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We show dogs, and therefore raise them. I have a kennel lady who has been here 5 years, and we have been very close. Lately she has done more and more passive aggressive things. Example-one female we have has 6 puppies of her own, and 2 from another litter. Therefore she has to eat an enormous amount of food and always have water. I have this all specified on a card by her area. This employee gives her one bowl of food, no puppy food dry that we always keep with mothers, and rarely fills her water bowl. She also "puts things away" so that no one could ever find them. I have a number of specific vaccuum attachments, they end up anywhere, as long as they are behind a door or cabiniet. She has stopped keeping me a list of what we need to buy. She leaves after her shift with no formula made, none of the home made food we use for the geriatric dogs, none of the mixture we use to give pills. This alone takes me over an hour to do before I can start my shift. It seems every week she stops doing another thing she used to do automatically.
I think she thinks she is indespensible. She will arrange to stay once a year for 10 days while we go to a National Specialty.
I have hired a new lady to cover the shifts when this other lady is off. I won't let her orient the new lady, and I told her the reason is I don't want to have a new employee see her do her work with the cell phone on her ear. She says she has to stay in touch with her [large] family because she is here so much, but she works a lot of hours due to her bills. Thanks! SusanLauer

AManagerTool's picture

Hello Susan and welcome.

Please start with listening to the podcasts on feedback, coaching and One on Ones. Sounds like your staffer needs some feedback...as soon as possible. How to give feedback is well covered in the casts and sounds something like this:

You:
"Rebecca, can I give you some feedback?
Becca:
"Yes"
You:
"When you don't feed the proper amount of food to the bitch in cage 1234, here is what happens. The dog goes hungry and doesn't produce enough milk for 8 pups. This puts the pups and the mother's lives in danger. What do you think you should be doing so that this doesn't happen?"
Becca:
"But....I feed her! You know how busy I am!"
You:
"I didn't say that you forgot to feed her, I said that you didn't feed her the proper amount of food. What do you think you can do so that this doesn't happen again?"
Becca:
"I'll adjust her cage card and make sure she gets more food and water"
You:
"Great! That sounds like a good plan."

Notice there is no reference to "passive aggressive" or any other perceived motivations on her part by you. Her reasons for the behavior are irrelevant and damage your argument. You need to focus on behaviors. Listen to the podcasts for further explanation.

sklosky's picture