I have a team member that, no matter the situation, leaves at 5:00pm every day. Should I look to replace this person?

Hi Bruce,

Communication is the KEY.
Tthink about communication inside of the company and inside the project team members too. Maybe there is a gap and you have to find it out. why don’t planned the “extra” works ahead and set up each member to that, knowing in advance their strengths, abilitéis and schedule constrains?

B.R.

Santiago

Seems to me that either you as the PM don’t have much power in this structure or your influence is weak.

From the very start, were your expectations clearly communicated to your team? What role do you play and who does your team report to?

If you carry less power and the team reports to someone else for final say in things, then you need to somehow control what’s yours and improve your power of influence to lead. Sounds like this situation has unraveled from one individual and now the morale is nearly gone and there’s a negative atmosphere amongst the team. By them even coming to you continuously to drop this guy, says a lot about how you’ve managed them and influenced them as a whole. Right now they probably don’t respect your leadership much behind closed doors.

If in your shoes no matter what my exact power role would be, what’s in my control is mine and I need to own that. You need to step back and look at your very approach from the beginning in how you communicated expectations along with what boundaries you may or may not have set. How was your influence then? Was it high? How was the morale of the team in the start of the project? Has the demands of the project slowly deteriorated the environment and team attitudes? How have you handled any stress in front of the team? Have you celebrated any small success with words of encouragement or shown appreciation? Have you clarified this particular team members reasons for leaving at 5 on the dot? Has he communicated that to you at all and how did that initial conversation end?

Although you are the PM, whether you have full power or less within the organizational structure your job is to lead and influence above all. Delegating and control comes with the role, but in order to be effective you must first lead. The environment in which you work and the attitudes in that environment can heavily effect how the projects flow.

I would do some self reflection, gain a clear understanding about your personal approach and the above questions, set aside time with this man and revisit that conversation. Get to the root of the why and take it from there. If this member is a valuable asset, I would not let him go so easily as he can be a major part to his roles success. This may take some compromise and thinking outside of the box to fill in the gap of his absence during pressing times. Who can step in part time and is that a viable option for you? Can his work be replicated at the degree he’s delivering by another body who is willing to stay longer? Would you cut your nose to despite your face if he’s replaced and have the project suffer?

Replacing him might not be the best approach given what you said so I would:

1- Approach the emplooyee and talk to him in person.
2- As a PM, I would want to know why he refuses to stay late and what could motivate him to stay late when need be.

Your soft skills and influence plays a big factor in resolving this situation.

You wrote:

"I've tried talking to him, but he refuses to listen"

Did you talk with him, or at him?

Do you have an HR department? If you do, talk to HR to see if they think there is a performance problem. If there is, they can give you advice for how to act that will reduce the likelihood that you will get yourself, and possibly your company, in legal trouble.

At least where I have worked in the US, being salaried does not mean that the company owns you. I've also heard of companies getting sued for making salaried employees work overtime without overtime pay. For me, it has meant that if I work long hours across one or more days, I can generally take some comp time without it counting against PTO.

Bruce, I see you've gotten a lot of input here already... It's difficult to comment without knowing more about the situation. My feeling on this echoes a lot of what you already heard.

Is the team getting attention for firefighting, instead of preventing fires?

Is this a regular need? If so, should there be an on-call rotation, or a shifted schedule to address these "after hours" needs?

Does it really have to be resolved right then? Or can it truly wait until tomorrow?

If this is a "planned" need, then some pre-planning for resource coverage could be done. Volunteers, rotations, etc.

If this is not a planned need, then why is it happening, and is there a way to minimize it?

I think you get the idea. :-)

What's that old saying --- Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Perhaps this is how the person feels...

Or it could be like an old situation I was in a few years back. I put in over 200 hours of overtime over a 2-3 month period, and a few weeks later I was out for a day while my air conditioner at home was being repaired. I was told to take a vacation day to cover that. Guess how I felt about putting in any overtime after that!

Honestly I don't like this attitude. If an employee does his job well in the normal working works you can't force him to work overtime. He is not a slave and probably it may be illegal to force someone to work overtime. Is this how some project manager really deliver projects on time and on budget by making the life of the team members miserable?

Also I don't this it is appropriate for the PM to be allowed to ask employees to work overtime this is the responsibility of line managers and higher managers but even they can't break the law.

I have worked overtime for many times but nobody forced me to do this, I did it either because I really liked the work on the project or I was sympathetic with other colleagues that stayed longer.

If an employee is willing to work long hours is a matter of luck for the employer. Usually people that really enjoy their work their colleagues and the working environment would work overtimes and would do it on their own will. Apart from that forcing employees to work overtime under threat is inhumane and illegal.

You could reevaluate the workload, prioritize task leaving just task where he adds value. Replacing the individual might not be an easy task. Add a junior resource to handle what you have removed from his responsibility.

Many options could be considered, one would be acceptable to the project.

Work on building the team spirit and be inclusive, so he is more integrated!

Many other suggestions here are valuables.

This is interesting. If you've had conversations with him about team work hours and getting assigned work done by certain dates, then you are saying that he is not getting his work done or helping appropriately with team commitments?  Then how can he be considered a hard worker.  Before considering replacing him, it would be wise to simply sit and talk with him and everyone involved about  expectations and  ground rules, because something is not clear to him or the other individuals involved.

Someone has identified a gap in the regular completion of work.  Is he not getting the work assigned to him done?  Or is it a problem where that 1 or more individuals on the team is identifying work and he is not meeting a team commitment to get work done?

Someone mentioned earlier put the responsibility on him to ensure he completes his responsibilities at work.  If he is accomplishing personal and team commitments in the appropriate amount of time given him, is it wise to hold leaving work on time at 5:00?  If he left early, then you have an immediate issue, but you said he is on-time for work and he is not a slacker while at work.  But if he is not doing his part at around specifically 5:00, then further investigation is needed to determine why he chooses not to pitch in and help, or he is unable to pitch in and help at the late hour, or others are finding problems and not informing him in way so that he can appropriately respond.  You do not know until you sit down and talk with him and the individuals who have identified this gap.

What I am saying is that it shouldn't be a 5:00 only conversation. It needs to be broader with an emphasis on expectations, ground rules, leaving no gaps in work completion, and appropriate flexibility on the part of everyone involved.