How to handle a paid employee

Our community does not have a management company, but rather a paid administrative assistant. She does our banking, paper work etc. Recently her work performance has been falling below par and I feel she has to be spoken to. She does not like to be corrected. My question is simply, should I speak to her in private or speak to her in front of the Board at the Board meeting? We have a near zero community turnout at our meetings and if we did have other than Board members present, the problem would not be discussed. I have very high standards and will not tolerate poor work. ( I am president of our HOA)

Lee,
How would you feel if your employer reprimanded you in front of everyone in the office? Not good business practices. This should be done with the entire Board present but that is all. No member involvement. Boards are elected to handle the operations of the association and employees are under that catagory. Why embarass the assistant in front of everyone? If word got out to other prospective employees, who would want to work for your association? Gosh, even the Florida Statutes protect employees from public discussions with the members.

Our docs do not state who has the authority. It does state that the pres. overlooks. I do not want to speak to her alone. I feel it is a Board problem and the entire Board should be present. I agree with you as to have a staff idiscussion. My purpose is not to embarress and I feel all Board members should evaluate her performance. I do not want to put this on the agenda, as our agenda is posted, do I just add this "agenda" to the end of our meeting?

I somewhat disagree with what some have posted here. I don't know how many board members you have but I wouldn't have a "quorum" of board members present. I (personally) feel that only two board members should be present. It should be the president and one other board member who should mostly be silent but be a witness to the "reprimand" or whatever is being said to this employee; and to sign (as a witness) whatever "write-up" or action is taken.

This employee may have some deeply personal problems which are causing her work to suffer. She may open up with only two people there. But if she sees five or seven or more people "ganging up" on her, she may simply get defensive.

Lee,

What Donna has posted as the FL law is the same as AZ's open meeting law. With this being addressed in state law, IMO, the board should discuss this matter in a closed session of the board. I believe there are Fed. laws which protect employee's rights and that is why this type discussion is reserved for a closed session. I also believe this is a matter for the whole board to discuss. The board members should be given info regarding the employee's work performance before the meeting so they will be prepared to discuss whatever problem areas there might be.

Florida Statute 468.431 states that an association of 10 or more units and a budget over $100,000 requires hired persons for some of the duties describe must be licensed as a Community Association Manager.