legal issues - Postdoc that refuses to follow the terms of her contract

I am supervising a research group. Each year, our institution offers several four years postdoc positions, and one year ago I told a friend of mine to apply to it because we work in very similar fields and I thought there would be a lot of synergy. She got the position, but after these 12 months she refuses to do almost anything I tell her to.

At the beginning I waited, since we are friends and I did not want to trouble our friendship, but at some point I realized that she uses our good relationship as an excuse for not doing anything at all, and from the other side, it is hard for me to tell her that she is doing wrong. Anyway, in the last 2 weeks we have had some words, and I told her that she must respect her work conditions and work in our projects. She says she has never done that, since she feels pressure, and that she works better starting and choosing all projects by herself without any indication from me or any other supervisor. In those projects she does not even count me in for co-authorship and sometimes never tells me what she is doing. In her project proposal it was stated "I will contribute to the group's research lines and adapt to it" and in her contract it was written the same. So it is clear to me that she is going against these conditions. I have talked with her about the situation but she refuses to agree and says that I am wrong and that she deserves respect since she feels like a very important scientist.

I want to solve this situation but I feel dialogue does not work here anymore. Scenarios I see are:

1. I set up a meeting with her and the head of the department; here she knows she will be in real trouble,


2. I forget about her completely to avoid headaches, but I am responsible for her and need to report her output from time to time, so I could be in trouble if she does nothing,


3. ....

So, what would you suggest to do in this situation?

Thanks

Answer

It IS a common situation, although there a two parts here: One is work related, she is employed, you are her supervisor, she is not doing her job, you should act in an appropriate way.

The other one is research related, she is producing results (although not together with you), so that might be a criterion to leave her alone. Once again, you shouldn't decide this on your own.

All in all, I would suggest to first talk with the head of department in an informal way, maybe don't even mention her name (unless it is obvious who you are talking about), ask how to proceed. Maybe she produces enough results to allow for a change of contract, giving her more freedom to do her own projects? Maybe she is just lazy and should be fired before getting you into trouble? Either way, you should act before it is too late and you are held responsible for whatever happens or does not happen.