moron and a dope in the private message I had sent you. Classic case of thinking faster than I can type. I normally spend most of my time on the floor working with the crew and only jump in this forum when I have time or a question. So unlike the situations you have apparently been through in your career this was quite different, I truly want to be proactive in this guy's career. Together we learn and make mistakes. My crew is very active in the everyday decision making process. So please try to find it somewhere in your mind to view me differently than the dope you had mentioned in the private message.
I appreciate everyones suggestions and the time spent reading even the ones that stung a little. Since posting this question on the forum this person and I have had the chance to sit one on one and talk about our problems and we have selected a direction. In summary he was under the impression because of the resent employment of a couple tradesmen from the Auto Industry that he was training his replacement. We had done this off site over lunch away from the everyday grind.

Thanks again everyone
LHarrington

Thanks for singling me out in a PM and giving me credit for what I haven't done. I'm beginning to see why this guy might be a big fan of yours, and why he would trust you.

Don't send someone a PM and then incorrectly spew in public what the guy responded.

You sent me a private message. I suppose because I was the only one who did not jump on the "fire him" band wagon. I replied to that message. I asked you why you sent me a PM rather than responding in the open forum. You never answered.

I did not call you a moron or a dope. I specifically said that I did not know you, only what you post.

It takes two to tango, and being someone's boss does not make you correct. It only makes you his boss. It gives you an artificial advantage over him that is enabled and sustained by the power of the company, not by your superiority , intellectually or physically.

I said that it sucks working for a dope, that I had to work for someone who was literally functionally illiterate. Not fun, and in my opinion not fair either.

You never did say whether you owned this company or are a manager.

I gave you a football analogy: How do you suppose Joe Montana would have felt, had he had to play second string to some second rate player... and that that second rate player at least in part got to determine who played and for how much money. Think there'd have been any resentment there on Joe's part? Think it'd have been justified?

I said that in corporations, similar thinking people often gravitate to each other. Dopes like dopes and they don't like people who are more competent than themselves. They like to hire dopes, because they are less threatened by them.

So who ends up being the odd man out. Not one of the dopes.

I know this post is too long, but I'm going to quote you some passages from a book On Paradise Drive by David Brooks:

If God is omnipotent, omniescent and good, why does he allow morons to succeed? One notices this phenomenon constantly; the most empty headed, asinine individuals float helium-like from plum post to plum post, without ever demonstrating extraordinary talent, original intelligence, or even a noteworthy grasp of the matters at hand. Often they have pleasant faces and a certain animal magnetism, and their ascent seems to be accelerated by the fact that they are not burdened by the weight of an interesting personality. They've somehow acquired the reputation of One Who Is Chosen, so that when leadership jobs open up, and selection committees meet, they are called.

Their unbearable lightness is pleasing to the selectors, who either want somebody safe and manipulable or are themselves members in the community of the eminently vapid. So the zero-gravity hero ascends one more level in his merit-free rise to greatness, where he will be in a position to promote other empty eminentoes, who will promote still more hollow leaders, so that gradually day by day, they will find themselves in a golden circle of high cheekboned innocuousness- girded on left and right by a band of pleasing, unoriginal, stress free, talentless paragons radiating benign self-satisfaction upon one another without end. Amen


I said that you should make sure you are worthy of being the other man's boss.

 

[mivey]

Well, that should about clear that up.

As for Mr. Brooks, I get my fix reading Dilbert cartoons.