Why do employees lack initiative and need constant hand-holding?
Managers get burnt out because staff constantly ping them with basic questions and ask for help resolving simple errors instead of thinking for themselves. This forces leaders to repeatedly check in and fix work, turning management into an exhausting cycle of repeating instructions.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Making staff bring a proposed answer or solution with every question
- 2Asking questions back to help them get to the answer
- 3Writing procedures, standards, and checklists
- 4Keeping quiet and strictly executing assigned instructions without offering suggestions.
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m just so burnt out and tired of constantly needing to check in on people (because god forbid anyone takes any initiative), fixing their work, answering their stupid questions and repeating myself over and over and over again.”source ↗
“The ping wasn’t hey, it says this is retired so I’m going to delete it. And just letting me know. It was asking me to help resolve the error so that they can complete the form.”source ↗
“Many times in the past I've suggested things and they're implemented and then something goes wrong and I get blamed, something goes right and people forget that I'm the one who suggested it.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 12Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?
- 38How to deal with uncooperative coworkers who don't do their work
- 12How to deal with a manager who is confidently wrong
- 2How to manage an older employee with more experience who undermines you
- 3How to deal with an unqualified employee who is impossible to fire
- 8Why is handling employee relations so overwhelming?