Difficult Employee...What do I do?

[michael79]

I am having a tough time with an employee. Lately she has been giving me grief over the smallest things. She is on disablilty and is only able to work 60 hours a month. She doesn't want to work more than 6 hours at a time. She doesn't want to work 2 days in a row and the previous manager gave her a set schedule of Wed and Friday with one weekend a month. It has been tough, but I have been trying to accommodate all her requests. This past month while making my new department schedule I had a hole in the schedule I needed filled an no one else could do it. I asked her if she could and she replied, "Well, I usually take my art classes on Tuesdays and I like to spend my Mondays doing my art so I'll have to check but probably not." ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I would love to sit at home and do other things too, but this is your job! Were it not for the set schedule I would have just scheduled her to work and been done with it! I am tired of catering to her wants and desires. I want to fire her, but I don't know what to do! Should I counsel her that this set schedule business doesn't work? Should I cut her hours down to nothing? What do I do? Oh, also, she has 2 worker's comp cases open against our company. They have been open for over 1.5 years and occurred under questionable circumstances. HELP!

[mamason]

I am having a tough time with an employee. Lately she has been giving me grief over the smallest things. She is on disablilty and is only able to work 60 hours a month. She doesn't want to work more than 6 hours at a time. She doesn't want to work 2 days in a row and the previous manager gave her a set schedule of Wed and Friday with one weekend a month. It has been tough, but I have been trying to accommodate all her requests. This past month while making my new department schedule I had a hole in the schedule I needed filled an no one else could do it. I asked her if she could and she replied, "Well, I usually take my art classes on Tuesdays and I like to spend my Mondays doing my art so I'll have to check but probably not." ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I would love to sit at home and do other things too, but this is your job! Were it not for the set schedule I would have just scheduled her to work and been done with it! I am tired of catering to her wants and desires. I want to fire her, but I don't know what to do! Should I counsel her that this set schedule business doesn't work? Should I cut her hours down to nothing? What do I do? Oh, also, she has 2 worker's comp cases open against our company. They have been open for over 1.5 years and occurred under questionable circumstances. HELP!

Just schedule her. She'll either do it or she won't. What is she going to say? "I'm being mistreated because I can't paint on Mondays?" How ridiculous would that sound? You are right. It is her job. If she wants to keep it, then, she should be willing to be flexible also. :wink2: