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iQuestions Faculty, Pat Gelsinger 
 
 
Question: 
 
How do you deal with employees that don’t pull their own weight in the 
work place? 
 
Answer:  
 
How do you deal with an employee who doesn’t get the job done?  
 
As a manager, the first and simple rule is to deal with it. It becomes 
your responsibility to make sure the team and the employees in that 
team are pulling their weight or getting the job done.  
 
You’re not doing anybody any favors by not taking care of a difficult or 
an unproductive employee. The employee isn’t doing great in the 
assignment, so it’s not good for them. The team will know that 
somebody’s not pulling their weight, so it’s not good for the team. It’s 
not good for the company, and it doesn’t reflect well on you as a 
supervisor. Who exactly is this helping by you not taking care of that 
situation? 
 
So, the first rule is you’ve got to deal with it—and very simply, you’ve 
got to engage with that employee in understanding, presenting to him 
a clear set of expectations for what the job is. Where is he falling 
short? Be articulate. Present that.  
 
Often, it requires some hard work to really think through what and 
how you can help that employee to be more productive, and then sit 
down and have that conversation. But always have in the back of your 
mind that it’s to make them more effective, and to make the team and 
the company more effective as well. 
 
 
 
If you get that mindset in place, you’re ready to have what might be 
seen as a hard conversation, and realize that this is a conversation 
about making everybody better and more successful. 
 
After you’ve had that conversation, set out a clear plan of action: 
“These are the things, and we’ll be back and continue this conversation 
thirty, ninety, or a hundred and twenty days from now. Here are the 
areas of what we expect to see in terms of improvement in 
performance, and here are the character traits that I’m expecting as a 
manager to see improved.” 
 
If you approach it that way, really think about it, knowing that this is 
the best thing for everyone involved, you’ll probably find significant 
improvement in the employee as well as in the team. 
 
 
 
 
 
Gelsinger -2- 
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