They say
What to say when an employee says expectations changed halfway through: “You changed what you wanted halfway through.”
When an employee says expectations changed halfway through, establish what changed and when. If you changed the requirement, reset the deadline and the criteria used to judge the work.
Your response
“Let’s identify what changed and when. If I changed the requirement, I should also have reset the deadline and how the work would be judged. We need to agree on those now.”
First, check this
Did you change the scope, priority, deadline, or success criteria without explicitly resetting what the employee was responsible for?
Why this works
The employee may be naming a genuine management failure, or they may be treating a clarification as a new requirement. Establishing the sequence makes that distinction possible. If the manager changed the work, the employee should not be judged as though the original agreement still applied. If the requirement did not change, both people can identify where their understanding diverged and make the expectation explicit.
Don’t say
“Things change—you need to be more adaptable.”
If they push back again
“Then I shouldn’t be marked down for missing the original date.”
You could say
If the change was mine, you won’t be judged against the old date. Let’s write down what the work is now and when it’s due, so we’re both measuring against the same thing.
After the conversation
- Send the employee a short written note of the current scope and deadline within a day of this conversation.
- When you change a requirement in the future, reset the deadline in the same message.
- Check whether anyone else on the same project is still working to the old version of the requirement.
Questions managers ask
What if I really did move the goalposts on them?
Admit it and judge the work against what you originally asked for. Then reset the deadline and the criteria for what’s needed now. If you’ve already given feedback or a rating based on the moved target, correct it, because leaving it in place tells the employee your admission didn’t mean much.
What if I changed the requirements because the client changed theirs?
The employee’s work still changed, whatever the reason, so treat it the same way as a change of your own. Explain where it came from, then reset the date and the criteria. Passing a client’s moving target on to your team without adjusting anything else leaves them carrying a problem that isn’t theirs.
How can I tell a change in requirements from a clarification?
Ask whether the employee’s original plan would have met the new version. A clarification fills in detail the first request already implied, while a change adds work or raises the standard. If their plan would have fallen short, treat it as a change and reset the deadline.