I’m sorry to say that during my short tenure working in the IT department at AMD long ago, I learned much more about what NOT to do than what to do when it came to managing people.
Soon after I arrived, I began accumulating responsibilities and staff. At one point, I had nineteen direct reports (way too many for a single manager), split between Austin, Texas, and Sunnyvale, California.
One of those employees was clearly not carrying her weight in the organization. I began to hear reports that she was getting other employees to do her job and was accomplishing about half as much as any other person in the group. I tried to work with her and sent her for additional training, but the problem didn’t improve.
I kept my boss informed all along the way and was ready to terminate the employee. When I mentioned this to my boss, he told me that she would first have to be put on a performance improvement plan for a quarter before we could get rid of her. I thought this was likely a waste of time …
