

How to deal with deceptive time logs from a vital contractor? - founder_anon

I am an American founder of an online startup. I'm using a developer in Belarus and am generally very happy with his diligence and the quality of his work, to say nothing of his hourly rate. He was recently promoted within a large IT company in Belarus, so it's not surprising that his work is of high quality.<p>We met in person once when I was in Belarus. I am a pretty good judge of people, and I liked him very much. He hasn't figured out how I can get money to him in Belarus yet, but he's willing to work anyway, because of his complete trust that I'll pay him.<p>His time logs have always looked a little inflated, however, and lately they are more so. Further, I recently noticed an error in his time logs so large that it clearly shows sloppiness, at best, on his part. Certain time entries not possible because I didn't even give him the specs for that work until a few days later. (And for various reasons, I know he didn't simply record the wrong day.)<p>I am willing to cut him some slack because he's from a different culture, he's in his early 20s, and I am his first moonlighting client. I am inclined to attribute these problems to his youth and inexperience, and perhaps aspects of Belarusian culture, rather than malice or deceit. Also, his role in the project at this point is so crucial that firing him would be a crippling loss. That said, I am only willing to work with someone I can trust -- so we need to clear this up ASAP.<p>Have any of you been through a similar situation? Do you have advice about how to handle it?<p>I just discovered this a few minutes ago and have not said anything to him yet. I'd like our mutual trust to go up, rather than down, as a result of our conversation about this topic.
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staunch
Two common reasons this happens in my experience:

1\. He's dissatisfied with the rate he agreed to. He's inexperienced and so
instead of renegotiating he's just inflating to make it worth his time. If you
pushed him down on price he may feel stuck. If you refuse to increase his rate
or allow for padding he'll probably walk at some point pretty soon. No one
likes to feel taken advantage of.

2\. He might do more work that you're unaware of, like prototyping and
research, on his own initiative. It's easier to attribute that time to
something you asked him to do rather than something he decided needed to be
done.

P.S. Why would it be hard to pay him? International wire transfers are
absolutely trivial.

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egorfine
Absolutely trivial unless you live in a legacy of soviet union where every
person having any business with the rest of the world is considered a spy or a
criminal at the very least. :(

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joeld42
If you really get along with him and like his work, ask him if he'd rather get
payed by the project or task rather than jumping through hoops of filling out
timecards.

Also, please pay him ASAP.

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founder_anon
Thanks. Yeah, I've actually given him some money already via a mutual friend.
Still working out a long-term approach.

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egorfine
I live in Kiev, Ukraine, which is the same cultural environment as Belarus. I
perfectly agree with staunch - those two reasons are completely valid.

But he might also get a bad intent for you despite good coding. One doesn't
exclude another.

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larrys
The technique I would use is to tell him that someone else (partner, investor,
bookeeper) notice "X" and you are passing it to him to clear up any confusion.
Hopefully he will get the message. This also brings up another point I often
recommend. Don't appear to be the sole decision maker, always have a "bad cop"
that you can blame for things you need to do.

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founder_anon
Thank you.

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yashchandra
If he is really good at what he does and you want to keep him obviously, it is
a little more challenging. You must have a frank conversation with him about
this as soon as possible. May be you can arrange a quick call with him and say
something like _hey I noticed your time logs might have discrepancies. Just
wanted to talk about it and make sure we are on the same page._ Then ask him
clearly _Is this a mistake because I was just wondering about this item x that
I did not have the specs ready for but your time logs shows an entry for a day
earlier etc. I understand that mistakes like this can happen but I am trying
to track our efforts into this product and want to keep as realistic as
possible. Let me know if you have any questions._ Then let him say what he
thinks about it. If he was just trying to test you, he will realize that you
are smarter than that and he will probably stop. If he still does not stop
this, that is a major red flag for what could come later for you. Good luck!!

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founder_anon
Thank you for your suggested phrasing. I appreciate it; it helped me think
about what tone to adopt.

