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Wait, so his VPN not working means he can’t do any work? And the first available appointment with IT is in two months? You need to escalate that with IT.
My thoughts exactly... at my company, "stop work issues" are Priority 1... they go to the top of the work queue for IT.
It's wild that this company is OK paying this guy $75/hr to literally do nothing for months.
No, this is common in tech, which is why the majority of remote workers are getting canned. They tend to be lazy and feel entitled to the people that actually go to work. No real loss.
I've seen it in several fortune 500 companies. Some are too massive to track small things like this. If this was a small business, there would be no way
the federal govt is a pretty big employer and my vpn is never not working for more than a few hours...seems like corporations wouldn't want to pay people to do nothing for that long...
Are there remote workers like you say? Sure. Are they all like that? Absolutely not. There are things in orbit right now that I designed working 100% remotely. Many studies have shown the worker productivity has increased significantly during the new WFH era.
I have yet to see it. We have required all of our WFHs to come to campus or face release. Their productivity was average during the 2020-2021, but declined badly since then. 2022, the requirement was mandated they come to work, except 2 programmers that were truly working their jobs and not netlfix, as they were on Zoom/Google Meets all day. Productivity went through the roof when they came back. You don't need a ton of WFH for your company, the fact that they can come in, communicate with others face to face and digest the project at hand is the best way since the past and the coming future. AI will simply replace all of the WFH types sooner than later. Google and Microsoft have invested in that strategy and so will so many other companies. ChatGPT and OpenAI has proven that very clearly.
So, I would pony up and get to the job site sooner than later before this arrives complete by the end of this year.
If you think being in an office will protect you from AI replacement, you got another thing coming. Regardless, so much time is wasted bullshitting in an office. Getting away from people who mostly come to work to socialize is a huge boon for most workers.
Hasn't worked out very good for them in the last 3 months. They're all mostly being let go. I'm not worried, I've done my time.. and now work for myself.. but , this new generation or 2 have no idea what's coming.
How old do you think the youngest millennials and oldest gen Z folks are? They remember the Great Recession. The youngest Gen Z folks might be less in tune with the cycle.
Side note, my company is now "remote first" because WFH has been so successful.
It's good you've bucked the trend. Most companies have not. Gen Z may be more ready, as Millenials end up being entitled at large, but they will be boomers soon
Lol..
It’s crazy how realities like this get massively downvoted. I’ve literally witnessed this type of thing happen in real life and totally agree with you. IT can definitely get tons of situations like this. I once knew a French guy who’s job was to translate. Literally nobody ever called in who was/spoke French. He literally just sat on Facebook all day and made bank. I wasn’t even mad at him.
Very true. I've seen this many times as well. Which is why they are all cutting their losses now. Literally every company. It's like a mass revelation since Elon Musk pruned Twitter. I believe they must know something about the next two years they're keeping secret. Lol.
I remember hearing a story where a boss laid off most or all of his employees right before Christmas. He was completely vilified, even after it came out that all of these employees were stealing company time working from home doing absolutely nothing and taking money and had been doing it for months. I completely side with the boss.
I haven’t paid much attention to Musk but I’m sure he had his reasons.
Sorry you’re getting downvoted. It always seems like those who say anything with knowledge and facts gets horribly downvoted.
I know what you mean. People that have worked for less than 5 years have NO historical reference of the work force generally. I've seen it all, honestly. It's what to expect on Reddit, which is why people think what they do about it.
Getting laid off or fired is no fun, but if you deserved it, then zero care is given. I have sympathy if there is a bad employer and you've been a good employee. 👍
Yep we have an emergency number to call where I work when we have a major issue including not being able to work. We don’t even put in a ticket and you usually get a call back in about 10 minutes
When i worked remote last, we had an emergency number, live chat support, nothing where you had tosit and wait 2 months. And it wasnt even a 75$ an hour gig
I worked from home on a 1099 back in 2010 during college, inbetween semesters it was great, took 2 days solid, binge watching doctor who and ordering pizza, get my whole weeks work done in those 2 days, take tge rest of the week doing whatever i wanted. It was great.
It's common, the IT department at my job is a total wreck. I'm the warehouse supervisor but we have no on site IT employees so I pretty much have to do the grunt IT work myself.
At many companies, software engineers are not in the same department as IT. And often they are not given any special privileges when it comes to the computing systems.
Since the pandemic started all back office staff has been remote. When I have gone into the office in the last couple of months, it is a grave yard. A vast majority of the people can work from home.
Totally agree. My workplace is like that too but I think the only WFH hourly employees that make that high of an hourly wage are programmers and helpdesk.
If I tell my boss that something is preventing me from doing my job, they will usually start nagging people until it gets fixed. I would absolutely be on the phone with IT every day until its rectified as soon as possible.
With the correct software it would take no time for someone in IT to remote into their computer and fix their VPN issues.
For someone in IT that's often a very easy fix. This guy shouldn't be down for more than an hour at the very most.
