Sandbaggers: A Guide for Understanding and Managing Underachievers

Abstract

Managers never fire people. People fire themselves. As a manager what can be done when encountering a problem employee? When does one use techniques such as motivation and counseling and when is it time to let the employee go? The first step is being able to identify an underachiever. Through research and a series of interviews with individuals in managerial positions, methods were examined for identifying and evaluating an underachiever, and determining if poor performance is due to a lack of ability, poor training or just plain disinterest in the position. The interviews provided several solutions to solve the problem of an underachieving worker such as providing incentives, positive feedback and allowing your employees to feel their voice can be heard. The interviewees explained that although unfortunately some employees do have to be terminated sometimes, the better managers understand their employees’ abilities and needs the better a chance they have of having happy productive employees as well as saving their companies time and money of rehiring new individuals.