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He understands why it matters because he used to run his own one-man show before we "acqui-hired" him. But whenever I notice that he doesn't have his time logge

He understands why it matters because he used to run his own one-man show before we "acqui-hired" him. But whenever I notice that he doesn't have his time logged in the system, he says "yeah I've been slammed all day" or something similar and promises to get it done soon... and then doesn't. And he genuinely is getting a lot of work done so there's no foul play or anything. The issue isn't just logging his time either - he's also not great at taking detailed notes, writing accurate scope of work documents, etc. He's very good with clients, has a lot of knowledge and experience with the tech stack, but is a "cowboy engineer" if that makes sense. The way I'm thinking about this is that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, but for this one person, said weaknesses are directly affecting the company bottom line so they are impossible to ignore. :)

Loughla 6y ago
Yep. Set expectations and ensure he gets it (he might not, even if he ran his own shop), work through that process, then get rid of him if you have to. That sucks out loud, but sometimes weaknesses outweigh benefits. And it's your job to draw that line.
pnutjam 6y ago
Everyone looks to software solutions, but maybe this person needs an assistant of some sort.
- Viliam1234 6y ago
  It also depends on how complicated the current software is. If it is simple, then yeah, you probably need to delegate the paperwork to someone else. But maybe the software is needlessly complicated, annoys everyone, but others can deal with it and this specific employee just has a lower frustration tolerance. In that case, making the software easier would make everyone happy. If everyone uses the software every day, and you can reduce the time from 2 minutes to 20 seconds... I am also the kind of person who forgets to write daily logs. But if I set up the web page to open automatically at 4 PM on my computer, then I don't forget, of course. However, in some systems you only need to automatically open some URL, while in other systems it is more like "open the URL, click this link, authenticate, click that link, authenticate again, click another link, and now you finally get to edit the spreadsheet". How much work it is to edit the time fields? Are reasonable default values provided (either your standard work time, or a copy from yesterday), so that on a typical day you only write "did this and that" and click OK? Or do you need to specify the time using a complicated wizard that sometimes gets it wrong, e.g. you make 10 mouse clicks to choose "9:00" and 10 more mouse clicks to choose "17:00", and then you sometimes get an error message saying "you cannot log 32 hours during one day", so you need to erase the whole record and start again? Do you work for a foreign company that speaks a language you don't understand, but you were told it's okay because the company policy is English everywhere... well, except for their time-logging system, which requires you to always choose from several pull-down menus filled with gibberish? How detailed are the logs? Is it enough to give "implemented Jira story 1234" as a description for entire 8 hours of work, or do you need to provide a detailed list of steps, with a time interval for each? Do you need to fill out two separate time logs, one internal for your company, and one external for the client? None of these examples was made up (they are collected from multiple companies though). So, it makes sense to also check whether the software side is sane, and optionally fix it -- maybe give the task to the employee who had problems writing the logs, he will be sufficiently motivated. But sometimes this doesn't help, or for some reason you are not allowed to fix the software... and then it makes sense to hire an assistant.
iovrthoughtthis 6y ago
Not that anyone here is qualified to make anything close to a diagnosis on 3 lines of text but, this behavior sounds a little like either stress / anxiety or perhaps ADHD. Agree to do thing, get distracted by far more engaging thing, don't do agreed upon thing.
_wldu 6y ago
Would it be possible to have an entry-level admin assistant enter and track everyone's hours? Would that free up the engineers to be engineers?
db48x 6y ago
If he's productive, then you have a lot of other possible solutions besides just getting him to do more paperwork. Hire a team secretary, or junior engineers to shadow the seniors, or just be the amanuensis yourself.
bladegash 6y ago
I’ve run into this previously. Someone else mentioned this, but an assistant at a much lower hourly rate would likely be of value. I would try to do a cost/benefit analysis, maybe starting with the following questions: - What is this individual’s billable rate? - Is the administrative work something that could be done by someone at an hourly rate significantly less than the billable employee? - Would freeing up the billable employees time from administrative work allow them to work more billable hours? - What would the expected loss in billable work completed be if the employee was terminated or left? - Etc. I’ve done these calculations before, and while as a manager it is a bit irritating to have an employee not do parts of their job, there may be a business case for accommodating it.

Loughla 6y ago

Yep. Set expectations and ensure he gets it (he might not, even if he ran his own shop), work through that process, then get rid of him if you have to. That sucks out loud, but sometimes weaknesses outweigh benefits. And it's your job to draw that line.

pnutjam 6y ago

Everyone looks to software solutions, but maybe this person needs an assistant of some sort.

Viliam1234 6y ago
It also depends on how complicated the current software is. If it is simple, then yeah, you probably need to delegate the paperwork to someone else. But maybe the software is needlessly complicated, annoys everyone, but others can deal with it and this specific employee just has a lower frustration tolerance. In that case, making the software easier would make everyone happy. If everyone uses the software every day, and you can reduce the time from 2 minutes to 20 seconds... I am also the kind of person who forgets to write daily logs. But if I set up the web page to open automatically at 4 PM on my computer, then I don't forget, of course. However, in some systems you only need to automatically open some URL, while in other systems it is more like "open the URL, click this link, authenticate, click that link, authenticate again, click another link, and now you finally get to edit the spreadsheet". How much work it is to edit the time fields? Are reasonable default values provided (either your standard work time, or a copy from yesterday), so that on a typical day you only write "did this and that" and click OK? Or do you need to specify the time using a complicated wizard that sometimes gets it wrong, e.g. you make 10 mouse clicks to choose "9:00" and 10 more mouse clicks to choose "17:00", and then you sometimes get an error message saying "you cannot log 32 hours during one day", so you need to erase the whole record and start again? Do you work for a foreign company that speaks a language you don't understand, but you were told it's okay because the company policy is English everywhere... well, except for their time-logging system, which requires you to always choose from several pull-down menus filled with gibberish? How detailed are the logs? Is it enough to give "implemented Jira story 1234" as a description for entire 8 hours of work, or do you need to provide a detailed list of steps, with a time interval for each? Do you need to fill out two separate time logs, one internal for your company, and one external for the client? None of these examples was made up (they are collected from multiple companies though). So, it makes sense to also check whether the software side is sane, and optionally fix it -- maybe give the task to the employee who had problems writing the logs, he will be sufficiently motivated. But sometimes this doesn't help, or for some reason you are not allowed to fix the software... and then it makes sense to hire an assistant.

iovrthoughtthis 6y ago

Not that anyone here is qualified to make anything close to a diagnosis on 3 lines of text but, this behavior sounds a little like either stress / anxiety or perhaps ADHD. Agree to do thing, get distracted by far more engaging thing, don't do agreed upon thing.

_wldu 6y ago

Would it be possible to have an entry-level admin assistant enter and track everyone's hours? Would that free up the engineers to be engineers?

db48x 6y ago

If he's productive, then you have a lot of other possible solutions besides just getting him to do more paperwork. Hire a team secretary, or junior engineers to shadow the seniors, or just be the amanuensis yourself.

bladegash 6y ago

I’ve run into this previously. Someone else mentioned this, but an assistant at a much lower hourly rate would likely be of value. I would try to do a cost/benefit analysis, maybe starting with the following questions: - What is this individual’s billable rate? - Is the administrative work something that could be done by someone at an hourly rate significantly less than the billable employee? - Would freeing up the billable employees time from administrative work allow them to work more billable hours? - What would the expected loss in billable work completed be if the employee was terminated or left? - Etc. I’ve done these calculations before, and while as a manager it is a bit irritating to have an employee not do parts of their job, there may be a business case for accommodating it.