Workplace Issues

Takeaway: Performance and conduct need to be equally graded. Q: Deal Paul, I’m 28, a new manager, and about to deliver my first negative performance review. The employee who I’m reviewing consistently resists feedback and has single-handedly lengthened two major projects by six weeks or more in the past six months. When I provide edits to her work, she either misunderstands my requests or blatantly ignores them. She is a designer and claims that I’m stifling her creativity, however I don’t have similar issues with the other designers on staff. This employee is 10 years my senior, which could contribute...

Takeaway: Intervene before, during, and after the incident. Q: All week, my colleagues and I talked about the impending office holiday party. In our company, it’s the only time of the year that all departments converge for conversation, cookies, and of course, cocktails. James from accounting and I were standing by the chocolate fountain sipping on aforementioned cocktails when we noticed that my sales associate, an employee who has been with me for three years, was holding two glasses of the cranberry vodka mixed drink. I had heard of people getting too drunk at business functions such as this one,...