Should I fire this one or what??

In My Humble Opinion
1

Quick background, small company, I run my part of the company, the owner runs the other half and treats my half as a seperate company, or subcontractor of the owners half. I’ve had as many as 14 employees, but am currently down to 6. The owner pretty much leaves me alone and lets me run my half as I see fit, as long as I’m making money and shipping stuff on time, I do consult him or let him know when I’m making a big purchase or considering a new employee though.

Now to my problem, I hired this girl(TG) about 5 months back, kind of a favor to a friend thing, but I was looking for someone at the time and probably would have hired her if she had walked in anyway, so in essence, he did me a favor. This girl started out really good, on time, worked hard, tried to learn, asked questions and picked stuff up really really fast. I was really impressed.

Then about 6 weeks ago, she started coming in late, and then pulled a couple of no call no shows, twice on payday and came in to get her check, when asked where she was and why no phone call, shrugged her shoulders, grabbed her check and left. I should have canned her then, but her work was still good.

Now for the past week, her newly crappy mood has turned into a defiant one. I think my last straw was on thursday when I let her and another employee go get some smokes. They were both out and had smoked all of mine, I figured 20 minutes tops. 70 minutes later they come back, I was slightly pissed and sent them home.

Well the other employee called me that night, no harm, no foul, don’t do that again. Yesterday TG showed up an hour late, and when I went to talk to her about taking off, she gave me a ration of sh**. It was like I was back working with 16 year olds again. She explained to me that she was allowed breaks and a lunch, well you took about 5 15 minute breaks yesterday and a half hour for breakfast, all on the clock. I’m pretty lenient about breaks and whatnot, if your brain is scrambled, take a break, your hungry eat, need to run an errand, no big deal, but taking off for over an hour, not cool. I guess I’m the bad guy.

I’ve seen this kind of rapid change in personality, and its never good. It usually has something to do with some form of self medication, and tends to lead to expensive stuff that can be sold at pawn shops disappearing from work.

So what should I do, straight out sh**can, though thats kind of tough, single mom and all. An unpaid vacation to get the point across of either shape up or get gone. A layoff with a small severance, since she did help me out quite a bit, but really isn’t now? If it was a college kid that could fall back on mom and dad, they would be gone, but a single mom is tough, your basically ripping everything out from underneath them.

Now that I’ve wasted a few minutes of your day, what should I do, she has got to go, I don’t need the frustration and I’m not a babysitter.

2

If you haven’t been documenting her actions, and your warnings, start now. Fire her later.

If you have, fire her now.

3

Ahh yes, I know that trick, good point. The wierd thing, is this is an atwill state, and you can fire somebody just for the fun of it. But good point, and a rash of write ups generally gets the point across pretty quick. I just haven’t documented anything since we’re are so small I haven’t had any problems, if there is one a nasty look is all it usually took to straigten it out for good. I should have learned from past expieriences at other places.

4

Have you asked her what the heck is going on? Such a sharp change in personality and behavior is indicitive of a larger problem. Perhaps if you had a talk with her there is something that you could help her solve. That way you don’t lose a valuable employee and perhaps help someone through a rough time. At the end of the day though, you are running a business and if it becomes too big of a problem she needs to be canned. Six weeks though is an awful long time to have let this problem fester.

5

I admire you for even questioning whether or not she should go. So she’s a single mother - that makes it an even more important responsibility - on her part - to be able to maintain a professional work ethic. Honestly, while I can’t fault you for wanting to be nice to her, you can’t let her perform like that simply because she’s a single mother. Especially since it isn’t fair to your other employees who do work hard without needing to be told to.

She’s gotten away with it before, and I highly doubt that even an unpaid vacation would encourage her to do better.

Just my two cents.

6

From now on, put all reprimands in writing for all employees. You should have an employee handbook and it should show the progression of discipline. You should follow this to the letter. If you do not have an employee handbook, get one.

When you have employees, you owe them a responsible workplace, a reasonable environment, understandable rules, and a boss they can respect. These things are your responsibility.

7

I’ve been thinking the past couple of days about a handbook, or at least a simple set of policys, based on what I’ve worked with and under over the years (over the years, I’m not that OLD).

As far as 6 weeks, I don’t know, its wierd, at first when she started getting a bit pissy and run down looking, her kids were sick, and she was sick, so I didn’t think much of it, doctor visits, puking, whatnot, made sense. Then it went from her being sick to it was her sinuses, that was her reason for being cranky, yes I tried talking to her, but her responses have become only a few words and now I would consider a conversation two sentences. After the sinus thing cleared up, now shes just “not feeling good”, I understand not feeling good, but it isn’t always accompanied with a piss poor attitude. The other day it was “I’m not in a good mood”.

To me it smells of the beginning of a rapidly increasing downward spiral due to some sort of powdered substance. I’m going to talk to the owner on Monday, any legal problems are ultimately his responsibility. I just really don’t need this crap, there is enough pressure in trying to get the work done.

8

You are absolutely correct, I’ve been a supervisor/manager since I was 18, even through college. Both of my parents were supervisors/managers and they taught me very well, give an inch, get a mile. Been through quite a few seminars that gave me a few more tricks.

