ok- so this is on a throwaway and a rant. BUT a TLDR: dealing with an employee on a power trip, and would love guidance!
Anyway, i started a new job around eight months ago. I love it- it’s in an industry i’ve been wanting to go back into for years, but I also have years of experience in the role itself. it’s in marketing and comms. I was hired for this role with my years of experience from a multitude of industries, and i know lots of software, skills and programs needed to succeed in this role.
BUT i this role also requires me to supervise full time employees for the first time (i’ve always had interns under me, anywhere from as low as one intern, to a full staff of 40+) I have two FT employees, and they started at the same time and are also around the same age- so they were good friends before i started, but it’s created a weird dynamic.
One employee is great, our 1:1 meetings go great, he takes my feedback well, and he’s also great at working on his own, but also letting me know when he has questions or wants feedback.
I’m having issues with my other employee. She wants to grow in her role (and has just finished her first year, it’s her first post grad role). I provide feedback where it is needed (which is what she wanted), and we have weekly 1:1s that go decently well. she also does good work. however, she came up to me last week, telling me that’s she’s “not getting what she wants from me”, “I make her not happy coming into work” (when i can say the same thing about her for me) and how i “don’t care about my role or her”. she likes my own personal boss (who was kinda her manager before I came in) and how his feedback was communicated. my boss has openly said he’s very nit picky, and I provide my own version of “nit picky” feedback, but it’s apparently not enough.
there are also times where she (as my employee) has given me things to do, pushes at where i’m at on things she’s “given me to do”, and tells me to do things cause they’re “a learning lesson”. I have a masters degree in the same things she’s giving me that she thinks are a “learning lesson” and my role includes more than just her component of the marketing department (she handles email, I manage email, but also print, web, and design). I don’t think she realizes that I do more than her side of things, and the things on my plate are big picture and she isn’t my only priority. she doesn’t need to be included in everything i’m doing.
other employees in our department have expressed issues with working with her, particularly her attitude towards work, how she thinks she’s always right, and also how she’s openly said she deserves a higher role with higher pay (my role is 2-3 levels above her). she also wants me (as her manager) to include her in everything im sending out in email (even if it’s something that she’s not involved in) so she can double/triple check it (and i don’t, simply because again, she doesn’t need to be aware of everything i’m doing)
I’m close with other co-workers in the office, and when I grab lunch time coffee with them, i get weird looks from the problem employee when she’s at her cubicle (her cubicle is right across from my office, and she doesn’t like that i’m leaving w/o her, even though it’s during my lunch break that my boss takes at the same time). she has also openly said we “aren’t supposed to wear jeans at department meetings” or “take department meetings virtually” but she done both of those things, but apparently it isn’t ok for the rest of the team to do so. I’ve also seen her updating her resume on her work computer screen on a few occasions. i’m all for looking for a new role, but there is a time and place for that, and doing it at your desk at work is inappropriate.
also her communication with the other employee is kinda off. like I mentioned, I have zero problems with my other employee, and he’s done amazing work in his first year, so i gave him “exceeds expectations” in his annual review. however, when i had the review for my problem employee, i gave her a “met expectations” and she was very defensive, saying “why didn’t i get exceeds” and i said “because you don’t go above the job description” and she still didn’t get that. it got to a point where my boss told me to give her the exceeds mark cause she wouldn’t stop- and I told my boss that i was hesitant only because of her attitude.
Yes, i’ve expressed my opinions and experiences to my boss (and so has a co worker) and even my boss is unsure of what to do, it’s difficult. when i talked with him, he wasn’t surprised to hear everything.
I just don’t know what to do at this point. I’d love to tell her to “fuck off”, but that’s not professional lol- but I’m also scared I’m gonna start bursting, and will do that eventually.
Any help or ways to approach this? It’s super hard coming into an already established team, and i feel like i’ve done well with the people who have been there for a long time, but my employees both hit their one year anniversary, and are both gen Z (i’m a millennial) so i’m struggling!