I am a senior member of staff within my branch with one of my responsibilities being the operation and day-to-day running of our sales tool.

our admin support function are required to input the daily work allcoation in to the tool so that the work can be monitored, the individual that does this is due for retirement in jan 2012, and has clearly expressed that she does not wish to learn any new functions (she does not believe that she should have to do anything new and that she should be allowed to continue with filing only).  Her attitude is poor and this is recognised by the whole of the management team, they have however taken the decision that running the disciplinary route is too long winded when she is likely to leave in 9 months.

A new process within the system across the entire company was rolled out just after Christmas this year involving the specific logging of work, which my manager and I had several long debates as whether we could actually afford to roll this out across our branh due to the individual that would be undertaking the work and the fact that we knew she would not do it correctly as she believes this would allow her to get out of doing the task.  we came to the decision we can not hold back rolling out something to the entire branch due to one individual

I ran training for this indivdidual along with another new starter for an hour 2 weeks ago; where I demonstrated with 5 examples  the training that needed to be undertaken.  the individual in question, paid no attention to the training (wouldnt even look at the screen at times, she took no notes and was more interested in why i hadnt left the company yet (a direct question).  when asked if she understood she told me yes and I asked if she wanted to do another practice case and she said no.  when my manager asked how the training went immediately afterwards i confirmed that had she had not paid attention nor taken any notes and that it was as bad as we had perceived (the other individual understood and is using the system, although has only been employed 2 months, the other individual has been using the system for 5 years).

A piece of work requiring this new logging system was receied yesterday which I clearly marked up but it was ignored.  i returned this via her line manager (as there is an awareness that there are a lot of errors these are always returned via manager) for correction.  the individual has now decided that she doesnt understand the new process and that she requires new training.  I ran through another case with her yesterday to get it logged and correct the incorrect case, when she asked me if i would run through another case I said yes and that there was one in the sift for tmrw but that she needed to work out which one it was as she needs to be able to identify them herself (they have an extra sheet of paper added)

At the end of the day yesterday, her line manager and myself had a discussion with my line manager, and pointed out that as today was the "management away day" myself and the other line manager would be the 2 left in charge of the office and that every time this happens certain individuals in the office see this as an opportunity to have a go at whoever is the most senior (I have had several of these occurrences and have had to break up an argument between this specific individual and her line manager).

Lo and behold at 4.30 this afternoon, I got torrent of abuse about how am I ageist (shes 62) and I can not expect her to learn new things and that I have to run her a whole new training course.  I explained that extra training could be considered but that would need to be discussed with her line manager as she had already received training (giving  extra training doesnt bother me, its the fact she paid NO attention in the 1st lot and that she just doesnt want to do the work and believes if she does it badly enough or long enough it will just get taken off of her)

I explained I was not prepared to have an argument in the middle of the office without management present and to leave it until tomorrow, I was then accused of pulling a face and to explain myself, I again reiterated that I was not having a discussion over this in the middle of the office, and that she was to drop the matter and her attitude immediately.

I have spoken to her line manager already and confirmed that the sitation arose, what I had done and we agreed we would see what happens in the morning.

My question is 2 fold:

How do we manage this woman, she doesnt want to learn anything new and anything she is given new will do incorrectly to ensure she probably doesnt have to do it again, but if we stop then she gets her own way (and there isnt enough of the work she "likes" doing to fill a 7 hour work day)

What is my position given that I told management there was likely to be an issue today which came to fruition but they give me no powers to address it?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,