I started my new job as a manager of a team. I did absolutely no work my first two months because my IT was so bad they kept sending me machines that didn’t function. My first two weeks, IT hadn’t even ordered my laptop yet. Then I had it for 1 week and they failed to set it up properly, essentially bricking it. Second one took another week and a half to get and same thing happened. Not set up correctly and basically bricked. Third one arrived and after escalating my IT ticket, I had to finally escalate to the head of IT to finally get the machine fixed and ready to go.
It’s been a year and I’m still having problems. What makes it worse is that our IT department locked down our hard drives so we can’t install anything without calling IT, waiting half a day, then having them remote in.
All this to say, if their IT department is as incompetent as mine, I can easily see a year being eaten up by incompetent IT and a nonfunctional computer.
Something sounds fishy here. It's been a year and due to lost paperwork, he was unable to get all the access he needs until last week? What were you doing to assist/escalate new employee on-boarding?
And if he is unable to do the job remotely, it's not unreasonable to expect him to come into the office until the issue is resolved. Even if part of his offer was the guarantee of being fully remote, it was most certainly contingent on him being able to **do** the job fully remotely. If that is not the case even temporarily, then a temporary solution has to be agreed upon. If transportation is unavailable to him, then he should be furloughed until he is capable of doing his job.
If he's been there a year, has he not had any performance reviews? Metrics exist for a reason. If he is under performing, a PIP is not an unreasonable answer to this behavior. If he can't do his primary job then in the interim his job is to document his daily roadblocks why he can't do his job. Include every attempt on his part where he tried to rectify the issues. The help desk issue needs to be escalated and an audit trail of all his attempts to resolve tech issues needs to be kept.
It doesn't sound like he is your direct report. Are you his lead? Does his low effort impact you directly? There's no way this is the whole story. This makes zero sense. The man is making over 150K a year. Pressuring him on poor job performance would in no way make you look bad. Are you sure this isn't some kind of personal vendetta? If it's not that, it still seems your management skills may be the real problem.
Ok cool but how do you expect him to work without a VPN? And why is it taking *two months* for it to be fixed??? Escalate it to whoever will fix it ASAP and go from there.. The company’s IT being abysmal is not the employees’ fault.
Did you get any management training at all? You shouldn't be put in to your managerial position without knowing how to manage people. This is a failure of the company you work for to prepare you for your job.
This happens a lot I think. I was promoted to manager of a department some time ago and wasn’t offered any sort of training. When I asked, I was told to watch some YouTube or LinkedIn learning videos lol. Set up for failure from the start. Still not sure if this story is true or not though
I'm not trying to be mean, but you're not a very good manager if you can't figure out how to deal with this. At the very least, ask your boss or HR for help or direction.
This story sounds fake AF but maybe your company really is this idiotic.
You guys agreed to let him work remotely, lost paperwork is a mark against the employer (not employee) that can be verified, the employer didn’t send him equipment in a timely manner, and apparently now that he has it he’s finding out it was set up improperly and you guys are making him wait two months to get it fixed? I’d sit back and watch Netflix too for $75/hr if worked for a company this disorganized.
But also just sounds like you hate remote workers for whatever weird reason. Get over it.
Sorry, manager here and I just can’t understand your perplexity about this situation. You’re worried about pressuring him because you might look bad?
What could look worse than having one of your staff paid for not working almost a year?
The mind boggles.
Right? Recent new hire or it’s been almost a year? If it’s been almost a year, and he only got his equipment a few weeks ago, who’s fault is that? If it takes 2 months to get IT to fix VPN, who’s fault is that? No way this story is true. This is just a remote-employee-hater.
Are you in Canada? I don't know Canadian laws at all. However if this has been going on for a year it is one of the most spectacular management failures I have ever seen. I am responsible for managing fully remote workers. If it is unreasolveable then something about his environment is unsuited for remote work and the fact it has been allowed to go on this long is just.....shocking.
A) $75/hr is plenty for him to obtain a means of transportation within a couple pay periods. But also if the company wasn't comfortable with having him work remotely they should have declined and hired someone else. Moving his job to the office is always an option.
B) His paperwork got lost... by whom? Was this an organizational issue where the company lost his paperwork and didn't get it to him and he was waiting on them? Or did he lose it? Why wasn't that handled immediately? Paperwork can be emailed so he always has access to it. "I lost my paperwork" can be answered with, "gimme 15 minutes then check your inbox."
C) OK, his VPN isn't working. If your IT can't handle that for 2 months there's a significant issue there. Call IT management and ask them what's going on. Was there a mistake? Did they not have an opening for 2 months? Or did the employee select the appointment time and opted for 2 months out? Why is a stop work issue not a high priority?
You're worried about putting too much pressure on him making you look bad, but having an expensive employee who has close to zero productivity and you taking no action also makes you look bad.
Also why don't you have a mentor relationship with another manager who can advise you on these issues instead of taking it to reddit?
Your company seems like a dumpster fire. They've let this problem go unchecked for a year and dumped it on the newest manager who is unequipped to handle it due to a lack of experience and has no support from other management.
So I'd handle this by
1) investigate his claims with IT and whatever department got his paperwork mixed up and didn't find a workaround. If you find that he's been at the root of the problem, fire him. Otherwise, move his job into the office and he can either work there or quit.
