Assignment - 3

[Kevin Stevens]

I haven't dealt with to many employee problems. I have dealt with new hire employees being their mentor and sometimes those new hires are considered lazy or lacking the ability to do the job correctly. I was advised to mentor this one new hire and I was told he was the Inherited poor performer. After working with this employee for awhile I realized how bright he was and was an excellent resource for our organization. So once I figured this out I told the other employees about him and how he was very bright and excellence at his job. Once the crew gave the guy some time and opened up to him they found out he was an asset to our team.
I learned a lot from this mentoring job . I wont let other employees sway my opinion about other employees. This employee was on the verge of being released from the academy and turned out to be an excellent person and employee for us all it took was somebody taking the time to become his friend and just listen to him and give him the chance to prove himself. This employee no longer works with us he moved on to a different organization and we lost a good firefighter.

Good job Ross, So many people form an opinion about someone over what someone else has said about them, All people are wired different, Someone wrote in here about people doing things a different way then what they would have done it, but as long as the job gets done and it’s done safe who cares. I believe everyone deserves  a fair shot.

[Haggard]

A situation I had was with an employee that had a number of issues going on.  There was low motivation and also a lateness issue that was occurring.  After some talks with this employee, I decided to move him and make sure there was a clear set of expectations.  We also found some projects for him to work on that interested him.  This led to him feeling like he got a fresh start.  This sparked an interest in doing things that he was interested in.  He began to take on additional responsibilities that he sought out, and this was beneficial to everyone.  This employee made a huge turn around with a great attitude, and he became a good performer in the organization. 

I know situations do not always work out like this, but a clear set of expectations often makes a difference.  I also do not like to move people around unless there is a reason, and there was a good reason for this move.  We looked at all the parts of this situation, and we put some thought into it, and figured out what could make this better.

CPT Clary,
The easy thing for supervisor to do is keep a troubled or not so liked employee away from their location.  Moving this employee gave him a positive feeling.  All employees want to know that they are valued and in doing this, some need hard love by being pushed.  I am glad everything turned out for the best. 

[nullj.21]

Problem: Senioritis 
Description: As a newly promoted supervisor I struggled with trying to figure out the guys on my shift.  During this time I did notice one of the crew members seemed to be more relaxed and really didn’t fulfill the Senior Firefighter role on shift.  My supervisor came to me and mentioning that he had noticed it too.  As a new supervisor I truly struggled of how to approach the situation and address my concerns with the crew member. I latterly thought about it for days. It that time of the year for the department’s evaluations, so I figured I would address it then.

How I handled the situation:  During the crew members evaluation I spoke of how myself and my supervisor has noticed his behavior. The crew member agreed that he needed to step up and lead and that he wasn’t aware of his behavior until it being addressed in this setting. The crew member has since proven himself many times and has become a true Senior Firefighter on shift. 

What I Learned:  I learned a few lessons during this situation. I could have pulled the crew member aside any time before the yearly evaluation and addressed the issue. Note, that His behavior did not play a role on his evaluation.  He met all expectations. I believed that he could have exceeded in some areas.  I learned that allowing some time to think of how to address the situation and not having a shotgun reaction helped in the two of us getting on the same page.  I learned that sometimes the employee just needed a reminder of the expectations in his role.

As a supervisor I have had to learn the difference between a so called problem employee and an employee with a different personality than myself. What I may think is a problem employee could be just that our personalities don’t align and that shouldn’t count against the employee.  Just because they do something different than I would, doesn’t make them a bad employee.  As long as we reach our expectation of each other, there should be no problem.

A Stafford

This is sounds similar to what i dealt with with the exception of the attitude that my employee had.  Depending on how long out the eval was, it might have been better to address it sooner.  I do agree with waiting and thinking and processing the situation first.  Sometimes this is hard to do because we want immediate change.  if there isnt an immediate safety concern, we can often wait a shift or two.

[nullj.21]

My narrative is not necessarily with a specific person or directly relating to a problem employee. This is more about outside influence and previous experience not matching CCFD expectations leading to excuse being made “ That’s not what we do at….”

Problem: Inherited Poor Performer/Excuse Meister Combo.
Description: Previous experience and conflict while conforming to CCFD procedures.

