my assistant is always eating instead of working

A reader writes:

I inherited an entry-level administrative assistant, Mary, who has been failing to make deadlines and repeating preventable mistakes, and who has major issues with focusing at work.

She tangled with her last manager because she felt attacked when asked to explain missed deadlines and now has been passed off to me. My team typically works 9-5, eats breakfast before we start work, and typically takes an hour or less for lunch breaks. We don’t have a break room, so most of us eat lunch at our desks.

One large source of distraction for Mary is that she will spend up to four hours a day eating, and when she is eating her work trickles to a halt. It is not unusual for her to arrive after 10 AM with breakfast in hand and spend an hour slowly snacking with a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. She will order takeout for lunch that requires leaving for an hour to pick it up (we are in a traffic congested city) and then munch on it over the course of another two hours. Then she picks at a snack or lunch leftovers from 4-5 PM. While she is eating, her laptop is open but very little work is done or she is scrolling on her cell phone. On most days she only has 3-4 productive hours in the day. None of this extended snacking would matter if she was doing adequate work, but now when I get handed poor work with excuses, all I can think of is the two-hour spaghetti break that took place while she was supposed to be working.

We work in an open plan office, so all of this is happening within feet of other team mates, who have admitted to being distracted by this drawn-out eating ritual. It feels like she’s using eating to avoid working, but I don’t know how to address it without seeming like I’m picking on her. Other people eat at their desks but they all get their work done. I’m also sensitive to the fact that many people have complicated relationships with eating. I wouldn’t like it if someone made me feel self-conscious about eating at work.

This isn’t really about the eating, it is about the time spent not working. I really wouldn’t care if she for eight hours straight as long as she got her work done, but she is regularly dropping the ball and also not working full days.

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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