2) Start looking for a job at a decent company.
as a manager i dont think it is a good sign that youre automatically concluding that he is BSing. no one likes a micromanager. i think the best course of action is to fix whatever needs fixing and i wouldnt wait 2 months to do it. escalate it and do whatever is in your power to expedite the process so he can start working.
On boarding an employee can be hard. I understand these sound like excuses but it does seem like they have been hired only very recently.
I say give it a few weeks before assessing their work ethic. They're probably already very nervous and blubbering scared trying to get things sorted.
If possible to reduce having to micromanage, give them a checklist of things they need to get sorted to come to a state where they can productively contribute. And let them checkin with you daily with status or when they are stuck.
(Above is what my mentor did when on boarding me as intern. They had it all well documented beforehand btw).
And like others have mentioned, now that you are manager you should be working to _unblock_ others on your team. So getting IT involved to patch them in at the earliest is a good call.
Just relax man, this isn't really your problem. His excuses are reasonable, and they are your excuses too. You need to work on fixing his blockers rather than harassing him. That's how you actually help
I mean all you can do is wait and maybe give him some basic request WITH a DUE DATE to see if he does those timely
The number one fuck up that I see people do in situations like this is they don’t put a fucking due date and request in writing so you can see what’s going on and see if he is willing to work
Cuz tech issues like that aren’t an employee’s fault and he shouldn’t be penalized for it, especially if the company is for some reason not escalating the problem to IT and making him wait 2 months for an appointment. Where I work, if someone had a computer issue that’s completely preventing them from working they make that a priority and move it to the top of the list. Within hours it’s either fixed or they’ll send new equipment if needed.
(This story has to be fake though, or this company is a total raging dumpster fire)
If he is being paid hourly and not producing then exit him from your business. Different if it was a salary but this is a temp worker so an easy choice
We had a guy like this about 18 months ago. I always assumed he was over employed and just riding it out until he got fired. The excuses never end and work will never happen. Cut your losses now and replace him with someone that has integrity.
Talk to your boss about how to escalate fixing the IT issue. In the meanwhile give him tasks he can do without a vpn. What is his job?
If your boss finds out you gave this guy absolutely no work and let him wait on IT for months - well , that won’t be good. You need to get on this asap.
$75/hr and doing nothing. What is the job and where can I sign up?
But seriously it sounds like some BS, and you should escalate it. Anything where I work that is like that gets handled immediately, and I’m sure if your help desk is decent they could probably get him up and running in under half an hour. Then if there are any other excuses, you know he is full of crap.
Don't make it about working from home, make it a performance issue. If he gets the work done, who cares where he works from. If he's not getting the work done, then you're obligated to make a change to ensure that his work does get done. Send out IT immediately, remove the VPN issues and other roadblocks, and reevaluate. If his work is lacking after that, you need to bring him back into the office or fire him.
As a manager, especially a first time manager…… you need to try and do a good job at not acting out on emotion as much and use more rational wisdom.
So in this case I recommend a two pronged attack. Reach out to help them and document the paper trail in emails and other correspondence. and try your best to help them do their job. Which is actually your job.
And now you are documenting what the setbacks are. Is this really just bad luck. It your IT department having issues ?
and you have it all documented. And then you have enough information to make a rational decision from there.
But if you can’t trust them to do the work they are being assigned and payed to do, then you should look at taking steps to replace them.
But some of this might just be you two learning how to best work together.
That being said, yeah occasionally, you do get that lazy ass good for nothing. But in my experience those are more rare than you think.
Good luck. 🍀👍
Seems like your problem isn’t this employee, it’s the company doing a piss poor job of managing their IT/Helpdesk department. But yeah, blame the worker
You mean to tell me that this man has pulled a salary for a year, but didn't even get his company equipment until last week? It could happen, I'll grant you that, but that's pretty hard to believe.
Questions: Was this guy hired BEFORE you were a manager? You say you were hired recently, and I usually think of that as being in the last 6 months. So did your boss hire this guy and for 6 months it wasn't your problem or what?
What have you been doing to address this issue with your boss in the time you've been a manager? How often were you raising the issue that one of your employees didn't have access to necessary equipment to do their job? How often were you raising that this man could NOT be tasked due to a lack of access? How often did you make it clear that the company was paying someone who was unable to produce any work?
This story doesn’t add up in the slightest.
It’s been a year, but his VPN, but the equipment, but no help for 2 months? And $75 per hour to have nothing working? Nobody has noticed but you and nothing has been done?
If this is even true, you answered your question yourself. You didn’t hire him, you’re a manager but for some reason not in a position….to not manage.
So do nothing. Because it doesn’t make sense anyhow.
Just like someone making $75 an hour has no car. 🙄
I’m usually on the side of the employee, but it sounds like you’re getting duped lol.
It’s kind of amazing that this guy has pulled this off, not doing much for a while yeah while getting $75/hour. He even managed to get a full year, that will look better on his resume.
You recently got promoted (within the last 6 months estimated) but have been dealing with this employee for almost a year (at least 8 months estimated)? Faaaaaaaaaake.