As a career member in our organization I found myself routinely being assigned to equipment with new part-time members. The new members would come to our organization with a wide range of experience. The range spanned from brand new never worked a day in the fire service to guys with over a decade of all part-time service.

The inexperienced members would not resist CCFDs expectations, while the long time part-time from other places would reluctantly comply to our higher expectations. Often times followed by the statement “that’s not how we do it at my other job.” The first couple of times I heard that it was just noise to me, I paid no attention to that statement. After a few times I started to be annoyed with that statement. I would point out that our medics and fire trucks don’t say “JEMS” or “Washington Township” on the side. My reply was deliberately snarky and short.

None of the resistance to conform was malicious or poorly intended. The common operating procedures simply varied from the expectations from a lackadaisical and low accountability system. Our organization has higher standards that needed to be explained, coached and practiced. Examples being: Gear set out and tagged in at the start of shift, truck checks done early, EMS restocked while at hospital and house duties performed without being directed to do so. Other tasks would include dressing a hydrant, pulling and reloading triple load attack lines and apparatus placement. These all seem natural to most of us. Other less organized departments lack daily routine, training and accountability. We have all worked at a department with a lower bar of expectation.

These employee “issues” provided me an opportunity to develop a new employee with our procedures.
Coaching the new employees with our procedures was beneficial for me with constant review of how we operate, where we keep things and what we do with them.

Outcome: Leading someone to success is accomplished with proper coaching. Setting expectations, explaining rationale and practice to reinforce procedure comprehension will lead to better performance.
Failing to do this in advance of an issue is poor management.

When preparation meets opportunity success is achievable.

These issues or problem employees may not be a thing while they are working at "the other places"  but organizations do have different standards for many difffernet reasons.  I am glad we are at an level that we can simply tell these people to leave and that CCFD is not for them.  CCFD is not perfect by any stretch-as no fire department is but if an employee cant get on board with how we do it then they need to hit the road.

[jlogsdon]

Excuse Meister

Over the years, I've heard the craziest excuses and lies come from grown men!!  I have raised 3 children and haven't heard excuses so elaborate.
I could go into great detail discussing one employee, but I'm only allowed max of 500 words.  In short concerning that grown man, I hope his hands someday grow bigger so he can hold the set of irons (Excuses!!!) .

I will focus on another individual that had an excuse that is definitely at the top of my crazy excuse list.

Engine was called for area coverage to Franklin Fire Station. Crew of 3 traveling routine to the station, around 20:00.  It was dark and began to rain during our response.  After a couple minutes of waiting, I told the driver to turn the windshield wipers on so WE can see.
After using what I call the  " feeling up the dash" method, I finally told him to stop the engine.  His immediate response after stopping the engine was " I'm telling on you, your delaying our response"  I informed him that we have to safely arrive and at this moment we are traveling unsafely.
I then asked him again to turn on the wipers, still feeling up the dash, our jump seat FF attempted to help, I asked him to let the driver figure it out. 
After a minute or so, the driver replied "I don't think this engine was ordered with windshield wipers".
The driver was switched out with my jump seat FF.
At the Franklin Station, I had the FF explain to me why he doesn't know where the wiper switch is.  His reply was " its never been raining during my morning truck checks, so I never gave it any thought).

I didn't allow him the privilege of driving back to CCFD.  I immediately took action and through our Captain, requested that he no longer be the FAO until he knows the engine thoroughly.  That didn't sit well with the FF.  In the end, not only was his knowledge improved, but my confidence in the FF improved.
I used that crazy night as a WOW moment as an officer, its always assumed that a grown man is and should be responsible enough to be the best he can be in this profession. From that point on, random quizzes occurred with other FAO's on various Engine operation  or location of equipment.

I have seen this scenario play out in other context. CCFD has come a long way in our training of new drivers and FAO's. Kudos to our award winning training program. Not too long ago it was a priority to get people rushed through their drivers and FAO training. I don't think all of the blame is on the driver in your scenario. It sounds like you handled it proper at the time, however, he is not the person who signed his paper acknowledging he was a competent FAO. It also makes me wonder, if he didn't know where the wiper control was, what else did he not know?

