now former co-worker

[cflame1]

When I took this job in Atlanta, I didn't realize that I'd be put into a semi-management role. I had a team of two (other than me).

Unfortunately one of my teammates... a recent college grad was falling asleep at work, and from what he told me told today he also fell asleep driving to work!

I tried talking to him about it months ago, but he wasn't listening... he accounted it to him being bored (but I gave him lots to do and he'd either fall asleep or make lots of errors), but it's a noisy room and he was still doing it up to today.

Add that to the fact that he didn't really want to do the job and his work showed it... his last day of work was today. I traded him for someone with more experience that wanted to do the job.

He told me that his dad has a sleep problem and it's treated... he thinks it's OSA.

I recommended that he get tested for it, but I don't know if it'll ever happen... all that I'm really hoping is that he doesn't kill anybody on the road.

I didn't let him go for the sleep part... but for the work part and that he didn't want to be here.

[bdp522]

I'm sure it wasn't easy for you to make the decision to let him go. It is very hard for those of us who cpap to watch someone who won't cpap go down hill. You did good trying to talk to him about it, but it's that 'you can lead a horse to water' thing. You did all you could, you seem to be feeling guilty about letting him go...you have nothing to feel guilty about! I am sure there are many who wished they had a supervisor as understanding as you are.

Brenda

[cflame1]

Hard part is that I think the guy's 22 or something... was his first job, and he would have been brilliant at it if he'd just tried. Yeah I've felt guilty about it for awhile... but in a way the move was also about trying to save my own job by making sure that he didn't drag the whole team down.

[fuzzy96]

todays kids really don't have a grip on the idea of work. and i think from what i've seen the college isn't helping. hopeful he learns from this. glad i'm not drivingdown there.

[BlackSpinner]

The "you can lead a horse to water..." applies here.
You did what you could.

[Paul56]

I suspect his lack of enthusiasm for the work is directly related
to his untreated apnea and resulting sleepiness during the day.

It is very hard to be enthusiastic and give something a good
effort when they are sleepy.

Was he covered by a company provided medical insurance plan?
If so, I would have strongly recommended to him that he seek
help and pretty much made it clear to you needed competent
people on the job.

Yes, I know... letting staff go is very difficult particularly
under those conditions. I'm a manager as well.

[RocketGirl]

cflame1, your situation resonates with me (I once had a senior member of my staff whose performance really tanked and it was pretty obvious that there were medical issues). I'll add my voice to the chorus: you did all that you could.

Had you pushed him any harder, it's possible that he could have complained about it to HR and you actually could possibly have gotten in trouble for "harrassing" him, depending on your company's policies. My firm's HR was very supportive to me, and gave me clear guidance on what the employment rules said I could, and could not, do or say to help my person. They told me I'd be on very thin ice indeed if I told her I thought she had a medical problem, much less say what I thought it was.

I too ended up having to fire my person because she was making too many errors in tasks in which errors simply could not be tolerated. I first put her on a performance improvement plan, but that didn't help. Not only was her poor performance dragging down the unit performance, but my other staff could see that she was constantly messing up and were getting resentful of having to clean up her errors. If I hadn't imposed consequences, it would have had all kinds of repercussions on morale and performance elsewhere. So I think you did the right thing to remove him from your unit.

Doesn't make it any easier, though, does it?

[archangle]

I hate to be unsympathetic, but how is this different from someone who won't deal with the problems caused by staying up late at night drinking? or partying? or playing video games?

Or posting to internet bulletin boards?

[RocketGirl]

Archangle, the main portion of the sympathy here is for the supervisor who has to fire someone - any that I've talked with agree that it's the hardest and most painful part of the job, no matter what the circumstances, and it can hurt for a long time afterward while you wonder whether you could/should/would have done more, had you only known what.

Although, for any person like this young man, or like my senior staffer, to have an untreated medical issue, addiction, or problematic behavioral pattern is a sad thing, and it won't end well unless he makes a choice to change it. One can sympathise without excusing it. And it is painful to watch someone self-destruct whether they know they're doing it, have made a conscious choice about it, or not.

I do have extra sympathy for the young man in this case since he's so young. Few of us understood the full consequences of our choices at that age, and he's bucking up against something probably rather big. It was also his first job and without good references from it, he's setting himself up for difficulty in securing another.

Some of us are just wired to want to help a person like cflame1's employee and it's hard to get over it when we can't.

[cflame1]

I let it go probably longer than it should have... then the company was having layoffs, and I couldn't see keeping him when the older fellow that wanted to do the work (and had been loaned to me to do the work) was getting laid off... that's what I meant about a trade.

There was only so much I could do, and yes he was on company medical and still is for a couple of weeks.

[DoriC]

cflame, there should be no guilt on your part, you did all you could do without jeapardizing your own job. I had a secretary who went on medical leave for 6 weeks to have a lumpectomy for in situ breast cancer. There were no complications, no chemo or radiation necessary and she returned to work with a clean bill of health. Needless to say, I bent over backward and forward to accomodate her continuing tardiness, prolonged lunch hrs, going home early and leaving important medical work unfinished as she played on my heartstrings. This went on for 3 months with everyone else having to pick up the slack and complaining bitterly to me and about me. There own work was suffering and the office was in turmoil. I finally had to take a deep breath and let her go with the blessings of the doctors and the staff. It took me awhile to get over the guilt but it was for the good of the entire office and I had to do my job and put it behind me. I know how you feel.

[cflame1]

thanks everybody