u/saltunderdatable

I’m looking for advice on a difficult situation and how to protect myself as a manager.

I was recently promoted into a manager role, this individual was moved out of said management role into a technical lead role due to performance concerns, as the organisation needed to act quickly. No formal PIP was put in place at that time.

I now manage this person directly, and they are still not performing.

Since taking over, I’ve set clear expectations, documented missed deliverables, and provided ongoing feedback. I’ve also tried to support them directly through templates, clarification, and working through tasks with them, but I’m still regularly having to correct or complete work myself.

There are also concerns around communication and adherence to direction, including bypassing me to engage senior management and at least one instance of ignoring a direct instruction that resulted in a compliance issue.

HR and my manager are now aligned that a formal PIP should go ahead.

I’m fine with documenting performance and setting clear expectations, but I’m struggling with the expectation that I also need to fix the underlying capability gap.

This person was hired for their technical skill set, so the expectation is that they should already be able to do the core parts of the role. I don’t have that level of technical expertise in this specific area, so I can’t realistically train them up to that standard while also completing the other aspects of my job.

Has anyone dealt with something similar?
How do you push back on being made the “owner” of a PIP when you don’t believe you’re in a position to actually remediate the underlying issue?

I’m looking for some advice because I’m genuinely unsure what to do next in a management situation. I want to help this person succeed, and I have taken this as a challenge to try and turn the situation around. However, despite trying multiple approaches, I feel like I have reached a point where I am running out of ideas and drowning in work.

I’m historically a manager at my company but had stepped back into a part-time/casual role and was originally intended to work in another department. Around three weeks ago, I was brought in to take over a seasonal program after the existing manager (A) was struggling to deliver it. A was moved out of the management role and now reports directly to me as a lead.

I recognise three weeks is a short period to assess someone, but this is not a new issue. This is A’s second year with the program. Similar concerns existed last year, but the program was smaller and I was not involved at that stage. This year, work was missed, deadlines slipped, and others had to absorb significant responsibilities, which is why I was brought in.

What I find difficult to understand is that A is actually more qualified than I am in this area. They have extensive training specifically in building and delivering programs, including building and leading teams, and they have previous experience doing similar work.

When we discussed the situation, A explained they were struggling with the workload, expected more freedom and autonomy, and felt external factors were creating barriers.

Since taking over, I have reduced the complexity of their workload, broken tasks into smaller pieces, provided clear templates and examples, and checked in regularly.

However, even with this level of support, they are struggling to complete very basic planning and administrative tasks independently. More concerningly, if I am not closely involved, they can create further issues by having conversations or making decisions without fully understanding the current situation, creating confusion and additional work for the wider team.

At the moment, I feel like my time is split between repairing the program, supervising A closely to prevent further issues, and trying to move the program forward. It is becoming difficult to balance all three.

A is genuinely pleasant to work with. They accept feedback, agree to tasks, and appear to want to improve. I cannot identify where the breakdown is occurring.

Has anyone dealt with someone who has the qualifications, training, and knowledge on paper but struggles to turn that into reliable execution? How did you determine whether it was a coaching issue, a capability issue, a mismatch with the role, or a point where formal performance management was needed?

Hey, hoping for some advice and sorry if this has been asked before, I couldn’t quite find something that matched my situation.

I used to ride quite a lot and could comfortably do long distances, push hard on climbs, and generally keep up well. Even when I’ve taken time off or gained weight in the past, I’ve usually been able to get back into form fairly quickly.

This time feels different though.

I’m currently coming back from my heaviest weight (113kg in March, now ~99kg), and while I am improving, it’s been slower and harder than I expected. I’m struggling on climbs, getting dropped by friends I used to ride with easily, and I’m not really hitting the same distances or intensity yet.

I live in a pretty hilly area and have already started doing some harder/threshold-style climbs during rides.

Just wondering if this is mainly a case of needing to be patient and keep building consistency, or if I should actually be changing how I’m training and approaching rides.

I’m 31, so I’m also not sure if recovery/return to fitness naturally slows a bit, or if I’m just overthinking comparisons to a lighter/fitter version of myself.

I’m pretty competitive so I know I’ll get there eventually, it just feels a bit frustrating in the meantime.

Any advice from people who’ve been in a similar spot would be appreciated.