How to handle a struggling contract-to-hire employee who isn't working out
Deciding whether to offer a permanent position to an eager contractor who is overpaid, oversteps boundaries, and is difficult to justify at their current salary creates a challenging dilemma. Managers often feel conflicted because the person tries hard, but the misalignment and high cost make it hard to justify keeping them on.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
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How to handle a struggling contract-to-hire employee who isn't working out
- 1Seeking feedback and advice from peers on HR subreddits to evaluate the hiring decisionDid this help you?
- 2Hiring a plumber first to check for plumbing leaks.Did this help you?
- 3comparing the scope of work line by lineDid this help you?
- 4checking for manufacturer and workmanship warrantiesDid this help you?
- 5looking into insurance and referencesDid this help you?
- 6rejecting significantly lower bids due to suspected corner-cuttingDid this help you?
- 7Temporarily bracing the damaged structure and waiting for an insured businessDid this help you?
- 8Watching YouTube videos and attempting a DIY repair with materials from a hardware storeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It looks like I may have a leak somewhere in my serving floor bedroom walls. On the other side of the wall is the bathroom and shower. I also want to note that above my ceiling is the roof. We got the roof done last year and I don’t think it’s the roof leak but I can’t be too sure. Any Advice on how to start this repair?”source ↗
“finding a contractor to fix it has been a massive headache because they’re all super busy.”source ↗
“I’m worried about the lack of insurance on the first guy.”source ↗
“Should I just roll the dice on an uninsured contractor?”source ↗
“I’ve tried, but most of the YouTube videos I’ve watched aren’t really that helpful and my success rate with attempting diy projects isnt great lol”source ↗
“The cheapest quote I got was from a family owned business that’s been around less than a year.”source ↗
“As the resale value of my home is already not great, I don’t know that I want to dump a bunch of money into it.”source ↗
“However, I REALLY do not want to pay 13k for a roof and then have some catastrophic failure in the next few years.”source ↗
“I’m just unsure of the risk with a project like this.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 8How do I know if I can afford to hire my first employee?
- 28Is newly finished contractor work actually acceptable?
- 17Is hiring a wedding coordinator actually worth the money?
- 59How do I know if I can DIY a repair or need a pro?
- 7How to find and hire reliable contractors after property damage
- 3How to tell if unlicensed electrical work is dangerous