Prof. Mull
2 March, 2013

Reviewing the case study on what to do with Howard, I noticed that the work environment had many more issues that plagued it than just Howard. Tad has many decisions to make as the project Engineer for Agrigreen, Inc. Below are three Findings of Fact and my recommendations for each.
Finding of Fact #1: Howard has issues with attendance and break time boundaries. He has grown complacent in his demeanor. Over the last several years he has taken additional snack breaks, fallen asleep on the job, came in late and left early, taking advantage of the company’s finances by being paid to work and not working. Management prior to Tad, had overlooked this, but they are clear violations to company policy and other employees seeing this happen, become disgruntled that he gets away with it. Howard has disregarded company policies, and his assistant is now showing some of the same negative work ethics. When one is skipping out of valuable work time, it affects their performance as well.
Recommendation #1: Tad will need to review the written company policies and procedures on the questionable practices. He will also need to consult with the Human Resources department as to what specifics are in the companies policies. When Tad does fully understand the company’s guidelines, he can speak with Howard about this. Howard may have some medical condition or other issue creating this scenario that may need to be addressed. Once Tad had educated himself, he needs to approach Howard to determine if there are underline reasons for the continuing attendance issues. It depends on why the Howard is late, absent, or taking frequent breaks will drive the action that Tad needs to take. He may have family issues that affect his timely arrival to work and leaving early. Either way, they can be addressed. If they are not then Tad will need to establish with Howard the guidelines set in the company policies and procedures handbook, and explain the consequences for non-compliance. At my job, we have assistance plans for employees with home related stress where they can get emotional and other support.
Finding of Fact #2: Howard has shown inconsistencies in his quality of work, mainly focusing on his inability to properly take notes and keep accurate records. Howard’s inability to properly manage his time creates productivity deficiencies and also creates a risk to safety measures on the job site. Howard has a negative attitude that reflects in his work performance and a risk to the morale of the company. Tad needs to evaluate and review Howard’s deficiencies to rectify the situation in order to make the company more cost efficient, profitable, and positive.
Recommendation #2: It is clearly evident that Howard’s work performance is reflective of a management system that has failed to be up to par. His attitude is another issue to be addressed. Howard appears to lack good work ethic, and this could be a result of the more dictatorship type supervisor he had with his first manager Jerry, then his second manager Paul, who used a more empowering positive reinforcement method for productivity, leaving Howard to his own, which created his more “hands-on” approach and going directly to project engineers. In this process, many schedules were changed and errors were made that cost the company time and money. When there is no set plan in the workplace, errors get made. Different managers tried to approach Howard about this, and his refusal to change escalated the issues.
Tad needs to address this with Howard. Even though Howard has been with the company longer than Tad, he is still the boss and needs to exert his managerial position and have Howard follow set work ethics. Tad needs to set up a time to meet with Howard and specifically address the poor performance that occurred in the past, using records and incidences for correlation to conduct addressed. Tad will need to clearly define what is expected of Howard and give him a set timeline for him to correct his deficiencies. If there is a need for newer more specified training then Tad should arrange this. If needed training with someone experienced to guide him in proper procedures. Then document the whole process, for later evaluation of job performance.
In my workplace, we frequently evaluate the performance of an employee. If it is not up to standard, we use continuing training and follow-up evaluations to get a better understanding of an employee’s performance.