Etydhv

I’ve had a recurring problem with people I work with leaving things until the last minute, then when there are problems, having no time to address them. Deadlines for “drafts” or similar sometimes work but are often disregarded because they’re “not that important”. I don’t really want to resort to complaining to higher management because that just makes things worse for the other person rather than fixing the problem.

Edit: I've had a number of questions asking about my relationship with the others, and this happens in several situations:

• Actual subordinates - but this is relatively rare as a problem.


• Same level coworkers, usually where we are in a team formed by request from higher up.


• The most awkward situation - when we're in a team reporting to the big boss, which I'm supposed to be looking after, but one of the people on that team is my direct boss.

I’ve had a recurring problem with people I work with leaving things until the last minute

and

Deadlines for “drafts” or similar sometimes work but are often disregarded because they’re “not that important”.

This is a problem which has been going on for a while. From the OP it sounds like you've tried to address it by making the deadline earlier, which hasn't worked.

I don’t really want to resort to complaining to higher management

Good call. If they are your subordinates you're supposed to manage their deliverables, not your boss.

Have you tried any of the ideas below

Ask your Team for Guidance

It sounds like you've complained one on one to team members. Get your team together and explain how missing deadlines affects the team. For example,

Everyone had to work Saturday because X wasn't finished on time.

Then ask your team why it wasn't, and what needs to change to ensure it doesn't happen again. Don't blame individuals. Listen to what your people have to say. This should be a team effort.

Task Tracking Software

If you're currently not tracking all task and deliverables in a system with a defined workflow, start doing that. This will both ensure everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing, and gives you an easy way to see the status of each task. It may also show that one person has too many priority items on their plate.

Daily Stand-up Meetings

Have a meeting every morning once everyone has arrived. Each person should have 30 seconds to answer the following questions

1) What did you do yesterday

2) What are you going to do today

3) Is anything blocking you

If an issue will take longer than 30 seconds, then say "Who do you need to help you?" and ensure they talk post meeting.

Deadlines for “drafts” or similar sometimes work but are often disregarded because they’re “not that important”

There is no point having deadlines, the if they are not adhered to. It really does not matter what the deadline is for - if it's a deadline, it needs to be adhered to.

There can be couple of scenarios why is this happening:

1. Once assigned a task and accepted an agreed-upon deadline, the assignees are judging the merit of the task and changing the completion time at-will.


2. The estimation for the tasks are poor and the team is struggling to meet the deadlines


3. The team / employees are not up to the mark.

As you have explained, it seems like it's been going on for a while - try talking to the team - either one on one or in a group meeting and explain how missing the deadlines affect the overall deliverable and quality. Also, listen to what they have to offer as a reason for missing the deadlines.

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  If it's point (1)

  
  
  

  • If you're the one supposed to enforce the work policies (and ethics) (i.e., in a managerial position), do it.

  
  

  • Otherwise, bring this problem to the notice of your superiors.

  
  



• If it's point (2): Time to revise the work planning and estimation process.



• If it's point (3): Performance issue.

I once worked with a guy who would give me (and others) things to read/proofread/edit/etc. At first, I would do the chore immediately to get it off my desk. But the instant I or anyone else made a correction to the document, then we all got a revised copy of the document. It was impossible to get the chore off one's desk for more than an hour.

So we all learned to put the thing aside for a month or so, then do one edit. If it came back, we waited another month before we returned it. It cut the number of times we had to read through the same stupid document by a factor of 30.

So perhaps you're like this guy. If you have a recurring problem with last minute revisions, then perhaps your workers are dragging their feet on purpose, in order to reduce the number of iterations. In general, workers will do this. Their reward for doing something promptly is to be given more work.

My advice is that first you do some soul-searching. Are your workers deliberately handing things back at quitting time because they want to avoid the boomerang? If so, try not to be the boomerang and then set a reasonable number of intermediate deadlines.

If you are in charge of assigning the projects and setting the deadlines then include revisions in the scope of the project. This ensures that if the revisions are not completed then the deadline for the project has not been met and disciplinary action can be taken. Of course, this only applies to cases where the employees in question are your subordinates and you assigned them the project. This also assumes that you are allotting a reasonable amount of time for you project ( including revisions ) to be completed.

If you are not a manager, then you should raise the issue at least on generic terms to management. They should start looking closer to the situation without you having to point fingers around.

If you are a manager, try creating clear lines of responsibility. This means making clear who is responsible for what, and makes it easier to track with employee' performances. Make sure that tasks are not concluded just because the responsible person said so, and don't rely on reviewers to point out other people's poor deliveries.

If possible, hire someone new, so that at least for a while you should know that the workload can be dealt within the available time by the team.

Either way: Start assigning more tasks to people who meet deadlines, maybe even request that they work extra hours (make sure are paid to do so, do prefer the extra money instead on the usual work hour, and are aware they're being paid for it).

Make clear to people not meeting deadlines that they're not allowed to work extra hours. Assign less tasks to them, and with time they'll start meeting their deadlines. If someone is still not meeting deadlines, then further reduce their workload. Anyone with common sense would know this is a foreshadowing to being fired, and should make an effort to make up for it.

Don't think of this as "getting rid of rotten apples", this is not the point. At first this is just adjusting workload to everyone's capacity. Just try to give some reward to who is getting overloaded in the process, and people should go for this reward as well. If most people seem interested in having more free time at the office, then you should consider replacing someone.