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Hello

I have a Developer who is very smart and has great knowledge he is a key person in my team.

He has attendance problem, he comes to work 2-3 hours late, sometimes he does not showup. because he cant wake up early.

he does his work, but some times miss the deadlines,

I tried alot of things, I talked to him many times, i gave him warnings, i told him if he fix that he will become a team leader with good package(cause if he fixed it he is qualified to become a team leader)

nothing worked...

So i am not sure if i should give him good evaluation or not... what do you suggest?

AManagerTool's picture

[quote]So i am not sure if i should give him good evaluation or not... what do you suggest?[/quote]

I would assume that you are giving him properly formatted feedback? If not, that's where you start. The question of a good review should be answered with another question. What would your direct reports that DO show up on time think if this one got even an average review?

Your JOB as a manager is to take care of this problem...and it IS a problem. He actually told you that his problem is that he can't get up on time? That's hillarious. Sounds like an Adam Sandler movie...LOL.

The boards are full of examples of how to format the feedback for this and in fact I'm gonna copy your post to a practice thread for feedback.

shaki's picture

Yes i already have a template

with multiple points, job knowledge, problem solving, team commitment, team contribution, quality of work, achiving targets

he is excellent in the above his only problem is attendance.....

as developer he likes reading at night and working,...

so he is violating one item out of 10

HMac's picture

How important is that 1 of 10?

Are there consequences that affect the team, affect you, or affect the company? You mention that he's missed deadlines - did that cause any impact?

Is he the only person on your team with an attendance problem like this?

-Hugh

shaki's picture

My team is 33 he is the only one with the attendance problem

it did not affect the team nor me, nor the company.

sometimes he miss deadlines, but his value is with his knowledge and problem solving, he is able to solve most complicated problems... and that saved us good amount of money

I am thinking to start assign him R&D assigments and team training, where the time is not vital

how can i solve the attendance problems? i tried punshmint did not work nor give him money or position....

i did DISC test for him he is D I

stephenbooth_uk's picture

From what you've written I'm getting that this person is frequently late, because he has difficulty getting up on time, but it's not causing any problems. I take it that by developer you mean software developer, so the bulk of the actual work can be done at any time of day and it's not like a production line where everyone has to start and stop at the same time.

Would it be feasible to introduce some sort of flexible working? Not just for this person but for everyone on the team?

Some people are naturally larks, some are owls and some in between. Larks want to get up early, start early and finish early. They might be great and productive at 8am but by the end of lunch they're sleep walking. Owls want to get up late, start late and finish late. They may have trouble dragging themselves to their desk for 10am but in the afternoon they're going great guns. Personally I'm in the latter group (as may the person you're referring to be), you're far more likely to see me at my desk at 8pm than 8am.

A flex time system, evenly applied, could allow those who work best early in the day to work at (or at least close to) their peak effective times whilst allowing those who work best later in the day to work at (or at least close to) their peak effective times. Most places I've worked have had flex time systems (the only two exceptions were when I worked in care and it was all shift based (24x7 and there always had to be at least a certain number of people on, if you arrived late that meant someone had to work over), even then there was a degree of choice over shifts in that the person organising the shifts would try to put people who preferred early shifts on earlies and those who preferred lates on lates). A typical system would be you come in anytime after 06:00 and before 10:30, take a lunch break of between 30 and 120 minutes between 12:00 and 14:00 then leave anytime between 15:30 and 21:00. That way there are certain times of day that you know everyone is going to be in (for booking meetings &c) but people can fit their day around their preferred pattern and other responsibilities (e.g. dropping the kids off at school int he morning or picking them up after school). It also gives you some flexibility to deal with life stuff, so if you're normally an 8am starter but today you have a 9am doctor's appointment you start later and finish later. Most people stick to a regular pattern and will communicate with their teammates and managers if they are going to change. Those people who don't communicate, it tends to be an issue in other areas as well so there's plenty of opportunity for adjusting feedback.

If there's any points you want to discuss PM me.

Stephen

bflynn's picture

[quote="shaki"]Hello

I have a Developer who is very smart and has great knowledge he is a key person in my team.

He has attendance problem, he comes to work 2-3 hours late, sometimes he does not showup. because he cant wake up early.

he does his work, but some times miss the deadlines,

I tried alot of things, I talked to him many times, i gave him warnings, i told him if he fix that he will become a team leader with good package(cause if he fixed it he is qualified to become a team leader)

nothing worked...

So i am not sure if i should give him good evaluation or not... what do you suggest?[/quote]

I don't see how you can give him a good evaluation. If he is coming in late and missing too many deadlines, he shouldn't be a key member of your team.

"Some deadlines" is a judgement call. Everybody who is pushing the envelope will miss a deadline. If you don't, you're not trying hard enough to produce. I sense this is not the key problem, but you think he could do better.

Coming in late is a basic business no-no. There is something else going on - he is staying up very late, not waking up, sleeping in, drugs...the key behavior isn't being late, being late is a consequence of other behavior.

The problem is that if you allow him to continue working and being late, others will start doing it too. Others are watching you right now to see how you solve this and whether its safe to be late.

The answer is simple. If you have decided that this behavior is harmful to the work environment, then it must stop. You've started with feedback.
Did you remember positive feedback when he is on time?

It sounds like its time to introduce the consequence of no future employment as an outcome of his continued behavior. He will test the waters...every time he is late, you must give him feedback. Make it a goal, although don't tie a concrete reward to it. This is a basic stuff.

