Sabotage in work

mireasa

Hi everybody,
I need an advice...
I recently accepted a manager position in a very hard unit. Is about catering.
The unit was run by the supervisor who had acting allowance for 2 years.
Meanwhile there were 3 or 4 managers that left job only after few weeks.
When I started the staff were making bets about how long am i going to stay.
The most important things in the unit in health & safety. With a background of lots of complaints( coins in soup, chef cutting & burning their hands and so on....).
All the staff are great...less the supervisor.
Being very upset that I didnt allow him to go on a holiday that wasnt approved he went mad and after 2 min left the unit in the evening text me saying that he has work related stress medical cert and will miss work for 2 weeks.
Not even 15 min after he left the unit a client came with a piece of rock and a broken tooth complaining.
Giving the time back i remember seeing the supervisor, that day around 12 am in the car park...needless to say that the rocks on the alley looks the same with the one found in the salad, they are river rocks.
I can put my hand in the fire that he took the small rock from the alley and just throw it in the spinach leave salad...
Did any of you ever deal with this kind of staff?
What would you advise?

Many thanks

minikin

If this sort of thing is happening then cctv (advising staff of same) is the only solution.
Very serious issues call for serious solutions.
Hope you can get this sorted.

Glass fused light

mireasa wrote: »

I recently accepted a manager position
3 or 4 managers that left job only after few weeks.
The most important things in the unit in health & safety.
he has work related stress

Did any of you ever deal with this kind of staff?
What would you advise?

Many thanks

From this I suspect you have not had much experience detailing with difficult employees. Document everything.

First thing you need to find out is where your employer stands in regards to the supervisor, and what support they are offering you.
This needs to be a formal process which is documented, with actionable recommendations and agreed timelines and follow ups scheduled.

Are they willing to pay to resolve the issue?
It would appear that they dont have the inhouse experience to deal with the issue so they need to pay for Specialists in Human resources with legal knowledge of HR legistation and food management legistation.

Are they willing to come to a financial settlement to induce the employee to leave?
Are they willing to finance the ongoing management of this employee who has now been diagnosed with a disability and therefore has to be offered reasonable accomadation for their disability? This should include financing up-skilling your management training.

If they are not fully engaged in the process find a new job.

Were they upfront about the issues at the interview stage?
You won't be paid enough to take on the stress of managing this person without support. I suspect that as 4 people have been recruited and left and now you, senior management are hoping for magic solution.

The coin and the rock may have been the supervisor, but you can't discount the other employees so it's not an issue you can address directly to the employee. But if the other staff were not offended and insulted that someone is risking their jobs, you have a bigger staffing problem. Use the 2 weeks to your advantage. Having one on one meeting outlining what you expect and reissue the hr policy plus any process manual covering the job and outline what will happen in the contamination continue. Eg a formal investigation will take place looking at each employees actions on the day etc. To reduce the risk of it happening again the CCTV could be workable but this needs to be in line with the data protection. Pocketless uniforms and lockers would reduce the risk of external contamination. Reorganisation of work spaces and process to isolate food product production to an individual employee would help as an individual would be responsible for any contamination. Make it clear that future contamination puts their jobs at risk. You also need a system in place to carefully manage the returning employee, this should be tailored to the employee and specific to the underlying reason for the stress.

Any and all of these suggestions should only take place with the approval and support of senior management. If they are willing to provide the support you can learn a lot and grow as a manager. If they are not willing, you are looking at a stress filled time where your are devoting time and energy to something you don't have the power or authority to control, so make the best decision for you to move on and let them figure it out.