Older EE No Longer Performing Tasks

LindaS

We have an EE who has been with the company for 34 years. During that time he has moved into several different positions, the most recent back in 1982 which was a maintenance position. At the time this position required very little skill and was basically a "back up" position. Through the years the requirements of this job have changed as the company has begun running "leaner". This EE has moved up the monetary scale as the job has moved through the grade levels but his skills were never updated accordingly. When there were more people in his department that was okay but now that there are only two, it really creates a problem.

Back in Oct. we attempted to rectify this situation and send him to a one-day seminar that would give him some of the basic skills he needs for the job but to no avail. The EE realized that this was a two-day class and he only went for one day and is now complaining that NOTHING was accomplished during the first day.

At this point I am at my wits end with what to do. I KNOW that he does not have the mental capacity to do the job but he is 50+ years old and is crying "discrimination". He has claimed that he is unable to write (even though he has done it before), that he has no electrical knowledge (even though the transfer requests HE completed stated that he had basic electrical knowledge) and has even gone so far as to state that since he is getting older he is "slowing down" and that we should not expect as much from him.

Bottom line, this EE likes the freedom he has to "roam" and "coffee clutch" due to his maintenance position but we can no longer afford to have him in this role. In addition, we are a union facility and this EE is a HUGE union person.

Any ideas on how to address this?

Thanks

LarryC

Linda, I don't know what you have documented so far , but I would certainly hold him to the essential job functions of the job. Plus he contradicted himself regarding his electrical knowledge, or was it lying. It's been years since I've worked in a union environment but I know that they can snarl this thing up good. Keep the focus on his essential job functions and go after his performance. Don't let the age thing ruin your focus or allow it to be used against you. All that is is a derailer. Unions , as I recall, are famous for trying to use irrelavence and emotion to derail a legitimate issue like poor performance.