Dealing with overconfident engineer
I'm looking for advice on how to give feedback. I'm dealing with a young engineer who's been the most challenging employee on my team.
I genuinely care and take an individualized approach with all members of my team. I also strongly believe in providing feedback during 1-on-1s as needed, rather than waiting for formal quarterly reviews or using the sandwich method, which is often unclear and can lead to misunderstandings.
So here is the pickle I'm having:
\- an employee with high ambitions and voicing a desire to start PMing tasks or even projects
\- four years of experience total
\- great personality and awesome communication skills when it comes to networking, going to training, organizing random admin things, and personal conversation
\- highlight liked
\- Need for reviewing work before sending to senior staff discussed on repeat, significant discrepancies in quantity take-offs, and a lack of organization
\- doesn't see the big picture of how much is on average on a PM plate, and when it's appropriate to insert opinions on others' work
Latest issue: the employee was given a lead design role on a project as a growth opportunity, and left the PM hanging on submission day by leaving early. The assigned work was not completed. Obviously not revived. During daily communication leading up to the submission day, nothing was mentioned. Pm had to pick up the slack.
At this point, it's becoming a trust issue, and IDK how to approach this feedback. The reviews of work, to the extent I've been doing them recently, are not maintainable. The employee doesn't take feedback well or act on it per the above.
The dynamic between us is also off. I took over from more experienced supervisors, and from the start, I felt there was some disrespect and cockiness in offhand comments directed at me, which left me speechless at times. I've decided to pick my battles and concentrate on the product delivered.
I would appreciate seasoned supervisors who know how to approach this. I'm slowly giving up and keep thinking I will need to provide the same feedback over and over.