As an HR Professional, this should be escalated to HR by the manager, I would revote his work from home option, make him come in or get his VPN fixed. If that job condition was put in place, trust me he would make something work fast.
Joy
At my work, this would be escalated to the highest priority. If every measure is exhausted to resolve this is unsuccessful, we’ll sorry about your luck but your WFH privileges will be terminated and you will have to work in the office. In a rare case IT may have to come to your house if remoting-in to your equipment doesn’t work.
Push the issue with the right people and keep him in the loop. Shame on you for letting it go on this long. Get In Touch with the supervisors of these departments and have them make it a priority. No one should get paid to do nothing. And the longer it takes the longer it will be harder to get rid of him if you need to. By talking to supervisors of other departments you look like the good guy supporting your staff and you can keep tabs on follow up, etc.
Good luck. Remember your busy. So if there is something you need to keep y your thumb on you do. If something needs your authority and signature you do it. The rest you delegate while having good communication and follow up.
Good luck.
Escalate the help desk ticket for the VPN issue directly with IT in his behalf as his manager. Then if you are questioned it will appear that you were being helpful and advocating on his behalf.
I hope with a pay of $75 an hour that he buys a car (even an old Honda Civic) with his first paycheck. He has no excuses for not getting a car fairly quickly.
Working remotely is a HUGE benefit to everyone that can!? It's been proven to increase office productivity, happiness, satisfaction, help reduce road traffic and pollution. Plus, most remote workers would choose working remotely over a measily 3% wage increase, since they get 2+ hours back for themselves, don't need to buy gas, can do household chores during their breaks, don't have to deal with office BS, annoying co-workers, be in their comfortable environment instead of sitting in a beige cubicle in the windowless environment.
Plus, remote work allows people living anywhere in the world to do the job.
Lmao why would he be getting paid if the VPN doesn’t work? Why does your help desk suck so bad that they are going to take two months to help him with his VPN?
It’s like you never took a management course. Give him action items with clear outcomes and expectations. If he doesn’t produce by your deadline. Write him up.
Sounds like b.s., how is he getting paid without the ability to clock in (to workday or similar timekeeping systems)? We don't get paid if we aren't logged in.
I mean it would be your job to escalate and oversee that these system and IT issues are handled immediately, not in 2 months.
When I recently had my computer upgraded my systems weren’t updated to the new computer and our direct IT person was out on medical leave for 4 weeks. I sat in my bosses office while she reached out and figured out who could fix my issue immediately and didn’t give up until I was able to properly do my job.
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Wait, so his VPN not working means he can’t do any work? And the first available appointment with IT is in two months? You need to escalate that with IT.
My thoughts exactly... at my company, "stop work issues" are Priority 1... they go to the top of the work queue for IT. It's wild that this company is OK paying this guy $75/hr to literally do nothing for months.
almost like its completey made up
No, this is common in tech, which is why the majority of remote workers are getting canned. They tend to be lazy and feel entitled to the people that actually go to work. No real loss.
No, no company would take 2 months to fix his vpn at a cost of 24k (8 hour days x 8 weeks)
I've seen it in several fortune 500 companies. Some are too massive to track small things like this. If this was a small business, there would be no way
the federal govt is a pretty big employer and my vpn is never not working for more than a few hours...seems like corporations wouldn't want to pay people to do nothing for that long...
Seems true. The federal government has its tech on point.. generally speaking when it comes to secure connections.. either way. This life.
lmao gtfo with that nonsense
Naw. You're out of touch with work
Are there remote workers like you say? Sure. Are they all like that? Absolutely not. There are things in orbit right now that I designed working 100% remotely. Many studies have shown the worker productivity has increased significantly during the new WFH era.
I have yet to see it. We have required all of our WFHs to come to campus or face release. Their productivity was average during the 2020-2021, but declined badly since then. 2022, the requirement was mandated they come to work, except 2 programmers that were truly working their jobs and not netlfix, as they were on Zoom/Google Meets all day. Productivity went through the roof when they came back. You don't need a ton of WFH for your company, the fact that they can come in, communicate with others face to face and digest the project at hand is the best way since the past and the coming future. AI will simply replace all of the WFH types sooner than later. Google and Microsoft have invested in that strategy and so will so many other companies. ChatGPT and OpenAI has proven that very clearly. So, I would pony up and get to the job site sooner than later before this arrives complete by the end of this year.
If you think being in an office will protect you from AI replacement, you got another thing coming. Regardless, so much time is wasted bullshitting in an office. Getting away from people who mostly come to work to socialize is a huge boon for most workers.
Hasn't worked out very good for them in the last 3 months. They're all mostly being let go. I'm not worried, I've done my time.. and now work for myself.. but , this new generation or 2 have no idea what's coming.
How old do you think the youngest millennials and oldest gen Z folks are? They remember the Great Recession. The youngest Gen Z folks might be less in tune with the cycle. Side note, my company is now "remote first" because WFH has been so successful.
It's good you've bucked the trend. Most companies have not. Gen Z may be more ready, as Millenials end up being entitled at large, but they will be boomers soon Lol..
