Colleague Issues

[messengerhot]

A colleague keeps on making mistakes in our work and I start to notice that her work is pretty much messed up. I would want to have a re-orientation and told her to focus more on work which made her so upset. Attitude really sucks big time and seems not learning from the past mistakes. When is the best time to endorse her to the personnel department in the most objective way?

[Tradd]

Are you her supervisor or does someone have that responsibility? Are you both under the same supervisor?

I would go first to her supervisor before going to personnel. It would be very helpful if you had concrete examples of the colleague's errors. Has she made a project late? Have customers complained? Has she messed something up that YOU then needed to correct which made project, etc., late?

[Miss Cellane]

What I'd do is first document the problem. What the mistake was and how it affected you or others in the department, or on-going projects in the department. Get a few of these down in writing.

Then go to your supervisor and explain the situation. Focus not on the personal aspect, but on how her mistakes negatively affect your work.

You may get some push-back from above, "Oh, she's trying so hard," "She's been having a rough time at home lately," that sort of thing. Acknowledge this, then go on to restate your main point. "I'm very sorry that things have been hard for Co-Worker. But that doesn't solve the problem that I'm getting the XYZ stats two weeks late and they are incorrect. How can we solve that issue?"

[messengerhot]

Thanks for your thoughts.We are in the same department,and my work is really affected if she submits a report with all the error. I have actually made the move to discuss the issue with my boss and he clearly told me that this issue will be resolved soon. The thing is, the colleague was not the only one who has been making mistakes after all. There are some reports for other employees and my boss feels that we, as a group are not learning from the past mistakes.

My company is now waiting for a solution which will be presented by next week. A record of action which will be in a form of a program would be a good solution as they say. But for me, before the change in the procedures, attitude of employees should be the main concern. Even if a good new system will be used, if there is no willingness to change, I guess it would not work that well. But let us see.