My employee is wasting too much time with bad ideas

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues: from how to deal with a micro-managing boss< /em> how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

Here is a summary of responses to four questions from readers.

1. My employee is wasting too much time with bad ideas

I am responsible for a very busy small office. I have an employee who works part-time and only comes in a few afternoons a week. She wastes an awful lot of time pontificating over every little detail of her work, always making suggestions on how things could be improved, and constantly seeking my opinion on every little thing. I'm always open to suggestions, but when she makes suggestions it's normally a long conversation about how and why etc. and I often end up explaining that we tried to do this before and it didn't work and these are the whys, but I'm extremely busy and find it really frustrating and a waste of time. She is also very quick to blame me on other staff for mistakes she finds, even if they have more complicated and busy workloads and they are all there full time.

I always recommend that staff send me suggestions for future team meetings, but she herself sent me more suggestions than everyone else combined. She also started texting me on my day off, even though there are senior staff to direct questions to that day. Any suggestions on how to handle this would be really appreciated.

Green responds:

"Jane, as you are only here a few afternoons a week, I need you to spend that time concentrating on your work. I find that we are spending too much of your work time reviewing suggestions and very few details about your work. Plan to have a short meeting to check in every week (or every two weeks, depending on the nature of his work), but otherwise I need that you stay focused on your work the rest of the time, you're here." Then schedule that meeting for a specific amount of time (maybe 30 minutes, depending on what's needed for their job) and stick to an agenda. Most of this time should be spent checking on her projects, but you can set aside time at the end for anything she wants to raise. But respect the time you have given it and respect the end time.

When she belittles other staff: "Ray is a great staff member and I'm surprised by your tone." And if it happens again: "I'm concerned about the tone I've heard you use repeatedly about this stuff. What's going on?"

When she texts you on your day off: "I'm not working today. Please contact Portia." (Or, if you can reasonably expect her to know which days you don't work - if they're always the same every week - you can talk about it once and then, after that, don't answer until you you're not back to work.)

Also: is she good at her job? Is it efficient? I have a feeling it isn't, and this could all be a symptom of a larger issue that you need to address. If I'm wrong about that and she's great at her job, then be really direct about those specific changes you need from her...but I think it's worth looking into further. detail.

2. Should we consider a candidate's burning political views when hiring?

We recently interviewed a candidate who previously held a position at an organization involved in a burning issue. This candidate is also very involved in the issue through social media and posts in support of his position on the issue. The candidate was purely professional during his interview and did not mention his position on the question. They only talked about the work they were doing within the organization. That said, it was pretty straightforward to deduce which side they were on.

How much that...