New to business and some big problems

[Rich23]

Hi

My partner and I have just purchased a news agents as we had some savings and didn't want to work for anyone else again. Unfortunately I'm unwell and have been able to do less hours than I wanted to and so my partner is doing a 78 hour week- and it is affecting her health. We have definitely bitten off more than we can chew.

The only way to make it work I can see is to alter the hours and responsibilities of our part time staff but one lady is 64 and couldn't reasonably be expected to change and the other doesn't want to change her hours although she has altered them in the past with the previous owner. Currently she works 16 hours a week, one day starting at 6:30 am and previously she did two mornings like this.

To help my partner I would like to change the 34 part time hours we have to cover lunchtimes 6 days and 6 to 8 am 6 days per week and then get someone new in to work maybe two of those early morning sopening up for us to give my partner time off.

I have tried to get us as a team to work together on solving the problem but this one waman is digging her heels in and saying she won't be flexible
and as she is popular with the locals I am concerned how alienating her may affect business (its a small town).

Also at the end of the day I don't want to upset anyone anyway I just want to make the business a happier experience for my partner.

Any advice would be more than welcome.

thanks

Rich

 

[MarkPearson]

If your current staff are not willing to be flexable about new hours etc...

What's stopping you looking for someone new to fill in the position needed.

You don't have to get rid of the current staff, just add an addition who can be trained up to do what you need.

Sometimes fresh blood is good.

Of course finding someone reliable is a task, but not impossible.

You can make the current staff fully aware thet the hours need filling and if non of the current staff can do this, then you have no choice but to look for a new staff member and their current hours may be affected to make the new rota work.

See if that shifts some arse!

 

[Jayne]

Hi,

Set one another member of staff to do the other shifts.

What sort of illness do you have, my husband has worked with broken ribs, crushed hand, very bad flu and numerous other problems. If you can walk, you can work, this is our way of doing business I have always helped my husband, no matter how many hours I had to do, I have even passed out through exhaustion and still been up for work next day. In twelve years we have never been off sick, one of the drawbacks of being self employed i'm afraid.

When your business picks up, more staff will make things better, you just have to put up with it until then.

Jayne

 

[The_JinJ]

.... my husband has worked with broken ribs, crushed hand, very bad flu and numerous other problems...
Jayne

I think he needs to buy some lucky white heather

There will be lots of people locally looking to work 'out of hours' as they have other commitments (kids at school etc) - if a member of staff is being unreasonable and not fitting in with how your business runs then you need shot of her - I wouldn't worry about the effect it would have, as long as you have a good relationship with the customers then they'll be back.
"I don't want to upset anyone anyway" - if it needs done then do it - part of being the boss

Good luck!

 

[winton50]

Seriously - who's business is this?

You need to be firm from the start for the simple reason that if you give way on this then the employee who is digging her heels in will start taking all sorts of liberties. Take advice on the legal board though before you send her packing!

Believe it or not this was the situation we faced when we started in business (ahem) years ago. We had a 64 year old who decided she didn't want to answer the phone in the manner we wanted her to! Before long she felt she was able to do pretty much as she pleased until we had to say goodbye.

Also read and inwardly digest Jayne's post it's probably one of the most sensible ones i've seen for a long time!

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

I think he needs to buy some lucky white heather

I think Jayne should stop beating him up !

 

[Jayne]

I think he needs to buy some lucky white heather

I think Jayne should stop beating him up !

Very funny Tony :evil:

It wasn't nice when he crushed his hand on a pastry break (like an old fashion mangel) happen the day before Christams eve and we had loads of orders. I had to learn how to bake off really fast and me and my Mam had to learn how to make bread. The police man who came with the amulance was lovely though, he helped up clean all the blood up and made us a cup of tea. We sat Mark on a chair in the bakery when he got back and he sat there and told us what to do. We got all the orders out on time, thankfully.

Mark enjoyed that Christmas, he was told not to get his hand wet and took full advantage. He must have thought he was smelly, the amount of baths he wanted over Christmas (say no more) :lol:

Jayne

 

[Rob Holmes]

ok back to the thread....

Rich - from my experience it's flipping hard work taking over a biz (or creating one come to that) so well done for even having the guts to start!

If I can highlight one think, you cannot afford to be held to ransom by your staff. The minute you show them that they have power over you they'll take advantage. When it boils down to it they should just do as they are told. Full stop.

Now I realise that with a good team it should never actually get to this situation but when you're taking over someone elses team you have no choice.

Is the lady under contract? Are there any clauses in the contract that allow hours to be reasonably changed? I would be very careful and document everything, times, conversations, agreements, difficulties etc etc because she sounds like trouble and IMHO once trouble always trouble.

Cover your back, seek legal advice every step of the way.

Rob

 

[Jayne]

Good info Rob

ACAS are great to contact and free. Look them up on the web and give them a ring. They will tell you your rights etc and will send you loads of info to help.

Jayne

 

[Steve Roberts]

What you should do is get a blank sheet of paper and write on it what you want to achieve - and don't be blinkered by the current arrangement.

Then you'll need to add some timings of when you need it done by. Sit down with the staff and tell them what "is definitely going to happen" and talk about how they will (or won't) fit into the plan. There are times in mamagement when you have to be assertive and driven. This is such a time for you I think.

 

[Rich23]

Hi all

Thank you for your advice. I also thought of ACAS and will call them this week. I am thinking that I will take on a temporary member of staff over the weeks until and just after Xmas for those early hours and then review how the business is doing. I can then deal with this member of staff in the new year. This way my partner will have extra help over this busy period and we can tell the staff that we are doing this to see if we can covber these hours and remain profitable. If not then they will know their hours will change or redundancies will have to be made. This way i have done everything I can to help.

As for my illness: Lyme disease. I spent last year backpacking the globe and had many encounters with dangerous beasties only to get floored by a bug, maybe even picked up in the UK!!!!

Cheers and best wishes

Rich

 

[winton50]

Rich,
My sympathies go out to you but with your solution it sounds to me like you are just burying your head in the sand. You are going to spend YOUR money just because an employee refuses to change her hours.
Your employee will think she's got the better of you.

Put more simply she is refusing to help you when you most need her? If this is the case then what loyalty do you owe to her? Get rid (legal advice first!) and get someone who is willing to work.