Anchorage Daily News

Q. Two months ago, I inherited a long-term employee from another department that merged with mine. This employee is good at what she does; however, she has a domineering personality and her former supervisor was somewhat of a wimp.

She was the only employee in the department she formerly worked in; now she's one of the nine I supervise. Although the work she completes is quality, she produces noticeably less work in a day than my other employees. She also takes a 15-minute coffee break mid-morning and mid-afternoon while none of my other employees take breaks.

I brought this employee in for counseling and explained that I liked her work quality but she needed to pick up her pace. She countered with a sullen, "If I'm to do quality work, I can't rush."

I then told her none of the other employees took formal breaks and that she'd have another half hour of time to apply to quality if she stopped taking breaks. She accused me of violating federal labor laws. Am I?

If she keeps taking unauthorized breaks, can I dock this woman a half hour a day?

A. If you hit this situation with a heavy hammer, you flatten an employee who does good work.

At the same time, you can't let one employee take breaks others don't without creating unfairness and a potential morale problem.

To strike the right balance, start by viewing this situation from your new employee's perspective.

She had a sweet deal. Her skills and former supervisor's personality earned her the chance to self-supervise. You want to change things and not only do you consider her slow, you want to add 30 minutes to her work day.

Many employees believe they're owed breaks. Generally, they're not. No federal labor laws require employers to give workers 18 years or older paid breaks. Federal and most state labor laws require breaks only for employees between the ages of 14 and 17 who work more than six consecutive hours.

Many employers however, allow informal break or stretch time. When employers allow breaks that last less than 20 minutes, most state labor laws require that the employers pay their employees for the break time. You thus can't dock her unless she stretches any individual break to 21 minutes or more.

Before you do this, meet with her again. Let her know you think you two got off on the wrong foot. Let her know you consider her good at what she does and would like to have a two-way discussion to resolve the quality/speed issue.

In that discussion, fully listen to her. Perhaps in her area of work you have unrealistic expectations. Ask how her prior supervisor assessed her performance and how she thinks you can best assess her productivity. Ask her to tell you enough about how she works so that you can see whether your speed expectations would compromise quality. If you learn she's been working at 40 miles per hour while the rest of your department motors along at 60 to 65, offer her some concrete ways to improve her pace.

See if you can get her to take your discussion to heart and willingly pledge to see if she can accomplish reasonable quality faster. Also, schedule a time for the two of you to meet in two weeks so you can mutually agree on the standards you'll both use for assessing her performance.

Then let her know you took her break time comments seriously and checked state and federal regulations. Print the statutes for her. Explain the issue now and let her know you want her to shorten her breaks to the four- or five-minute informal ones you let your other employees take.

During your discussion, pay careful attention to any nonverbal signals she gives. You'll want to ascertain whether you reach agreement or whether she simply takes her resentment underground. If she tries to manipulate you with sullenness, you need to have a different conversation with this employee.

Lynne Curry is a local management trainer, consultant and syndicated columnist. Her advice and opinion column appears Mondays. Questions for her column may be faxed to her at 258-2157 or mailed to her c/o Anchorage Daily News, P.O. Box 149001, Anchorage 99514-9001. Her e-mail address is lynne@thegrowthcompany.net.

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