[jlogsdon]

While working at a previous job I was in charge of a small group of people.  Everyone in this group was a high performer...except for one!  This individual fell into every category of bad employee.  Lazy?...absolutely.  Bad performer?...check.  Excuses?...yup, tons of them.  Bad attitude? ...one of the worst.  So how did he keep his job?  His father was an executive with the same company.  he was a highly protected punk.  All previous supervisors turned a blind eye with this employee for fear of retaliation from above.  My plan was different.  I was going to coach this person.  We were going to work with positives not negatives.  After several weeks of trying this is was apparent this person had no desire to be better at anything.  I still stand by my original approach.  I tried to help through coaching not punishing.  No one had ever tried this with him.  Ultimately this failed as he was not willing to change...anything!  I was told by my boss to let it go with him and just concentrate on the team.  This didn't sit well with me but I relented and backed off.  I learned that even though my plan was achievable the person has to be willing to participate and has to care about their job.  I also learned not everyone can be helped. 

*This employee was moved to another group and continued the same behavior.  Soon after that I heard he had been fired...only after his father left the company to pursue other means of employment.           

The father, son combo in the workplace can be horrible. It doesn't have to be family for this scenario to happen. There was a Fire Chief at a Warren County FD that had a "son" that thought he was above the law and untouchable. I agree that not everyone can be helped. Sometimes you just have to keep feeding them rope, they will eventually hang themselves.

[Ron Bell]

Brian, I admire your ability to put aside the preconceived classification of the "Lazy Lump" employee. Having the patience and confidence in your ability to lead and work through the potential issues is very showing of your skills and maturity as a leader on your construction crew.

Fair and independent evaluation without bias provided you the understanding of his skills and with applied coaching you modified his actions to meet expectations. The lessons you provided may have changed his future and hopefully changed the opinions of others that judged him poorly. Sometimes perception is not reality. Congrats on your success with creating a team member. Ron

[kclary21]

Lazy Lump description is very accurate.  Over the years have also learned that an employee that has been determined by others to be lazy, may in fact not be lazy at all. 
My narrative is based on previous employment as a production supervisor building new homes.
New home construction finding general maintenance type of people is hard to find.  We were going thru interviews in search of people experienced in handy man type of work that encompassed having knowledge in various aspects of home building and the ability to make repairs as needed.  At this particular time we needed someone that can do interior trim, cabinets, drywall, labor work etc.  After interviews hired a gentleman that met the objectives we needed based off resume and experience. 

First few weeks everything seemed ok.  He was given list of work that needed done, naturally the task were more labor to see his work ethic,  then getting into more detailed jobs as he proved he wanted to work and seemed competent to do the jobs given.  Over time kept noticing jobs not getting complete they way they should and everything taking longer than should take.  This is know giving the impression he is becoming lazy.  After talking to this employee about his progress it became more evident his experience did not match his resume.  That explained why he seemed to be lazy, but in fact he was trying but did not know how to do certain things. 

Fortunately the number of houses under construction slowed down and I had more time to spend with him and was able to teach him and because he was actually not lazy, he put more effort into learning and made a valuable employee.     

I learned that expectations are different for everyone although the same people have the overall general expectation.     

I like how you describe that experience did not match resume.  This is not uncommon.  Sometimes people pad their resumes, or they may have a lot of training , but not experience.  You dove into the situation and found there was more to it and not just this guy being lazy.  You decided to work with him and not just cut him loose.  It sounds like you made a good decision and gained a good employee through your efforts. 

[kclary21]

Excuse Meister

Over the years, I've heard the craziest excuses and lies come from grown men!!  I have raised 3 children and haven't heard excuses so elaborate.
I could go into great detail discussing one employee, but I'm only allowed max of 500 words.  In short concerning that grown man, I hope his hands someday grow bigger so he can hold the set of irons (Excuses!!!) .

I will focus on another individual that had an excuse that is definitely at the top of my crazy excuse list.

