My employee calls in sick after negative feedback

"Two years ago, I began managing Craig, who had been doing the same tasks day in and day out for a decade. He hadn't adapted to new technology, best practices, or industry trends. My first order of business was to coach him and challenge him to grow and learn. For more than a year, we built up a great trajectory. People saw how much his work improved and commented on it frequently, and said he seemed revitalized in many ways."

"Recently, he has started calling in sick the day after receiving even the mildest negative feedback. If a project goes off the rails or has to be delayed, we work on the problem until it's solved and later debrief about what went wrong. During the debriefs, I let Craig take the lead and I ask open-ended questions. I'm careful to keep it factual and focused on learning for next time. He assesses his work honestly and takes appropriate responsibility for missteps."

"I should be clear that the missteps are not disasters. There's no drama. Nobody is angry and nobody points fingers. I've let a lot of these things go that I would have otherwise corrected. The problems I do raise are things with an impact on other teams: missed deadlines, not completing something he had committed to, etc. He says all the right things about wanting to improve, but unlike last year, it just hasn't happened."

A manager coached an employee who had performed the same tasks for a decade, producing marked improvement over a year. Six months ago the employee reverted to old patterns and stopped sustaining progress. The employee began calling in sick after even mild negative feedback and became withdrawn upon return. Debriefs remain factual and learning-focused; the employee acknowledges mistakes but then misses work. The errors are minor but affect other teams through missed deadlines and uncompleted commitments. Earlier success demonstrated capability, and the manager has withheld stricter corrections, yet the employee has not improved and the manager is unsure how to help.

Read at Fast Company