Dear Bob ... I run a small IT shop for a 400 person company. Part of my group is a 4-person team that is responsible for core custom applications and processes.The team is composed of a project lead, 2 programmers and a student programmer. We are an IT services company. One of the things we are always looking for is new talent. We use the IT team in part to vet new talent. We accept people with limited on no ex Dear Bob …I run a small IT shop for a 400 person company. Part of my group is a 4-person team that is responsible for core custom applications and processes.The team is composed of a project lead, 2 programmers and a student programmer.We are an IT services company. One of the things we are always looking for is new talent. We use the IT team in part to vet new talent. We accept people with limited on no experience, give them the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and gain experience, and then move them onto contracts. Our goal is to discover talented individuals before they are found by competitors, allow them to prove themselves and reduce the risk associated with putting unproven individuals on contracts to support our customers. This is a win-win situation when it works but it can create headaches when it doesn’t. A headache is what I’m experiencing right now and I’m hoping you can help me get rid of it without consuming an entire bottle of Tylenol.About 6 months ago I accepted a transfer of a person from a program that was suffering budget cutbacks into a programmer position that was open at the time. The program manager assured me that the person, while junior, would be able to grow and with a little more experience would be able to move to contract support. We’ve spent the last 6 months trying to train this person and the person still doesn’t grasp basic concepts. It is apparent that the person is a junior programmer, will always be a junior programmer, and will never grow to the next level. Just for background, we define a junior programmer as someone who can, when given the answer to a problem, convert the answer into code. A programmer is someone who can be given a problem, will come up with the answer and will turn that into code.We need programmers or people who can become programmers. When we put junior programmers on contracts our customers see the amount of support they require and ask us to remove them. A junior programmer who cannot grow to programmer status is someone who occupies a spot on my team that could be occupied by someone who could become a programmer, siphons resources from other tasks since that person cannot complete their task without support, and reduces the ability of the team to complete projects on time for the company. A junior programmer who cannot become a programmer is someone we cannot use. So I went to Human Resources. HR said I had to fill out an Employee Counseling Form, review the form with the individual, and then over some period of time (say 30 days) demonstrate that the person can’t meet the requirements of the job. So now I’m in the 30 days. I have a disgruntled employee who is convinced I am out to get him, a supervisor who before was complaining about how much effort this person required but is now sympathetic to the individual’s “plight”, a process in which every problem is described in detail (e.g. solved) prior to assigning it to the person, and a situation at the end of which it will probably just be me making the decision I thought was the right decision in the beginning which is to terminate the person’s employment.There’s got to be a better way! Help me out. How do I resolve this? More importantly how do I keep this from happening in the future?– Dumping ground Dear Dumpster …This kind of thing is far more common in larger companies. Unproductive employees can remain employed for years as the result of managers who are unwilling to take the hard step of terminating them instead inflictng them on other, unsuspecting managers. It’s a bit like the fruitcake your Aunt Denise gave you as a present last year, which you, in turn, are planning to give to Cousin Eddie this year.What should you do? First, have one more conversation with “the person” (Clyde, for the sake of convenience). It’s short: “Clyde, you’re angry with me about the situation and there’s no reason to be. This is about how well your skills and abilities fit what this company needs. They don’t. You’re a good person, and I hope you turn it around. So far you haven’t proven yourself to be a good programmer. We’ve made it clear what you have to do to succeed here. The rest is up to you, not me.”Next, have a one-on-one conversation with the supervisor who is now concerned over Clyde’s plight and explain, as diplomatically as possible, “Get off my back.” Don’t say it that way, of course. Say something closer to this: “You’re putting me in an impossible situation. When Clyde reported to you, he never progressed beyond junior grade either. You can’t use him, and he’s no use to me either. I need you to support my position that between us we’ve given Clyde every chance and it’s time to find someone else who has a better chance of succeeding here.”If you continue to take heat, from anyone, offer to transfer Clyde to their supervision immediately, but point out that all the company is doing is to avoid dealing with the real problem, which is that Clyde is simply a bad fit for what the company needs. How do you avoid the problem in the future? The answer depends a lot on whether managers are honest when writing performance appraisals. If they are, you really don’t have a problem – merely an annoyance: When someone transferred in doesn’t work out, you have their past appraisals under other managers to reinforce your actions. If they aren’t, you might have to interview each potential transfer into your department, just as you’d interview a new hire, and reject those that cause you concern.One other step that might be worth taking, depending on the chemistry and politics of the company: Sit down privately with the CEO and explain that it appears some accounts are using internal IT as the dumping ground for associates who fail to prove themselves in the field. Make it clear that you’re okay with that, so long as everyone understands that this is one of your roles – providing a less visible last chance for these people to demonstrate their abilities. What you aren’t okay with is having this happen and then taking heat when the most likely outcome occurs.“What do you want me to do?” some CEOs will ask. “No action required,” is your best response. “I’m perfectly willing to deal directly with everyone involved. I just need to have your support when I have to do what’s necessary.”– Bob ——– Technology Industry