We had 2 meetings with upper management to try and figure out how we can help, and we met individually a lot where I more plainly laid out what he needs to do and improve upon. We created an improvement plan after the second one where he was given a task, the standards we expect, and a deadline and it was just more of the same - rushed, untested and needing my intervention.

I never told him that I was monitoring his directories because frankly he should not need to be told that he should be working if he's getting paid (there is work we can do off of the linux machines but he wasnt assigned any). I did hint at it by saying "this is why you shouldn't wait until the day before the deadline to start your work" etc but it never resulted in lasting change.

I felt he knew what he was doing and had to know this day was coming eventually, so no ragrets on how it was handled from my pov.