- #1
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This might be a bit out there, but I wonder what some people think of the following situation. A technician is paid 2 days a week to work for me, in reality the technician only puts in 4 hours a month. Whenever I delegate work, the technician either is too busy, is sick, has family problems, has a day off, or wants to go on vacation.
I delegated a job that needs to be done every few weeks, one day the technician contacted me that the job couldn't be done the next week: the technician was too busy due to an upcoming vacation. I told the technician to make time a few days earlier to do the job and that I'd help: my attempt to manage the situation and level the playing field.
Shortly after a colleague in the lab was involved in an accident and couldn't work, I called on the technician to help finish an experiment. To me it was also an opportunity to train the technician, because that person has very little relevant experience.
Guess what: the day of the experiment (a Tuesday) the technician sends an e-mail: "went home sick on Monday, hopefully you can manage and I can help on Thursday". I sent my best wishes and asked whether we could meet Thursday at 11:00 (I purposely didn't ask for 9:00). Guess what: on Thursday at 11:10 I get the e-mail "Can we make it Friday at 11:00. This is currently my best offer ... Sorry!"
How should one communicate with such a person? I'm at a loss. We had a blow-out, because I thought the text above was very inappropriate. I don't take "best offers" and the situation to me is unmanageable. A day later I found out the technician was still stick on Thursday, but didn't feel it was any of my business to be informed about that.
I discussed it with three senior people in my department (two of them supervise the technician as well) and they say it's up to me to solve it. Ugh, I have no idea how to approach this other than take a deep breath and approach the situation with a lot of care to not escalate it into an argument. Such a waste of time, but an opportunity to develop people skills
I delegated a job that needs to be done every few weeks, one day the technician contacted me that the job couldn't be done the next week: the technician was too busy due to an upcoming vacation. I told the technician to make time a few days earlier to do the job and that I'd help: my attempt to manage the situation and level the playing field.
Shortly after a colleague in the lab was involved in an accident and couldn't work, I called on the technician to help finish an experiment. To me it was also an opportunity to train the technician, because that person has very little relevant experience.
Guess what: the day of the experiment (a Tuesday) the technician sends an e-mail: "went home sick on Monday, hopefully you can manage and I can help on Thursday". I sent my best wishes and asked whether we could meet Thursday at 11:00 (I purposely didn't ask for 9:00). Guess what: on Thursday at 11:10 I get the e-mail "Can we make it Friday at 11:00. This is currently my best offer ... Sorry!"
How should one communicate with such a person? I'm at a loss. We had a blow-out, because I thought the text above was very inappropriate. I don't take "best offers" and the situation to me is unmanageable. A day later I found out the technician was still stick on Thursday, but didn't feel it was any of my business to be informed about that.
I discussed it with three senior people in my department (two of them supervise the technician as well) and they say it's up to me to solve it. Ugh, I have no idea how to approach this other than take a deep breath and approach the situation with a lot of care to not escalate it into an argument. Such a waste of time, but an opportunity to develop people skills