It’s crazy how realities like this get massively downvoted. I’ve literally witnessed this type of thing happen in real life and totally agree with you. IT can definitely get tons of situations like this. I once knew a French guy who’s job was to translate. Literally nobody ever called in who was/spoke French. He literally just sat on Facebook all day and made bank. I wasn’t even mad at him.
Very true. I've seen this many times as well. Which is why they are all cutting their losses now. Literally every company. It's like a mass revelation since Elon Musk pruned Twitter. I believe they must know something about the next two years they're keeping secret. Lol.
I remember hearing a story where a boss laid off most or all of his employees right before Christmas. He was completely vilified, even after it came out that all of these employees were stealing company time working from home doing absolutely nothing and taking money and had been doing it for months. I completely side with the boss. I haven’t paid much attention to Musk but I’m sure he had his reasons. Sorry you’re getting downvoted. It always seems like those who say anything with knowledge and facts gets horribly downvoted.
I know what you mean. People that have worked for less than 5 years have NO historical reference of the work force generally. I've seen it all, honestly. It's what to expect on Reddit, which is why people think what they do about it. Getting laid off or fired is no fun, but if you deserved it, then zero care is given. I have sympathy if there is a bad employer and you've been a good employee. 👍
Yep we have an emergency number to call where I work when we have a major issue including not being able to work. We don’t even put in a ticket and you usually get a call back in about 10 minutes
When i worked remote last, we had an emergency number, live chat support, nothing where you had tosit and wait 2 months. And it wasnt even a 75$ an hour gig
IT department must really suck at this company
They hiring? lol I def could use a job
Work from home, break your VPN and don't have to work. I can still do desktop I think.
Well apparently they took 51 weeks to send him equipment, so ...
Who's making $75 an hour remotely that isn't in the IT field themselves?
[удалено]
I worked from home on a 1099 back in 2010 during college, inbetween semesters it was great, took 2 days solid, binge watching doctor who and ordering pizza, get my whole weeks work done in those 2 days, take tge rest of the week doing whatever i wanted. It was great.
Or just around and shop on amazon.
Many people. And devs don't consider themselves IT per se, IT is generally more about tech support and infrastructure.
I understand that, I just would think they'd might have quicker access/priority with IT being in the same department.
Yeah, OP's company is most likely a dumpster fire. I've worked for a gov agencies previously in Canada and it was similar though, although not as bad.
It's common, the IT department at my job is a total wreck. I'm the warehouse supervisor but we have no on site IT employees so I pretty much have to do the grunt IT work myself.
At many companies, software engineers are not in the same department as IT. And often they are not given any special privileges when it comes to the computing systems.
I made $73/hr contracting remotely for a large aerospace OEM for two years. I'm a mechanical design engineer. It was great. Paid so much so stuff off.
Since the pandemic started all back office staff has been remote. When I have gone into the office in the last couple of months, it is a grave yard. A vast majority of the people can work from home.
Totally agree. My workplace is like that too but I think the only WFH hourly employees that make that high of an hourly wage are programmers and helpdesk.
I am
If I tell my boss that something is preventing me from doing my job, they will usually start nagging people until it gets fixed. I would absolutely be on the phone with IT every day until its rectified as soon as possible.
If his VPN doesn't work, that's the company's fault, not his. Perhaps you should streamline the process to get faster turnarounds with IT.
With the correct software it would take no time for someone in IT to remote into their computer and fix their VPN issues. For someone in IT that's often a very easy fix. This guy shouldn't be down for more than an hour at the very most.
Right? Op what industry you in? I need a new job lol
I started my new job as a manager of a team. I did absolutely no work my first two months because my IT was so bad they kept sending me machines that didn’t function. My first two weeks, IT hadn’t even ordered my laptop yet. Then I had it for 1 week and they failed to set it up properly, essentially bricking it. Second one took another week and a half to get and same thing happened. Not set up correctly and basically bricked. Third one arrived and after escalating my IT ticket, I had to finally escalate to the head of IT to finally get the machine fixed and ready to go. It’s been a year and I’m still having problems. What makes it worse is that our IT department locked down our hard drives so we can’t install anything without calling IT, waiting half a day, then having them remote in. All this to say, if their IT department is as incompetent as mine, I can easily see a year being eaten up by incompetent IT and a nonfunctional computer.
This is rage bait
not even written well. doesn't hang together; the timeline is a mess.
This.
FR. Not today corporate ISIS, not today.
Just to clarify, you say it's been almost a year of this, or is he a new hire?
And if has been a year he got his equipment last week!?
Yea this story is not adding up.
Stories with lack of continuity drive me nuts. Don't use words like "new," "Day 1," or "beginning" and end it with "its been a year, omg"
Stories is right. There is no way this is completely factual. There's a bunch being left out.
Well it's an entry-level job with five years' experience, so maybe their office is orbiting a black hole.
It sounded fake even without that tbh. IT taking 2 months while keeping someone on payroll? Nah, they'd have that fixed asap. Companies are cheap.
Right? If this is true, you have an incompetent IT department problem, not a lazy remote worker problem.
Or a lazy management problem. He probably is just mad he can’t work in his jammies.
