Employee Might Be Working A Second Job During Our Workday

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues—everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

A reader asks:

I recently took over managing a team, and have some concerns about one of my employees, John, who was hired by my predecessor. He is pretty good at what he does, but he is super slow at producing finished work. He rarely meets deadlines and if I don’t micromanage him every step of the way on a project, it won’t get done.

At first I assumed he just had too much on his plate, so I’ve taken over a decent chunk of his work and made sure that everyone else on staff keeps me in the loop when they need his help. So now I know exactly what’s on his plate and how long it should take to do it – and he takes much longer than he should on most tasks.

I’ve been trying to figure out why he is so slow, and lately I’ve started wondering if he is working on his side gig during our office hours. We work remotely so I can’t see what he is doing, but I’ve noticed he will send me work first thing in the morning and then later in the evening. I won’t hear from him for hours on end during the 9-5, but the work he sends me in the evening is something that should take an hour or so to finish, not all day.

He does have an agency that he founded and works for on the side, so my theory is that he is working on that and then scrambling to get some of his actual work done before the end of the day. How can I have this conversation with him without accusing him and how can I make sure he is actually doing his work without micromanaging him?

Green responds:

I don’t want to say that it doesn’t matter if he’s working on his side gig during work hours — because it does matter — but ultimately, what matters the most is that you’re not getting what you need from him. Even if he had no side gig, you’d still need him to speed up his pace, get more done, and meet deadlines, right? So that’s where you should focus.

Meet with him and be clear and direct that he needs to finish work more quickly (be specific about those timelines should look like), meet all deadlines (or alert you well in advance if he won’t be able to), and follow through on projects without you managing him so closely. You can also tell him he needs to be accessible during normal business hours. You could say, “I’ve noticed I don’t hear from you for most of the workday, just first thing in the morning and later in the evening. Is there anything that’s getting in the way of your working during the day?” (You’re asking that with an open mind because it’s possible you’ll hear something different than your suspicions, and also this way you’re not jumping in with accusations from the start.)

It’s also important to stop taking over his work. You need to see if he can do the job with a normal workload, not with a modified one that means you get stuck with the overflow.

But what you’re describing is a serious performance problem, and you should handle it as one — completely aside from the issue of whether he’s working on his side gig during the workday or not. Be clear about what you need from him and how that differs from what he’s doing now, and be clear that the problems are serious ones and need to be resolved quickly. If you don’t see quick and sustained improvement, I’d consider that he might not be the person you need in the role.

Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org.