Submitted by Cdiddy on
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Hi All,
The local portion of my admin team grew from 3 to 4 girls a couple months ago. The addition of a new person in-house has resulted in some tensions between our (previously) most junior admin and the new hire. Specifically there was a lot of rudeness, impatience and negative body language directed at the new hire. It was blatant and put everyone on edge. After speaking with both directs, I gathered that there was tension around the training process, interruptions in the junior admin's workday with questions from the new hire etc. I gave feedback to the junior admin about it and offered some coaching around being in a 'training role' which was new to her, explained the importance of patience, repetition and attention to detail in review which is an important part of training in our industry. She is not primarily responsible for training new hires, but as a senior person has had some questions directed to her (not enough to warrant anger). I also gave feedback to the new hire about respecting people's workday, and coached around ways to get answers without interrupting at inopportune times. A mild tension remained in the air but things were progressing and I thought it would resolve itself through cooperation over time as the core issues had been resolved.
I've been away for two weeks on holidays, and I've come back today to a broken relationship between the two girls, the new hire feeling bullied and ostracized and my junior admin with a huge chip on her shoulder. Things have regressed to worse than before. I don't like what I'm seeing from my junior admin, it is out of character and unwarranted. When we were screening for this role, another more senior admin suggested that working with someone of aboriginal descent could pose a problem for the junior admin. No racist comments have been made but there is an obvious disrespect, a breakdown of the team structure, and hard feelings resulting from her behaviour. My only opportunity to discuss this with her will be her review on Thursday, after which we are all fully booked up for weeks of training. It's not ideal but it will have to do. What do I say to an office bully, and how much do I incorporate into the mid year review itself? Sorry for the book. And thanks for any advice you may have.
Address the behaviour
This is a straightforward (though very important) behavioural issue you've got, and it's a matter of going back to basics and working to change the behaviour. Feedback in spades is entirely warranted here, both for your junior admin and the new hire. Adjusting feedback when things aren't peachy, and (even more important) affirming feedback when there is a positive behaviour. While you say you're "fully booked" for the next couple of weeks, I would doubt that you can't find a minute or two here and there to give some quick feedback about what you've seen (or have reliably been informed about). Even if you've got to make a phone call (if you're off-site), you can deliver a piece of feedback while walking between your car and the training room, for example.
It's possible that if the behaviour you're observing *is* racially motivated at its core, or the behaviour has become more of a habit than you're willing to tolerate, you may have to have "the conversation" with the junior admin. You would clarify what you expect from the person who is filling the role she is currently in, and your willingness to replace her with someone who is capable of fulfilling those expectations, if she isn't. If training someone new, and handling the voluminous interruptions that inevitably result, is part of the role, then so be it -- she needs to act in a way that is effective in training someone.
Thanks for the response -
Thanks for the response - I appreciate the thoughts on laying out expectations of the role, and I do feel like we are at a point beyond a brief call. I just listened to the cast about resolving conflicts between directs, and got some solid steps to address the behaviour. She is off tomorrow so the Thursday morning review is really the first chance I'm going to have to discuss it. My intent right now is to hold the review - performance is good in most aspects other than relationship management and building - and then (outside of the review context) set up some steps to coach through this behaviour.
Something that I can't find much on, however, is what to tell the new hire. She followed instruction to a 't', set up regular times to ask questions so as not to randomly interrupt throughout the day (this still happens on occasion if it's not something that can be set aside, obviously) and has now started avoiding the junior admin. My experience is that more mistakes happen when questions aren't encouraged. She's pretty much shut down on a social relationship level.
Thanks again.
Positive feedback and reinforcement for the new admin
If the new admin is engaging in effective behaviours, then all you can do is reinforce those and reassure her that the problems she is having are not her fault, and you are working on addressing those problems (no details!). Is there another admin or someone else in the organisation you can buddy up the new admin with, to continue her training?
Girls?
The first sentence of your original post caught my attention very quickly. In the U.S. the use of 'girls' for any adult professional would be considered condescending. Is there any chance that you are not treating the women involved as adult professionals? Is there anything any different in your approach than if you were dealing with men? This may or may not apply, just mentioning as a possibility.
I agree with MattPalmer on the feedback and reinforcement.
Also, I am thinking of the shot across the bow cast, which may be appropriate for the bully. In my company the bullying behavior would be something that could be reported as harassment and/or creating a hostile work environment. All of this is taken very seriously and could result in legal action. If the situation is as serious as it sounds in your post you will need to make some time to address the issues.
#bully, and documentation
This is a good thread and a tough situation.
This thread came up when did a google search of Mananger Tools: bully. The other results of that search might be useful to glance at.
I am reading this thinking about the Documentation cast. How we are to record our observations but not our characterizations of behaviours. Exact words, tone, volume, facial expressions, interrupting, use of hands, are all examples of things to document. For me, when I started following that I was empowered because now I can present facts that allow the listener to make their own conclusion. So much more effective than saying rude, bullying, mean and so on.
I think girls vs women vs men is a thoughtful question and shot across the bow might also be appropriate. And reinforce the good behaviour.
You will solve this because it's important to you. They will see that.
Good luck