Employee Problem

[CHEESE2009]

During the winter I hired 7 people, all paid $10.00/hr to do snow removal. We used a variety of shovels and two snow blowers, alone I could take on a driveway + walkway in 40 minutes - 1 hr in the worst case scenario (business owner power I guess?) My workers were lazy as heck, I fired 4 of them the first 2 weeks, I was losing money. So eventually I decided to take on all the driveways/walkways myself and have my other 3 guys pass out flyers for snow removal, one of them would drive the route as 2 hopped out & passed flyers door to door. So what happens? I bump into the driver I had hired, & he tells me that I owe him money. FACT: he worked 4 hours passing out flyers, he received payment the first 2 hours of work with a $15.00 bonus, & the next 2 hours weren't because he went on vacation before I could pay him. ($20.00) It is fair that I pay him, I was generous enough to say I'd pay him 4 hours work instead of 2 hours, and then he says "you owe me a lot more than $40.00" I told him to contact me tonight (he didn't) so I now have time to collect suggestions from all of you. More info: The first night was a test night to see if he's any good, I sent him out with another guy, gave them 100 flyers & 2 hours later he shows up saying he's going to call it a night. .... How many flyers did they hand out? 25 flyers in 2 effing hours. I fired the guy who was riding shotgun (he always showed up late), but unfortunately I couldn't fire him aka the driver at the time. I never called him to come back to work after. So what do I do? I owe him $20.00, I was kind to offer $40.00 (just incase I decided to use him again I wanted to be on good terms, stupid of me) Then he asks for MORE money, should I whack him over the head or what?

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

What is he claiming you owe him the money for? Was there more work he did that he felt he was not paid for?

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[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by Steve

What is he claiming you owe him the money for? Was there more work he did that he felt he was not paid for?

Well he shoveled some snow with the crew, shoveling no matter how you put it sucks! I mentioned to him at the beginning that he will be paid $10.00/hr & he accepted. I paid him for that, so I guess he feels it was unfair. The pay per hour is better than most jobs, but the job itself is labor & tough, but for a few hours a day he shouldn't complain because of the flexibility with school. No one else that has worked for me has had a problem with the pay or the work.

Do you somehow track your employee hours, be it with a time clock or a log book? If so, I'd definitely show him his records and have him explain to you why he should be getting paid more if his hours are clearly logged.

For those of you who don't record hours, I'd highly recommend it. There are some great applications out there that let your employees punch in/out right on your office computer (free and otherwise). Check 'em out.

[Little's]

You owe him for the hours he worked only. Regardless of how crappy the labor was, the time he worked was the time he worked. Thats all you owe him for.

[jasonw]

I ran into the same problem. I paid an employee a whole days wages to pass out fliers but after some research found out he pretty much put them in the trash and went home and didn't hand out one single flier. Now according to the law I could have filed a complaint with the police but rather decided to not call him back to work. What I would honestly do it make up a fake legal letterhead and send it to him claiming to be the law office representing "cheese2009 lawn care" or what ever the name is. Tell him that you were informed there is an effort to file a claim or complaint on the company and you need to gather information before court proceedings. At the end of the letter put something like.

Police report # 1234565789
D.A. File 4569

I garon damn tee you will never hear from him again.

[Steve]

What is your view on the best way to handle it for new business owners? If you could do this over again, how would you handle it differently?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by jasonw

I ran into the same problem. I paid an employee a whole days wages to pass out fliers but after some research found out he pretty much put them in the trash and went home and didn't hand out one single flier. Now according to the law I could have filed a complaint with the police but rather decided to not call him back to work. What I would honestly do it make up a fake legal letterhead and send it to him claiming to be the law office representing "cheese2009 lawn care" or what ever the name is. Tell him that you were informed there is an effort to file a claim or complaint on the company and you need to gather information before court proceedings. At the end of the letter put something like.

Police report # 1234565789
D.A. File 4569

I garon damn tee you will never hear from him again.

That is fraud, impersonating law enforcement and a host of other criminal charges, then Breeze would be in hot water

[MountainViewGreenskeeper]

Originally Posted by picframer

That is fraud, impersonating law enforcement and a host of other criminal charges, then Breeze would be in hot water

ya I was kinda of the same opinion.

[jymie]

In the past when I wanted to hand out flyers, I always made sure that I was the driver and had two people doing the deliveries. That way there was no way they could just toss them in the trash cause I was right there with them. Or have someone that you highly trust do the driving for you if you don't have the time. Many times, I would choose to do them myself to area's that have rural tubes out at the street for newspaper deliveries.