Should I tell me boss about a co-worker several people are having issues with?

The Young Wan

I'm a full time editor at an e commerce company. We have one other FTE, and three student editors.

One of the student editors, Mary* is, to put it gently, causing a little chaos in the team. She's making decisions on what to do or write or how to lay out some things, without discussing it with the other team member first. This doesn't help when we're trying to keep our front end as uniform as possible.

She will completely bulldoze through systems and filing methods that had been working flawlessly and seamlessly for months, again without telling anyone or explaining why. One of the other student editors Katie* told me She has questioned it before, but gets a lot of pushback from Mary and then just doesn't feel comfortable bringing anything up anymore.

She has also thrown one of the other student editors a little under the bus, saying "well John* told me I should do this." When John came on for his shift, he told us "actually, I never said to do it that way at all."

I'm wondering if it's time to suggest some extra training and guidance for Mary. Mary has been in the company since August, I've only been here since October, but I am one of the full time stuff and my co-full time editor Susan*, who has been here for 10 years, has said "your word is just as valid as mine, we are on a level pegging in this team. There is no seniority between you and I, just in terms of how long one of us has been in the company."

Is it something I should bring to my team leader? Discuss with Mary personally and privately first? Organise a team refresher in the guise of training Mary so as not to single her out?

* names changed

Flinty997

Are any of your processes and standards documents so they can be referred to and revised.

bucketybuck

You sound too polite, I would have went through her for a short cut by this stage.

I would speak to her and make it clear that she needs to toe the company line. If you aren't comfortable doing that then you need to speak to the boss, but somebody needs to do it.

Jim2007

You course of action should be determined by your relationship to Mary and the impact of her work on you. If you are responsible for her work then you should be taking charge and sorting the issue out. If not and her work is impacting you then you should raise the issue with your lead.

backwards_man

A student anything should not be given bandwidth to change rules or processes. In a calm, polite way point out that her way is incorrect, re iterate the process and tell her she is expected to follow it next time or be removed from the project/work to do further training. If you have no authority over her or her work, tell her direct manager that she cant follow simple instructions. You are walking on eggshells around her. The is a learning opportunity for her, if she cant follow a process she cant do the job.

Jequ0n

Are you all really young by any chance? I really cannot understand why everyone seems to be condoning this person’s behaviour.