Lack of self-awareness in a writer...what to do

[Mike Starr]

Everyone seems to be jumping on the "pitch him out" bandwagon but I wonder 
if HR can establish a process whereby he's demoted from his senior level 
status if he can't improve his performance. Maybe make it a two-step 
process... improve your performance within 60 days or get demoted two 
levels. Then if you still haven't improved after another 60 days, we'll have 
to let you go. Of course, you've always got the option of seeking a more 
suitable position elsewhere in the company.

As far as his working 40 hours when the rest of the team is working 45 
hours, I say ignore the number of hours and concentrate on whether he's 
achieving his assigned objectives. However, I'm also inclined to believe 
that good management assigns objectives that can be accomplished by a 
skilled employee in a 40-hour work week.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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----- Original Message -----
Subject: FWD: Lack of self-awareness in a writer...what to do


> Tom was assigned to my department 8 months ago and is physically
> in my building. He's been with the company for 10 years and
> has the most senior writing title available at the company. In
> the 10 years, he's worked as a course developer in a group that
> had no leadership until just before he transferred out to be the
> engineering writer. As the engineering writer, he wrote (?)
> technical material that went on the support site and did other
> writing. Reading his work from both times, I suspect strongly he
> gathered what others wrote and put it all together into one place.
>
> Tom spent 3 months training on our process, our writing style and
> guidelines, and so on. At the end of that time, he assured me he
> understood what, why, and how we were doing what we do. He met with
> me and my boss and said he felt ready. So I started giving him
> assignments appropriate to his job title.
>
> He's not flourishing. Tom violates our process, our writing
> guidelines, and our style guide. His writing is weak - passive
> voice and not user-focused. He works 40 hours a week in a department
> where we all work 45+ hours a week. He doesn't take ownership of his
> projects and drive them the way we expect a most senior level writer
> to do.
>
<snip>
>
> Functionally, he's a baby writer, except he's paid and titled at
> the most senior level in the company. He doesn't know our technology
> (although people think he does because he's been here so long) and
> his writing is fairly weak. I can't match him with a less senior
> writer for buddy learning because most of my other writers are
> technically less senior than him. I can't let him team lead my new
> writer to teach him our way (the best way to learn a subject may be
> to teach it) because he could screw the new writer up badly and we
> don't have time to unlearn the new writer.