- Original Poster
- #1
Hi
I am a bit stuck at how to deal with this situation. My employees work on their own a lot of the time in my convenience store, and we leave them to it. They know what is expected of them, and we may just remind them from time to time if a particular area of stock needs looking at 1st etc. We leave them to it, and regardless of their work rate, we hardly ever say anything to them, some of our employees say we are too nice, but a lot of them come to work, to work, however you always get 1 that just comes to clock the hours up and get paid.
We have an employee in particular who has been with us over 2 years, when they started, they started off ok, however things changed when their marriage broke down. They started seeing a customer and got caught out by their marital partner. The customer split up with them, they decided to drink and drive to go see them, and wrote their car off and got banned for driving. Marital partner has now seperated from them, and they have had relations with a few customers since which we have heard from others or noticed them getting a bit close on cctv.
The problem is, after a short time, the customers stop coming in when they decide not to continue relations, so we lose custom, but no proof of why, although it can all be a coincidence all the time, that the ones they have relations with stop coming in.
Here are a few issues we have had with this particular employee:
- They come to walk and spend their shift talking to everyone they can, to just pass time and not doing enough work
- They told a customer they can't afford nice foods etc, even though they haven't asked for extra hours and still have money to spend on alcohol and scratch cards, so the customer started to bring in shopping in each week for them for a long time, but now all of a sudden stopped coming in, although I have seen them drive around locally to other shops
- We bumped into a customer in a local pub and told us to be careful of the employee, but we didn't ask why or talk about the employee
- They called in sick once, but put on Facebook was on bus to town
- Had a rant about local pub landlord as they were barred from there for they way they were when drunk, we get on with the landlord, so was a bit embarassing, and have noticed they don't come in much, if at all
- Didn't charge a customer someone they were having a relationship with for a coffee (who knows what else) - I picked this up with them, they made out it was a mistake, but the CCTV audio shows the customer said, you need to take for the coffee, but the employee still didn't charge - I didn't tell them about the audio - I appreciate its not ideal, but we use it more when we have had fraudsters, theft or abuse. Staff aren't aware of this, and I appreciate its not ideal recording audio, but never used it against them before as most staff are really nice about us, customers and work!
- They gave money to customer that said they were short changed, even though they weren't, without following protocol of asking us to check cctv 1st
- Made the odd mistake with customer
I haven't picked many things up with the employee and let most of it slide, but its getting too much. I mentioned the coffee but didn't discipline.
I did once, about a year or so back mention that they need to be a bit more productive on shift (nothing harsh), I don't mind them talking, but still need to get their jobs done, while still maintaining a good level of customer service. After I said that they told every customer, I said they are not allowed to talk to customers and that they are going to ask for the week off as fed up. I know this is a customer who is a friend mentioned this to me, asking if it was a problem, I explained that of course staff can talk to customers, but they need to make sure they are getting their work done, instead of leaving it to others or ME! I also have seen on our cctv that they have said that. I haven't picked this or anything else up again..
Ever since, they have been talking about us, even though we leave them to it. They always say, they'll be watching me, and don't like me talking etc. But now getting fed up about it, as we have worked hard to build up the business, however, they are painting a bad picture of us, and whats more frustrating, we don't say anything to them, and all the other staff say nice things about us.
It seems as though any task we give them, they try to do it to a poor standard, so that we never ask them again.
This week we had an incentive, where if a customer spends x amount, they get a free scratch card, they didn't give any out even though they were asked to do so, but when they finished their shift, they remembered to ask for theirs when doing their shopping!
I am now at the point, where being too nice hasn't got us anywhere, with them badmouthing for no reason. It seems as though since their marriage breakdown, everybody else is the problem, but not them.
Is this a sackable offence, as they are making us look bad, when we are not! I would rather not sack, but I just feel, if they can talk about us and make us look bad, is just not acceptable, and losing us custom, we cannot afford to do so.
I am a bit stuck at how to deal with this situation. My employees work on their own a lot of the time in my convenience store, and we leave them to it. They know what is expected of them, and we may just remind them from time to time if a particular area of stock needs looking at 1st etc. We leave them to it, and regardless of their work rate, we hardly ever say anything to them, some of our employees say we are too nice, but a lot of them come to work, to work, however you always get 1 that just comes to clock the hours up and get paid.
We have an employee in particular who has been with us over 2 years, when they started, they started off ok, however things changed when their marriage broke down. They started seeing a customer and got caught out by their marital partner. The customer split up with them, they decided to drink and drive to go see them, and wrote their car off and got banned for driving. Marital partner has now seperated from them, and they have had relations with a few customers since which we have heard from others or noticed them getting a bit close on cctv.
The problem is, after a short time, the customers stop coming in when they decide not to continue relations, so we lose custom, but no proof of why, although it can all be a coincidence all the time, that the ones they have relations with stop coming in.
Here are a few issues we have had with this particular employee:
- They come to walk and spend their shift talking to everyone they can, to just pass time and not doing enough work
- They told a customer they can't afford nice foods etc, even though they haven't asked for extra hours and still have money to spend on alcohol and scratch cards, so the customer started to bring in shopping in each week for them for a long time, but now all of a sudden stopped coming in, although I have seen them drive around locally to other shops
- We bumped into a customer in a local pub and told us to be careful of the employee, but we didn't ask why or talk about the employee
- They called in sick once, but put on Facebook was on bus to town
- Had a rant about local pub landlord as they were barred from there for they way they were when drunk, we get on with the landlord, so was a bit embarassing, and have noticed they don't come in much, if at all
- Didn't charge a customer someone they were having a relationship with for a coffee (who knows what else) - I picked this up with them, they made out it was a mistake, but the CCTV audio shows the customer said, you need to take for the coffee, but the employee still didn't charge - I didn't tell them about the audio - I appreciate its not ideal, but we use it more when we have had fraudsters, theft or abuse. Staff aren't aware of this, and I appreciate its not ideal recording audio, but never used it against them before as most staff are really nice about us, customers and work!
- They gave money to customer that said they were short changed, even though they weren't, without following protocol of asking us to check cctv 1st
- Made the odd mistake with customer
I haven't picked many things up with the employee and let most of it slide, but its getting too much. I mentioned the coffee but didn't discipline.
I did once, about a year or so back mention that they need to be a bit more productive on shift (nothing harsh), I don't mind them talking, but still need to get their jobs done, while still maintaining a good level of customer service. After I said that they told every customer, I said they are not allowed to talk to customers and that they are going to ask for the week off as fed up. I know this is a customer who is a friend mentioned this to me, asking if it was a problem, I explained that of course staff can talk to customers, but they need to make sure they are getting their work done, instead of leaving it to others or ME! I also have seen on our cctv that they have said that. I haven't picked this or anything else up again..
Ever since, they have been talking about us, even though we leave them to it. They always say, they'll be watching me, and don't like me talking etc. But now getting fed up about it, as we have worked hard to build up the business, however, they are painting a bad picture of us, and whats more frustrating, we don't say anything to them, and all the other staff say nice things about us.
It seems as though any task we give them, they try to do it to a poor standard, so that we never ask them again.
This week we had an incentive, where if a customer spends x amount, they get a free scratch card, they didn't give any out even though they were asked to do so, but when they finished their shift, they remembered to ask for theirs when doing their shopping!
I am now at the point, where being too nice hasn't got us anywhere, with them badmouthing for no reason. It seems as though since their marriage breakdown, everybody else is the problem, but not them.
Is this a sackable offence, as they are making us look bad, when we are not! I would rather not sack, but I just feel, if they can talk about us and make us look bad, is just not acceptable, and losing us custom, we cannot afford to do so.
