Managing Staff...

[mermaid]

VENT:

Now is your opportunity to leave cause there is a vent session coming on...

A little back story:

I work with my in-laws and husband. We are printing brokers. My in-laws are gearing up to retire and leave the business to both my husband and I. We employ two people a delivery person and a typesetter. The staff reports to me but ultimately my in-laws have the last say.

Most times we have moderate work flow but sometimes its dead and sometimes is crazy busy. It just depends on the day and time of year. On the days that we are dead I usually send my staff home early. Mind you they still get paid. Oh and to add, our offices close at noon on Fridays all year. So anyway, when we arent busy I dont mind sending them home but when we are busy I expect 100% from them both. Lately I think they have gotten so used to going home early that they kind of getting bitchy when we need them to actually "work".

Last week we were so busy. Now common sense here would be that if you have work to do then you do what you can. I always tell them, "just do what you can and what ever you dont get to we can do it tomorrow". So its not like Im cracking the whip or anything. I think Im pretty fair with them.

Well on Friday I opened the office as usual but left about ten because I had a lot to do. My typesetter waited until I left and went to speak to my mother in-law (MIL) and told her that she was overwhelmed. So when I got in today my MIL wanted to talk to me to tell me what was going on and ask me to handle this girls work a little differently. Basically spoon feed her. I was really pissed. She's overwhelmed because we had a lot of work come in one week out of the month? Seriously? Nobody asked her to stay late or come in early so I dont really understand what she was overwhelmed with. You do what you have to do in the hours your getting paid and then you go home. Like isnt that what most people do at their jobs? So next week when she's sitting at her desk with nothing to do she's going to expect me to send her home early? Yeah, okay. That wont be happening any more.

Am I being unreasonable? Or being a bitch? Please chime in because I dont want to handle the situation poorly and I value your opinions.

[firespinner93]

I can understand your frustration. I would talk to the girl myself to try and find out what is going on. She should have spoken to you directly rather than going to your MIL, but there may be a chance that things have gotten distorted from her to your MIL to you. I hope everything works out.

[stablesgirl]

You sound like someone I would love to have as a boss - off early on fridays! Go home paid when it's slow! Sounds like your employee got a little too used to the slow days. She absolutely should put in 100% when things speed up. I too think she should have talked to you instead of your MIL. I would employ that little management trick when you say "is there something you're not getting from me that would make it easier to get this work done?" She can hardly say more time off, right??

[mermaid]

Originally Posted by firespinner93

I can understand your frustration. I would talk to the girl myself to try and find out what is going on. She should have spoken to you directly rather than going to your MIL, but there may be a chance that things have gotten distorted from her to your MIL to you. I hope everything works out.

Originally Posted by stablesgirl

You sound like someone I would love to have as a boss - off early on fridays! Go home paid when it's slow! Sounds like your employee got a little too used to the slow days. She absolutely should put in 100% when things speed up. I too think she should have talked to you instead of your MIL. I would employ that little management trick when you say "is there something you're not getting from me that would make it easier to get this work done?" She can hardly say more time off, right??

I actually did this with her today (thanks) and she kind of shrugged it off. She's been making a lot of little errors lately that she never did before and I had to mention it to her because every time we make an error and have to reprint someone's stationary or business cards it costs us money. She sent a customer a proof which was approved but what she sent to press was a completely different thing. So she said "I dont know how that happen". I said "is there anything I can do to make things less confusing?" She just kind of looked at me with a blank stare... Kind of annoying. All in all, she's great at what she does and I'd hate to loose her but I get the vibe that she's not happy. We'll see though.

My philosophy: treat your employees exactly how you want your business to be run. If you want everyone to bring her/his A game, then you have play an A game all of the time. You can expect people to turn on and off their effectiveness. I know in a perfect world, that would work. But, in reality, people begin liking their jobs because they don't have to do much. So, when you raise the anti and expect more from them, they are going to think you have lost your mind.

Set the standard from the get-go. If you need to go back and change the rules, then do so and don't look back. Never let your employees walk all over you.You can run a democratic system in a business, but it has to involve everyone. If you decide when they work and how much, then it isn't democratic.

Imagine a place where people wake up every morning and want to go to work. What would that be like? Now, do the best you can to create that place.