My rules are simple, don’t piss me off, and it takes a lot to piss me off. The ground rules are simple and have been laid out. If you have something to do, let me know, going to lunch with friends you haven’t seen in a while tomorrow, might be a while, hey thanx for letting me know. If you need to take next friday off, fine. Its a really relaxed atmosphere, we don’t need to deal with the public so hours can be flexible, but when I need you here on time, I need you here on time. This hasn’t been a problem, until now. The backtalk that I’ve gotten from 16 year olds is not what I expected from someone almost 30, I didn’t tolerate it then, and I’m sure not going to tolerate it now.

9

Fire her.

If you’re afraid of any legal recursions, because you don’t have a a paper trail or whatever, run it by your business’s lawyer first. The consult won’t be cheap, but may end up cheaper then the stolen equipment.

10

s/recursions/repercussions/

11

I have no idea why someone who pulls that kind of crap would still have a job with you. However…

Another thing to consider is the effect that her behaviour has on your other employees. As someone who has worked in an office with a slacker who should have been fired about a year and a half ago, it really pisses off the people who show up on time, show up every day, and actually work for their paycheque. It makes one question the boss’s judgement, and it can lead to a kind of “bad attitude” virus: *if she gets away with it, then I can… * (show up late, call in ‘sick’, slack off, whatever).

12

Document, document, document. And end all of it with these famous words, “up to and including termination”. I’m not saying it will get her attention, but at least it covers your ass if she ever decides to go for a wrongful termination lawsuit. I personally have never understood those in an at will state, but they happen. The other thing you could try is layoff if you can show that business is slowing down. That way she’s out of your hair immediately, and you don’t have to worry so much about documenting.

I admire your thinking about the fact that she is a single mom and all, but one person like this can destroy the rest of your staff. Morale begins to sink, others see it as favoritism since she gets away with stuff and there is no punishment. Unfortunately, you have to look at the bigger picture. I’ve been there before, so I know.

13

I agree with what everyone’s already said, and will add that you need to be very careful about what you say to others and what you post here and elsewhere. If you fire her and she decides to initiate a wrongful termination suit, this thread and any other non-privileged communications become discoverable and may be used as evidence. It would suck for you if she’s able, for example, to turn your off-hand remark about a “powdered substance” into some sort of bizarre discrimination claim or something. As always IANAL, etc.

14

Your guidelines of not pissing you off aren’t going to stand up too well.

Don’t fire her yet. Write down expected behavior (which everyone else should be following also) and tell her, in writing, that she must follow these for the next six weeks (or whatever) or be terminated. Make sure she signs that she understands.

A lawyer or HR person (do they contract) would be real useful before showing this to her to check it out for legality.

15

Sounds like you don’t enforce this rule.

I work in a casual environment, too, but we have a handbook that spells out what the disciplinary policy is, plus all absence policies, etc. It’s useful for managers so they can look things up, and it’s useful for employees so they can see what’s what. It keeps everyone, you will excuse the phrase, on the same page.

It sounds like everything has been done in a very slapdash sort of way, and you’re reaping the whirlwind. Now is an excellent time to put it all in writing. There are guidebooks and sample handbooks available. What’s important is that your employees see the policies in writing, then see them in action, and know where they stand. Your other employees aren’t stupid and they are watching.

16

I pretty much agree w/ most of what has been offered. Establish some basic employee behavior guidlines, document her offenses and your attempts to warn/counsel her. I would add that you might want to be careful about being alone w/ this person as, even in an “at will” state, sexual misconduct can be alleged and is difficult to defend against. I agree that it sounds like some kind of substance abuse, but the issue for you is job performance, don’t get involved in accusations w/o proof.

17

I’ll definitely stick with the performance only. There is too much involved the other way around.

Someone had said that the company is slapdash or half assed, of course it is, its a little foreign to me too, but since we are so small, its worked out well, until now. I do believe you guys are all correct, handbook by monday. Sign on the dotted line that you have read and understand, blah blah blah.

I haven’t searched the net yet, but I did go digging through my own stuff and for some reason I seem to have tossed all of my old employee handbooks, I did however find my 1997 income taxes and an empty box of condoms.

Anybody know of any good sites to grab generic policys off of? Or a company that has their handbook posted that you would recommend(for ideas, not plagarism), or any policys that you yourself would include if you had the opportunity. I’m not asking anybody to do any searching for me, I’ll do that myself, just some recommendations or ideas.

Thanx.

18

We had an employee who went from being a hard worker and good at her job to being just plain… um, well, stupid. She screwed up stuff left and right, darn near fell asleep on the job, and wrote things down that made no sense. One of my favorites was that she wrote she had called “Jim and Suzanne” with a certain company and given them a message-- now this company didn’t have a Jim or a Suzanne working there, but those are her kids’ names.

The employee turned out to have diabetes, and once she was on medication for it, and her diet was controlled, she was back to being her usual self.

If your employee has something long-term, the sinus infection may be the “last straw” that pushed her body past her ability to cope with it, and that may be why she’s had this really weird behavior change.

Not that I know what you should do about it, just that there may be reasons for her being totally bizarre other than having a non-prescription issue.

19

A coworker of mine went all funny. It turned out to be hyperthyroid. Unfortunately, my story doesn’t have a happy ending as his life has spiraled out of control since his illness started.

Thyroids suck!

20

I would try to talk some sense into her first. Tell her you are seriously thinking of having her replaced and ask her if she has any other prospects. If not, tell her you will give her 2 weeks pay beginning next week, so she better start looking.