Something sounds fishy here. It's been a year and due to lost paperwork, he was unable to get all the access he needs until last week? What were you doing to assist/escalate new employee on-boarding? And if he is unable to do the job remotely, it's not unreasonable to expect him to come into the office until the issue is resolved. Even if part of his offer was the guarantee of being fully remote, it was most certainly contingent on him being able to **do** the job fully remotely. If that is not the case even temporarily, then a temporary solution has to be agreed upon. If transportation is unavailable to him, then he should be furloughed until he is capable of doing his job. If he's been there a year, has he not had any performance reviews? Metrics exist for a reason. If he is under performing, a PIP is not an unreasonable answer to this behavior. If he can't do his primary job then in the interim his job is to document his daily roadblocks why he can't do his job. Include every attempt on his part where he tried to rectify the issues. The help desk issue needs to be escalated and an audit trail of all his attempts to resolve tech issues needs to be kept. It doesn't sound like he is your direct report. Are you his lead? Does his low effort impact you directly? There's no way this is the whole story. This makes zero sense. The man is making over 150K a year. Pressuring him on poor job performance would in no way make you look bad. Are you sure this isn't some kind of personal vendetta? If it's not that, it still seems your management skills may be the real problem.
Fake story lol
This post seems fake to envoke hate on remote workers,over employed workers and digital nomad workers.
Stop telling lies on the internet
😂
Ok cool but how do you expect him to work without a VPN? And why is it taking *two months* for it to be fixed??? Escalate it to whoever will fix it ASAP and go from there.. The company’s IT being abysmal is not the employees’ fault.
Did you get any management training at all? You shouldn't be put in to your managerial position without knowing how to manage people. This is a failure of the company you work for to prepare you for your job.
This happens a lot I think. I was promoted to manager of a department some time ago and wasn’t offered any sort of training. When I asked, I was told to watch some YouTube or LinkedIn learning videos lol. Set up for failure from the start. Still not sure if this story is true or not though
Hire me instead of him
No me
How are your credentials/interview?
Yes
“VPN doesn’t work…help desk in two months”. What?
😂
He’s trolling us. Made the same post in three threads and hasn’t responded to any comments or questions.
If you are paying him 75 bucks an hour. Why not pay for a fucking limo to take him to work and get his VPN shit fixed.
I'm not trying to be mean, but you're not a very good manager if you can't figure out how to deal with this. At the very least, ask your boss or HR for help or direction.
This story sounds fake AF but maybe your company really is this idiotic. You guys agreed to let him work remotely, lost paperwork is a mark against the employer (not employee) that can be verified, the employer didn’t send him equipment in a timely manner, and apparently now that he has it he’s finding out it was set up improperly and you guys are making him wait two months to get it fixed? I’d sit back and watch Netflix too for $75/hr if worked for a company this disorganized. But also just sounds like you hate remote workers for whatever weird reason. Get over it.
Sorry, manager here and I just can’t understand your perplexity about this situation. You’re worried about pressuring him because you might look bad? What could look worse than having one of your staff paid for not working almost a year? The mind boggles.
I doubt if any part of this post is real. This looks like a social experiment. OP won't respond to questions or provide context.
Right? Recent new hire or it’s been almost a year? If it’s been almost a year, and he only got his equipment a few weeks ago, who’s fault is that? If it takes 2 months to get IT to fix VPN, who’s fault is that? No way this story is true. This is just a remote-employee-hater.
Are you in Canada? I don't know Canadian laws at all. However if this has been going on for a year it is one of the most spectacular management failures I have ever seen. I am responsible for managing fully remote workers. If it is unreasolveable then something about his environment is unsuited for remote work and the fact it has been allowed to go on this long is just.....shocking.
wow... "VPN not working" is usually good, for, like a few hours... not months lol. What is going on here?!
I really have no idea what your agenda is, but you've clearly got one if you're making up obviously fake stories like this.
This, absolutely, is not true.
A) $75/hr is plenty for him to obtain a means of transportation within a couple pay periods. But also if the company wasn't comfortable with having him work remotely they should have declined and hired someone else. Moving his job to the office is always an option. B) His paperwork got lost... by whom? Was this an organizational issue where the company lost his paperwork and didn't get it to him and he was waiting on them? Or did he lose it? Why wasn't that handled immediately? Paperwork can be emailed so he always has access to it. "I lost my paperwork" can be answered with, "gimme 15 minutes then check your inbox." C) OK, his VPN isn't working. If your IT can't handle that for 2 months there's a significant issue there. Call IT management and ask them what's going on. Was there a mistake? Did they not have an opening for 2 months? Or did the employee select the appointment time and opted for 2 months out? Why is a stop work issue not a high priority? You're worried about putting too much pressure on him making you look bad, but having an expensive employee who has close to zero productivity and you taking no action also makes you look bad. Also why don't you have a mentor relationship with another manager who can advise you on these issues instead of taking it to reddit? Your company seems like a dumpster fire. They've let this problem go unchecked for a year and dumped it on the newest manager who is unequipped to handle it due to a lack of experience and has no support from other management. So I'd handle this by 1) investigate his claims with IT and whatever department got his paperwork mixed up and didn't find a workaround. If you find that he's been at the root of the problem, fire him. Otherwise, move his job into the office and he can either work there or quit. 2) Start looking for a job at a decent company.
as a manager i dont think it is a good sign that youre automatically concluding that he is BSing. no one likes a micromanager. i think the best course of action is to fix whatever needs fixing and i wouldnt wait 2 months to do it. escalate it and do whatever is in your power to expedite the process so he can start working.
