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Last week I hired a friend of friend to work on my projects. Hes a young and friendly guy. However he never worked in actual office and it shows. During the meeting he brings his phone and in the middle of explaining he pulls out his phone to respond someone back. Basically lacks professionalism and has this young person cockiness where he thinks he is competent to handle everything while in reality last week he did 2-3 hours worth of work. I want to set up some boundaries but I dont want to seen as a harsh dictator. On the other hand Im paying him over the top even though he doesnt have skills, but the least I want to is a decent attitude and effort. How u would advice me to approach this and teach him to get his shit together? Im already becoming resentful and next week if he keeps treating his work like a school project I will let him go.

Im really trying to setup a nice environment for him to work at, I rented a nice office in a hub space and also bought entirely new laptop plus monitor setup for him to work. I even took him for drinks and lunches but for some reason I start to feel that hes taking that shit for granted and Im being too good.

Hes not proactive, it seems that he will do bare minimum that I give him.

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  • 0
    @rutee07 I will try to setup some boundaries next week. Such as talking about work in work and eliminating distractions. I saw how others work in my hub and have some idea of how he should work. If fucker doesnt put in effort and I see him multiple times throughout the day taking 30 minutes to do a simple task while sitting on facebook then i will let him go
  • 3
    Did you sign a contract stipulating what he is expected to do.

    Thats even more important with friends and extended friends as it makes it very clear what was agreed.

    But I would tell him you pay for his time while working, that means you tell him what to do and when.

    If that does not suit him he’s free to go somewhere else.

    Also, before this, tell your friend that you will enforce the rules first, so in case they come running to your friend they already know.

    If your friend is really a friend and not a leach they will appreciate that you help hammer some sense in the kid, and if they complain then they just want you to pay fir their friends needs in which case your friend is not a friend but just abusing your friendship.

    I know this might seem harsh but I have seen such abusive friendship and the result.

    My firmer boss had a friend that asked if their son could get a work.

    He agreed but after just a few months we kicked him out because of attitude and incompetence.

    Thankfully our boss was with us on this and when his friend came complaining he told him to raise his son him self.

    The boss had no tolerance for that kind of entitlement ;)
  • 0
    @Voxera I havent signed a contract yet since Im trying to save on taxes and at the same time I wanted to test the waters. However we agreed on his monthly wage and I told him he will transition to official contract in 1-2 months if everything goes fine. Although I dont think that signing a paper would change anything, like u said he needs a bit more growing up to do. Or maybe my projects dont interest him idk.
  • 1
    Brother, he is behaving like you trained him. Gave him high salary, office etc hence he thinks he is god. It is your fault. Now, stop being nice guy and tell him what you have to tell and live with cosequences and probable bitching.

    Poor guy is probably living in illusion you crafted for him
  • 2
    Reminds me of myself. Even if I earned thrice as much and were provided equipment it wouldn't help, because I have no clue what's normal. Don't expect him to appreciate things and work harder, rather make your expectations and problems very clear.
  • 3
    Not exactly the same situation, but I strongly agree on talking to him. When I was reorganizing teams in the company, one engineer just could not accept this - he only considered his direct PM as an authority. He even told me who do I think I am :). So I let him vent for some time and then told him his options, including the one I knew he would not want (to go in a completely different team doing different type of work). I was not arguing at all.

    After I finished, his response was (after a bit of silence during which his PM was scared he’d resign): “Thanks, now I understand the boundaries!”

    Since then, he is one of the most committed team members. I knew I needed this guy - he represents the core of the culture and brand. But no way I will allow such attitude towards me or other team members.

    So yes, stand up for your values, way of working, expectations. Be prepared for negative outcome, but consider this as a journey.
  • 0
    @F1973 How can I check the thought proccess? Can u give some example?
  • 0
    @F1973 It seems that I did that already, made that "nutcase check". Thats why I hired a noob, because I hired him because of his personality not because of his skills.
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