Engine was called for area coverage to Franklin Fire Station. Crew of 3 traveling routine to the station, around 20:00.  It was dark and began to rain during our response.  After a couple minutes of waiting, I told the driver to turn the windshield wipers on so WE can see.
After using what I call the  " feeling up the dash" method, I finally told him to stop the engine.  His immediate response after stopping the engine was " I'm telling on you, your delaying our response"  I informed him that we have to safely arrive and at this moment we are traveling unsafely.
I then asked him again to turn on the wipers, still feeling up the dash, our jump seat FF attempted to help, I asked him to let the driver figure it out. 
After a minute or so, the driver replied "I don't think this engine was ordered with windshield wipers".
The driver was switched out with my jump seat FF.
At the Franklin Station, I had the FF explain to me why he doesn't know where the wiper switch is.  His reply was " its never been raining during my morning truck checks, so I never gave it any thought).

I didn't allow him the privilege of driving back to CCFD.  I immediately took action and through our Captain, requested that he no longer be the FAO until he knows the engine thoroughly.  That didn't sit well with the FF.  In the end, not only was his knowledge improved, but my confidence in the FF improved.
I used that crazy night as a WOW moment as an officer, its always assumed that a grown man is and should be responsible enough to be the best he can be in this profession. From that point on, random quizzes occurred with other FAO's on various Engine operation  or location of equipment.

Sometimes people make excuses to try to avoid embarrassment.  That often makes a situation worse, but it does happen.  When an employee makes excuses, or commits an error, sometimes we have to ask ourselves as supervisors what we did to contribute to the problem.  If we assume people know things, or can handle situations, we may be setting ourselves up for failure.  Many of the posts on this current topic talk about expectations.  If we do not lay out clear expectations for people, then we can't expect them to know what we want.  In situations where we want or need certain things, it is up to the supervisor to make this clear.  When an employee makes a mistake, while trying to do the right thing, that is okay.  When they do not do what we want them to do because they do not know our expectations, that is our fault.  If an employee is incompetent, that is a different situation, but it still involves expectations.  We are a team, so sometimes we have to start back at the beginning to get team members to where they need to be.  Just like you talked about the FF improving through the effort you put into him.  It is up to us as supervisors to set people up for success.  If they cannot succeed, that is on them, but we need to put the time and effort in so we can say we did our part. 

[blykins]

I won't pretend to have a lot of experience in counseling employees as a supervisor, but I have seen many situations that relate to this topic.  I worked with a firefighter that had many years of experience and was in the twilight of his career.  The supervisor we worked for ignored the problem of him being lazy and making excuses for poor job performance.  It was easier for the supervisor to place the burden on the other crew members than to deal with an uncomfortable situation.  After many frustrating months working as this guys partner I realized he wasn't necessarily lazy or unmotivated.  He had been shuffled around the department and felt under valued which led to him being unmotivated.  His supervisors didn't deal with the issue and sent him to a out laying station and had little expectation for him.  After I took the time to talk to him and recognizing he wanted to be more active I started helping him work on updating his skills. I was also able to have him teach myself and another member of the crew from his many years of experience.  It led to the "senior firefighter" feeling like he contributed to the crew and gave him buy in.  The firefighter and I had set expectations for each other as partners and both were able to meet them.  We became a great team and I was glad I didn't write him off as many had.

Nice to see you did not let others dictate your overall impression of the employee.  Taking the time to figure out the employee and understand how he thinks and what is important to him made a difference in his response to you.  Setting expectations keeps everyone on the same page.   

[blykins]

The scenario I am writing about deals with a combination of excuses and laziness. I do believe they were temporary issues, as the employee typically does outstanding work. On numerous occasions I followed behind a specific employee where I found issues with the equipment. Specifically I found the SCBA empty on one occasion and several weeks later found the regulator not hooked up with the thread cover still on the bottle. At this point I contacted the person to make them aware. His response to me was that he would talk to his FAO to make sure he would do a better check next time. I am definitely not the truck check police, but there are a couple things that are unacceptable and I believe this falls into that category. The issue was handled with a simple conversation. The interesting thing that came out of this scenario was the difference of opinion regarding who is responsible for "YOUR" SCBA. He felt it was the responsibility of the FAO, everybody else in the world thinks that you are responsible for your own SCBA.

