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I have one very smart coworker that I am hired to manage as a member of my team. He is been with the company for over 8 years, so he has made a few signs "do not manage me, I know what needs to be done". I am NOT a micro-manager and actually welcome and appreciate when employees are self-sufficient, however it has becoming a recent frustration on multiple fronts, specifically:

1) About a month ago, I have sent an email to the group suggesting using variable names,let's call them: "red", "yellow", "green". Had a couple of meetings after that, no one has objected. So I thought we are OK. To my amazement, that co-worker has started using different variables "black" and "blue". It is not the end of the world, yet is my expectation that my directives are for the team to use?

2) Another part of our job is to taking care of some compliance tests, filling out the mandatory testing paperwork, etc -a bit tedious, yet vital part of our job. My "smart yet insubordinate" employee is ignoring that task as well - I got some reminders from the management that "hey, one of your co-workers has missed his paperwork". I have tried politely reminding him of that part of the job -he replied "It will not help if you keep reminding me of that " .

3) He does not ask my opinion on anything and does not share the "secret sauce" of what he has learned on the job - being in the same company for 8 years. When I make mistake because I do not know how and why things are done certain way - I feel that I am thrown under the bus.

I know it is not normal, but he is otherwise a very smart, valuable to the company, knowledgable and socially likeable person: I think that insubordination comes partially of "a job security syndrome" and partially of his resentment of me. While he has never applied for my position, he clearly has some other manager in mind instead of me.

Any advice in a situation like this?

user33445
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    (1) Did you suggest or direct? If the former he's entitled to disagee. – keshlam Jun 04 '15 at 19:02
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    Have you ever talked to your colleague privately? You're the manager and should really be having regular meeting to ensure that they're achieving what they want to personally and to bring up any issues early... – Ben Jun 04 '15 at 19:02
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    Have IT take an old underpowered computer with the smallest screen available and load it with the minimum that the dev needs to do his job. And replace his computer with it overnight Have that locked down so that he can not install anything or run anything except the minimum. Block his access outside the firewall. Stop assigning good tasks to him and reassign all of his tasks to people who are playing ball. Then write him up until he starts complying or quits/gets fired. – IDrinkandIKnowThings Jun 04 '15 at 19:23
  • I'm confused. Is this a co-worker or an employee? – LindaJeanne Jun 04 '15 at 19:40
  • I have to wonder if perhaps expectations with this worker are unclear? You go back and forth between describing him as a "coworker" (peer) and an "employee" (someone who reports to you). You refer to the same statement as a "suggestion" (optional) in one place, and a "directive" (mandatory) in another. I have to wonder if your being a bit to tentative in your management attempts? – LindaJeanne Jun 04 '15 at 21:22
  • I hope you mean you want them to write yellow, instead they write _yellow/Yellow/YELLOW, otherwise to dictate variable name is definition of micromanaging. 2) probably you can I ask how to help him instead, maybe he just doesn't understand how to do it? 3) not unusual people with more than 5 years in one company, they can be overly protective about their position.
    • – kirie Jun 05 '15 at 03:09
  • upon @keshlam 's comment I wonder: Is this coworker also working for different teams ('other important projects'?) - if so: are you sure you make enough room for him to manage paperwork? or is it possible that you actually need to make sure he's able to do it? like, he has 10 tasks, 5 of which with your team, plus the paperwork for you. He might just not have the time to do it without dropping other stuff. Actually, yes. If there's other stuff he's doing and you're not aware of: don't blame it on the guy. find out how much help he needs to have free time for the normal paperworks. – Florian Heigl Jun 05 '15 at 08:14
  • Put very harshly: unless he's websurfing all day: if everyone but that guy gets the paperwork in on time, it could be possible that everyone else is just doing a little less. if it's that, support; if not, get him trouble. – Florian Heigl Jun 05 '15 at 08:15
  • "It will not help if you keep reminding me of that" Maybe CC'ing HR will help him more than a friendly reminder? – pmf Jan 10 '18 at 10:55