Brian

jael's picture

[quote="stephenbooth_uk"]Would it be feasible to introduce some sort of flexible working? Not just for this person but for everyone on the team?[/quote]

Having been a developer throughout a large part of my career and a night owl all my life, I agree with this. If it were me, I would concentrate on implementing a flexible work environment for the department and leave the individual feedback for the actual results or missed deadlines.

cwatine's picture
Training Badge

Hoho, it seems that we are starting another discussion about ROWE (there is a thead about it under the "why work sucks" title in the "favourite books" section) ?

We will be more and more facing this kind of issue.

The relevant questions here are :
- what is your company policy about working hours and flexibility?
- does this behaviour harm anything?
- you address two points : one is about behaviour (coming late) and the other about results (hitting deadlines). Which one has to be improved?

And ... If you cant measure results ina correct way, you can't be flexible on hours.

shaki's picture

we have some policy if some one stayed late in the day before for urgent thing or unplanned event, then he come late next day

we have 300 employees in the company and we cant apply the flexible hours. since other departments should come at 8.30 and some of my team who is working with other departments should be at 8.30

I gave him feedback every day.... and it did not work... the point I was communicating to him is that I am disappointed from you being late and this may affect juniors, plus it will affect your career, and you need to come on time so that you get the raise and promotion you deserve because you are a smart guy... and that stopps me from giving you the promotion and raise

what important to me is work and the guy, he adds value to the team and Bussiness since he is too smart and problem solver. and for him because he is a good person and i feel he wants to change and he cant...

so if i give him bad eval, he will resign and we need his skills and knowldge

if i give him good eval this is wrong message that you can keep comming late and miss some deadlines.

some times he stay in the company till 3 AM to solve problems. and monitor stuff. some times he come at 1 AM (he does not sleep) if we have important meeting in the morning so he dont miss it

so what is the right thing to do?

and i dont want him to affect others....

jhack's picture

If he had the will to do so, he would be coming in on time.

You can force the issue, and he will leave. You'll have to decide how to balance the value of "everyone comes in at 8:30" with value he brings to the organization.

You can allow him some flexibility, and he will likely stay. Here the downside is the perception of fairness. "Bill can come in late, why can't I?!" If you're ready to answer, "because Bill stays to 2am and solves problems you can't," then you might be able to pull it off. Or the company could rise up in anger. Or more folks might ask for flex time. HR and policy do play a part, and you don't own the firm.

Are you measured by results or by hours clocked?

I'm a software development manager. There are days and times when I insist my team be in the office and collaborating (most days, in fact). There are times (Fridays, for example) when they are allowed great flexibility in the schedule. One team member had an inspiration on a Sunday afternoon, and coded until the wee hours of Monday morning to resolve a thorny issue we'd been researching for weeks. So what if he sleeps in? My team's job is to solve hard problems and produce working code.

A performance eval isn't one number: good, bad, ugly. It's an assessment of a broad set of skills. Of course his inability to get out of bed and get into the office will limit his trajectory. He should know that. He may not care - he may like being where he is. His technical skill is valuable to the company. You can give him a good eval on that.

You're going to have to decide on a fundamental issue: are results more important than being on time? What do you believe in your heart is the right thing to do? And are you willing or able to make that happen?

John

jael's picture

You may find this earlier thread to be helpful, as well:

http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19569

shaki's picture

Yes results are more important to me

and I was a software developer and I know how it feels....

But i dont want to have double standards its not fair for others. and I dont want to loose him

I want to fix it...

cwatine's picture
Training Badge

[quote="shaki"]Yes results are more important to me
But i dont want to have double standards its not fair for others. and I dont want to loose him
I want to fix it...[/quote]

Sorry it is still unclear for me.

- Results are the most important thing for you
- Your company policy would accept his behaviour.

And still you want to "fix it". You say it is unfair to others. But why?
Is it because you get any remarks from his peers or anyone else because of him not being at the office?

Other questions :
How do you rank him compared to the others in terms of performance?
Is he the best performer in the team?
Are you ready to loose him?
Do all the others come on time?

I am conscious I dont really address the question you ask, I just need to understand the problem. It is difficult to give feedback if we can't evaluate the bad consequences.
The next step after several feedbacks is to give feedback about the fact he doesn't follow your instructions. It means that you are ready to fire this person if he doesn't change this behaviour.

My feeling is that your problem is not him being late, it is the fact that you want a sense of fairness in your team. If it is the real issue here, you may have other solutions than asking him to be on time.

jhack's picture

Fairness isn't the same as equivalence.

You won't get the most out of your team by treating everyone exactly the same.

Do you pay everyone the same? Do you give everyone the same title? Is everyone promoted at the same time? Are those "Double Standards?"

It's hard to say to someone, "yes, he gets perks you don't because he produces more than you." It's really no different from saying, "your raise isn't as good as you'd like because your performance wasn't as good as I'd like."

There is no easy solution here. That's management.

Perhaps the problem isn't that he sleeps in late.

John

bflynn's picture

[quote="shaki"]Yes results are more important to me

and I was a software developer and I know how it feels....

But i dont want to have double standards its not fair for others. and I dont want to loose him

I want to fix it...[/quote]

You're exactly on the mark with your concern. You either have to let the standard go or hold everyone to them. If results are most important, then what other factor makes schedule a concern? Is it company culture - you have to enforce it. Is it collaboration - relax the standard, say "be in by 10."

I suspect there's a part of you thats also saying "If he can produce X work by coming in at 12, he could produce X+4 work by being here at 8."

What time does he leave? Is he putting in the expected time and being efficient during that time?

Brian

HMac's picture

[quote="shaki"]Yes results are more important to me

and I was a software developer and I know how it feels....

But i dont want to have double standards its not fair for others. and I dont want to loose him

I want to fix it...[/quote]

What [b]EXACTLY [/b]do you want to fix, shaki?

Are you more afraid of losing this one guy, or of being thought of as "not fair" to the others?

-Hugh