Re:How to correct a team member: avoid my damaging rookie mi...
by zoomablemind on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @11:30AM
(#23081089)
> ...one of my team copied me in to his email reply to an external contact
> ... I decided to reprimand him for his email
It's not clear from the post what's the status differential of the involved. Is the author a manager, mentor or superior to the team member mentioned?
If there's not much of the differential, then taking such a formal approach (company emails are records!) is indeed an odd way to react to this. After all, the assessment of the "tone" is a judgement call.
If author was a superior by rank, then it's a matter of upholding the internal policies, which should not start with a "reprimand" but communicating the policies, giving training, helping to adopt it. This process can as well be delegated to avoid direct confrontation and unnecessary tension and guilt. Putting someone in a hot seat to "help me understand" is something from Great Inquisitor's playbook.
Didn't someone assign that less experienced team member to deal with the reply to the external contact? Let _that_ person deal with the fallout accordingly.
> ... I decided to reprimand him for his email
It's not clear from the post what's the status differential of the involved. Is the author a manager, mentor or superior to the team member mentioned?
If there's not much of the differential, then taking such a formal approach (company emails are records!) is indeed an odd way to react to this. After all, the assessment of the "tone" is a judgement call.
If author was a superior by rank, then it's a matter of upholding the internal policies, which should not start with a "reprimand" but communicating the policies, giving training, helping to adopt it. This process can as well be delegated to avoid direct confrontation and unnecessary tension and guilt. Putting someone in a hot seat to "help me understand" is something from Great Inquisitor's playbook.
Didn't someone assign that less experienced team member to deal with the reply to the external contact? Let _that_ person deal with the fallout accordingly.