The co-worker or subordinate that is a slacker is a large problem in any entity. These are the people that started early with the "Dog ate my homework" routine and have been at it ever since. We are attempting to establish a department devoted to foiling these characters. Its success will in large part depend on you providing anecdotes, success stories, pleas for help, suggestions to solve pleas for help and so forth. So, we need your contributions. We'll keep them anonymous.

You are the maintenance manager and have a bunch of subordinates, both supervisors and hourly workers, which are poor at following up on assignments. What do you do?

First, you make sure they have the message that follow up is important. Second, you make sure they have the tools and training necessary to do the job. Third, you document their performance towards the goal of replacing them (without being the recipient of a lawsuit or unfair labor practice citation) if they do not improve.

With whom do you replace them? The best people, managers and hourly workers, I have ever found for maintenance came from hospitals. If you have been responsible for making sure a surgical room does not go down in the middle of an operation, you know and have the attitude to do good maintenance work. Some others tell me they think airplane mechanics are the best--I disagree. Airplane mechanics are somewhat removed from the lives they hold in their hands. No hospital is so big that a maintenance worker can become detached from their errors.