Amazes me some of the things we see happen.  I remember from 36 hour class in 1995 the first thing we were taught in respect to gear was YOUR SCBA was YOUR responsibility.  Thankfully you approached him about the problem, that problem may have gone on till someone got hurt. 

[Haggard]

The scenario I am writing about deals with a combination of excuses and laziness. I do believe they were temporary issues, as the employee typically does outstanding work. On numerous occasions I followed behind a specific employee where I found issues with the equipment. Specifically I found the SCBA empty on one occasion and several weeks later found the regulator not hooked up with the thread cover still on the bottle. At this point I contacted the person to make them aware. His response to me was that he would talk to his FAO to make sure he would do a better check next time. I am definitely not the truck check police, but there are a couple things that are unacceptable and I believe this falls into that category. The issue was handled with a simple conversation. The interesting thing that came out of this scenario was the difference of opinion regarding who is responsible for "YOUR" SCBA. He felt it was the responsibility of the FAO, everybody else in the world thinks that you are responsible for your own SCBA.

Joel,
Good job quickly bringing the issues to the attention of the person whom you were working after.  Most of the time a discrepancy can be resolved with a simple conversation handling at the lowest level and not having to go to that person’s supervisor.

[lsargent.21]

The problem:  lazy under performer
This employee is a seasoned ff with many years on the job.  They have a wealth of valuable knowledge and often times could be a great contributor to the crew.  The problem was that this employee seemed to think that since they were "seasoned" and had newer people under them, that they could slack and not meet minimum requirements.  In this case "seasoned" did not imply mastery of skills or high performance as most would think.  Often times this employee was seen in the back of training's and would never participate unless forced to.  When they were forced to participate, their attitude would be terrible and often affect others attitudes.  This could fall into another problem category but to me this was lazy (and selfish) which then lead to under performance. Due to this employee not participating and staying up to date on skills, abilities and new techniques, their performance on actual calls was seen by myself and other members of the crew as poor.  They would use old methods on calls while others were using more up to date methods.

What I learned:
Although i agree that as you near the end of your career you should be able to relax a little and let the new young guys take over, i also feel that you still need to pull your weight and set a good example for the new guys to want to portray.  Once i addressed this with this person, they seemed to understand and not realize that this was happening.  They also did not realize how this impacted others.  No excuses were made.  Performance was brought back up to acceptable and a slight attitude change was noted.

Justin, I think your post is a good example of a "problem" employee we encounter frequently.  In several posts there has been a common theme that the employee did not realize they were not meeting expectations, even when the expectations had previously been clearly defined.  You identified that the employee's performance had fallen below the department standard, and didn't overlooked or shrugged it aside.  You were able to re-establish the expectations and the employee improved their performance with this nudge.  I learned a lot from your post. This was a good reminder to me that perceptive supervision and small adjustments to performance in the present can prevent major issues in the future.

[lsargent.21]

I once had an employee (not at a fire department), that could be labeled in all of these categories.

I was given a middle of the road employee, whom had received okay evaluations year after year, proving she could do her job without direct supervision all the time.  After watching this employee work for several months and not seeing any “actual usable” product from her desk, I realized that this employee’s past supervisors did not help her or any would be supervisor by just letting her skate by.  Her past bosses didn’t have the balls to give this lazy, unaccountable, poor performer the rating she deserved.  This employee had been doing this same job for many years.

I set up a coaching session and gave her exactly what my expectations were from her, I informed her the work she was putting out was not correct, and we would revisit her products in three months.  In three months I met with her again and she still didn’t have a clue so we discussed this issues and set a date to meet again in 3 months.  She did not get any better and I moved her out of my section into an easier and less stressful job.

I learned that by giving people a “pass” and powdering their evals, does not help them or anyone else, even if this troubled employee is no longer working for me.

Tim, I commend you for not wavering in you expectations. You had a set standard that you held the employee to. I think it's easy to sometimes fall into the trap of making exceptions for employees.  Whether it's because they are senior members, they are going through a tough family situation, or any other number of excuses. Sometimes it is the easy way out to make exceptions.  You offered help where you where able, but did not change the expectations. You also followed through with the employee after they failed to meet the standard. I learned a lot from your post.

[Maverickphelelm]

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