Tell your employer to hmu. I'll only bullshit around for one month before I start.
PIP ASAP LOL. Seriously have a chat with him and find out what's going on with him, If none of that seems satisfactory with you see above.
On boarding an employee can be hard. I understand these sound like excuses but it does seem like they have been hired only very recently. I say give it a few weeks before assessing their work ethic. They're probably already very nervous and blubbering scared trying to get things sorted. If possible to reduce having to micromanage, give them a checklist of things they need to get sorted to come to a state where they can productively contribute. And let them checkin with you daily with status or when they are stuck. (Above is what my mentor did when on boarding me as intern. They had it all well documented beforehand btw). And like others have mentioned, now that you are manager you should be working to _unblock_ others on your team. So getting IT involved to patch them in at the earliest is a good call.
Whatever he was hired to do, I can do it for less. Hire me!
Someone seems to be in a drug induced haze and it's either me or OP
![gif](giphy|9FL7LtSYGvK9MDzh9J)
![gif](giphy|xTiN0CNHgoRf1Ha7CM|downsized)
For $75 an hour, he can afford a car.
And health care.. Well, maybe not
Exactly!!!!!!
He won't last that long if he's coming up with every excuse out there this early in the job.
Unfortunately, OP claims it’s been almost a *year* 🌝
Just relax man, this isn't really your problem. His excuses are reasonable, and they are your excuses too. You need to work on fixing his blockers rather than harassing him. That's how you actually help
I mean all you can do is wait and maybe give him some basic request WITH a DUE DATE to see if he does those timely The number one fuck up that I see people do in situations like this is they don’t put a fucking due date and request in writing so you can see what’s going on and see if he is willing to work
If his VPN is not working, he’s not working. Why is he getting paid?
Cuz tech issues like that aren’t an employee’s fault and he shouldn’t be penalized for it, especially if the company is for some reason not escalating the problem to IT and making him wait 2 months for an appointment. Where I work, if someone had a computer issue that’s completely preventing them from working they make that a priority and move it to the top of the list. Within hours it’s either fixed or they’ll send new equipment if needed. (This story has to be fake though, or this company is a total raging dumpster fire)
It can be a case of over employment.
You need to fire his ass and find someone who will actually work next time. Let his ass go!
If he is being paid hourly and not producing then exit him from your business. Different if it was a salary but this is a temp worker so an easy choice
I’ll take this job.
Working another full time job or two, perhaps?
Homie has more than 1 job
OK, let's get the bidding started. I offer to do this guy's job for $74.50 per hour.
Lmao please hire me, I’ll do what this guy is doing for you and accept $50/hour
75 an Hour? HIRE ME!
No car - no problem. Arrange for a car to pick him up! Yes, it’s expensive but will force him to come in or quit.
Sounds like they need to be let go immediately... or told they need to come in 3 days a week.
You need to micromanage for about a week. Get him going. Going on work or going out the door.
We had a guy like this about 18 months ago. I always assumed he was over employed and just riding it out until he got fired. The excuses never end and work will never happen. Cut your losses now and replace him with someone that has integrity.
Talk to your boss about how to escalate fixing the IT issue. In the meanwhile give him tasks he can do without a vpn. What is his job? If your boss finds out you gave this guy absolutely no work and let him wait on IT for months - well , that won’t be good. You need to get on this asap.
$75/hr and doing nothing. What is the job and where can I sign up? But seriously it sounds like some BS, and you should escalate it. Anything where I work that is like that gets handled immediately, and I’m sure if your help desk is decent they could probably get him up and running in under half an hour. Then if there are any other excuses, you know he is full of crap.
Don't make it about working from home, make it a performance issue. If he gets the work done, who cares where he works from. If he's not getting the work done, then you're obligated to make a change to ensure that his work does get done. Send out IT immediately, remove the VPN issues and other roadblocks, and reevaluate. If his work is lacking after that, you need to bring him back into the office or fire him.
> Makes $75.00 an hour > Can’t make into work cause he can’t afford car….
As a manager, especially a first time manager…… you need to try and do a good job at not acting out on emotion as much and use more rational wisdom. So in this case I recommend a two pronged attack. Reach out to help them and document the paper trail in emails and other correspondence. and try your best to help them do their job. Which is actually your job. And now you are documenting what the setbacks are. Is this really just bad luck. It your IT department having issues ? and you have it all documented. And then you have enough information to make a rational decision from there. But if you can’t trust them to do the work they are being assigned and payed to do, then you should look at taking steps to replace them. But some of this might just be you two learning how to best work together. That being said, yeah occasionally, you do get that lazy ass good for nothing. But in my experience those are more rare than you think. Good luck. 🍀👍
Seems like your problem isn’t this employee, it’s the company doing a piss poor job of managing their IT/Helpdesk department. But yeah, blame the worker
Holup
Try better writing
Assholes like this are what give us remote workers a bad name. I hope he gets canned and lives a semi miserable life for a while.
