Temporary difficulties? Wait it out!
The easiest way to get rid of a slow employee is to fire him or her. However, given the shortage of qualified pharmacists and pharmacists, not every pharmacy manager will dare to take such a drastic step. If the desire to retain the employee still prevails over the irritation caused by unsuccessful attempts to persuade him to do everything on time, the manager will have to try to understand the reasons for the slowness and help the subordinate to get rid of it.
From time to time, everyone can procrastinate in completing work tasks. Poor health, fatigue, family problems – these factors often undermine work enthusiasm, especially for women. However, such troubles are temporary: a person either copes with them or gets used to living under new conditions. In both cases, after some time, he or she returns to the normal rhythm of work, and perhaps even begins to perform his or her duties with redoubled energy, finding in them a way to escape from life’s troubles.
Advice for managers. If the business is suffering from the slowness of a person who has never been noticed before, first of all, talk to him in confidence to understand what is going on. Be sure to say how interested you and the company as a whole are in him, and offer to help. After listening to the employee, explain your position. Tell them that their procrastination is having a negative impact on their work. You may be able to find a compromise, for example, offer the employee to take a short vacation or temporarily “unload” him by reducing his work duties. The main thing is that the person should feel your support. This will help him/her to cope with the problems, but will also be an incentive for further work.
Working conditions? Improve!
Another enemy of efficiency is the influence of external factors. You must agree that it is difficult for a person to fully concentrate on a responsible assignment in conditions of physical or psychological discomfort. Noise, too dim light, stuffiness, cold – any of these factors can throw off the right mood. In addition, a person may be distracted from performing an urgent and important task by routine daily duties, constant phone calls, the need to answer questions from colleagues, and conversations with clients.
Advice to the manager. If objective external factors are the cause of the delay, try to shield the employee from them, at least for the duration of the task. Offer them the use of your office or a shift in their work schedule, such as going to work a few hours before the pharmacy opens. If the task assigned to the employee is really important to the company, relieve him or her of work and make sure he or she doesn’t have to do “other people’s” work.
Management mistakes? Don’t make them!
When analyzing the reasons for the slowness of subordinates, the manager, first of all, should analyze his own mistakes. It is quite possible that employees are “stalling” because of illiterate management, improper motivation or unclear tasking.
For example, when giving orders, many managers forget to set deadlines or do not consider it necessary to explain their importance. In this case, the orders may be perceived merely as “wishes” for the future. The staff will take note of them, but will concentrate again on current affairs.
Another mistake is unequal distribution of responsibilities among employees. It is not easy for a person to tune in to the hard work if his colleagues are clearly not overworking, for example, drinking coffee for a long time and having conversations about extraneous things.
Finally, the constant procrastination may be due to the fact that the employee is convinced that it is not worth the effort. He or she does not believe that his or her efforts will be properly rewarded, and therefore sees no point in rushing through the task.
Advice to a manager. When assigning a responsible task to a subordinate, don’t forget to immediately specify the deadline by which you want to get at least a preliminary result. Explain to the employee how important the task assigned to him/her is, discuss in advance his/her authority (for example, the possibility to involve colleagues in the work), as well as rewards (management appreciation, salary bonus, extra day of vacation, etc.) that he/she will be able to count on if he/she meets the deadline.
Insecurity about your abilities? Support!
If an employee can’t get started on an assignment, he or she may simply not know where to start. People are usually intimidated by tasks that are too large and require an unconventional approach.
Delay can also be associated with the employee’s fear of failing to cope with a responsible assignment, letting down the team and the manager. This is most often the case with people who have low self-esteem. Even before starting a new task, they have a premonition of their failure and try to justify it with an unprecedented workload.
Advice to a supervisor. Often people overestimate the scope of the work to be done because of the manager’s vague task definition. Therefore, you should analyze the scope of work together with the employee, break down the overall task into its component parts, and suggest possible solutions. If you are sure that the task can be done by one person, encourage him, assuring him that you have no doubts about his professionalism. And don’t forget to tell him that he can count on your help at any time.
Prioritizing
Often the problem of employees is the inability to prioritize. It can be solved by using the “Eisenhower Matrix”, i.e. ranking all cases according to two criteria: “urgency” and “importance”, and then categorize them into four groups: “urgent and important”, “important and not urgent”, “urgent and not important”, “not urgent and not important”. Having thus obtained a clear picture of the state of affairs, it is easy to analyze what an employee spends his time on. If the lion’s share of his working day is taken up by low-value tasks (which is the category in which most routine operations fall), it is not surprising that he has neither time nor energy left to carry out important management assignments.
Attempted manipulation? Stop it!
It is impossible to help a subordinate to complete a task more quickly if he deliberately delays the work. As a rule, in this way the employee tries to influence the manager to achieve personal goals. In psychology, this technique is called manipulation. Instead of saying directly: “I think that I have done enough and instead of another assignment I would like to get a vacation or a raise”, he “brings” this idea to the attention of his superiors by his behavior.
Supervisor Tip. If you think an employee’s slowness is just a way to manipulate you, let him or her know that you understand his or her true motives. Recognize his achievements and try to find a mutually beneficial compromise. Only in this way will you be able to deprive the employee of the opportunity to influence you from a position of power, regain control of the situation and turn the relationship into a partnership.
Intentional sabotage? Fire me!
If none of these strategies work, there is no other option but to view the employee’s actions as sabotage. Few people dare to openly challenge their manager. “Disgruntled employees prefer to ignore his orders under various pretexts.
Advice to the leader. You should not have any ceremonies with troublemakers. Any attempts to solve the problem peacefully will be perceived as a manifestation of your weakness. Invite the person to speak out directly. If he or she does not accept your conditions, fire him or her, otherwise the “saboteur” may not only undermine your authority, but also destroy the team.
Read also: How to properly give assignments to subordinates: psychologist’s advice
Shutterstock/FOTODOM UKRAINE photos were used