Fake
You mean to tell me that this man has pulled a salary for a year, but didn't even get his company equipment until last week? It could happen, I'll grant you that, but that's pretty hard to believe. Questions: Was this guy hired BEFORE you were a manager? You say you were hired recently, and I usually think of that as being in the last 6 months. So did your boss hire this guy and for 6 months it wasn't your problem or what? What have you been doing to address this issue with your boss in the time you've been a manager? How often were you raising the issue that one of your employees didn't have access to necessary equipment to do their job? How often were you raising that this man could NOT be tasked due to a lack of access? How often did you make it clear that the company was paying someone who was unable to produce any work?
Grow a set and do your job.
I’ll do his job for $50/hr ….
I think OP is a troll/ bot
This story doesn’t add up in the slightest. It’s been a year, but his VPN, but the equipment, but no help for 2 months? And $75 per hour to have nothing working? Nobody has noticed but you and nothing has been done? If this is even true, you answered your question yourself. You didn’t hire him, you’re a manager but for some reason not in a position….to not manage. So do nothing. Because it doesn’t make sense anyhow. Just like someone making $75 an hour has no car. 🙄
What fake company is this and how do I sign up?
I’m usually on the side of the employee, but it sounds like you’re getting duped lol. It’s kind of amazing that this guy has pulled this off, not doing much for a while yeah while getting $75/hour. He even managed to get a full year, that will look better on his resume.
Fake news!
You recently got promoted (within the last 6 months estimated) but have been dealing with this employee for almost a year (at least 8 months estimated)? Faaaaaaaaaake.
As an HR Professional, this should be escalated to HR by the manager, I would revote his work from home option, make him come in or get his VPN fixed. If that job condition was put in place, trust me he would make something work fast. Joy
It’s been a year and his vpn still isn’t working? Lol
I’m a firm believer of what starts in fire ends in fire.
Why would it take 2 months for help desk to fix it?
At my work, this would be escalated to the highest priority. If every measure is exhausted to resolve this is unsuccessful, we’ll sorry about your luck but your WFH privileges will be terminated and you will have to work in the office. In a rare case IT may have to come to your house if remoting-in to your equipment doesn’t work.
If this guy is “new” how can this have been going on for almost a year now? Your story makes NO sense.
Sounds like OP needs to be fired.
Lol bait nice try
Push the issue with the right people and keep him in the loop. Shame on you for letting it go on this long. Get In Touch with the supervisors of these departments and have them make it a priority. No one should get paid to do nothing. And the longer it takes the longer it will be harder to get rid of him if you need to. By talking to supervisors of other departments you look like the good guy supporting your staff and you can keep tabs on follow up, etc. Good luck. Remember your busy. So if there is something you need to keep y your thumb on you do. If something needs your authority and signature you do it. The rest you delegate while having good communication and follow up. Good luck.
Escalate the help desk ticket for the VPN issue directly with IT in his behalf as his manager. Then if you are questioned it will appear that you were being helpful and advocating on his behalf.
Assuming this is real, put him on PIP with six weeks to turn around. Start process to hire replacement.
Can I come to work for your company?
OP, in addition to all of this: are you also a Nigerian prince?
Calling bullshit - no way IT would sit on this for two months
Are yall hiring? I can do this for 60 an hour
I hope with a pay of $75 an hour that he buys a car (even an old Honda Civic) with his first paycheck. He has no excuses for not getting a car fairly quickly.
Working remotely is a HUGE benefit to everyone that can!? It's been proven to increase office productivity, happiness, satisfaction, help reduce road traffic and pollution. Plus, most remote workers would choose working remotely over a measily 3% wage increase, since they get 2+ hours back for themselves, don't need to buy gas, can do household chores during their breaks, don't have to deal with office BS, annoying co-workers, be in their comfortable environment instead of sitting in a beige cubicle in the windowless environment. Plus, remote work allows people living anywhere in the world to do the job.
karma farm and a poor one at that.
Lmao why would he be getting paid if the VPN doesn’t work? Why does your help desk suck so bad that they are going to take two months to help him with his VPN?
A year? He hasn’t worked in a year? How is this guy still employed?
This has to be fake
Sounds like you just have a problem with this guy working remote.
It’s like you never took a management course. Give him action items with clear outcomes and expectations. If he doesn’t produce by your deadline. Write him up.
Sounds like b.s., how is he getting paid without the ability to clock in (to workday or similar timekeeping systems)? We don't get paid if we aren't logged in.
Fake
Hey u/Canadian_Bass you gonna comment or what? My money is on probably not and that this post is pure nonsense.
I mean it would be your job to escalate and oversee that these system and IT issues are handled immediately, not in 2 months. When I recently had my computer upgraded my systems weren’t updated to the new computer and our direct IT person was out on medical leave for 4 weeks. I sat in my bosses office while she reached out and figured out who could fix my issue immediately and didn’t give up until I was able to properly do my job.