To Fire Or Not To Fire, That Is The Question

CookeCarpentry

Anyone have a sample form they care to share (via PM or email)?

I'm relatively new to this having employee thing, it's been just me for a long time, until realizing I could not grow without hiring. Prior to that, I was a project supervisor, and always sent them to construction manager or company owner for reprimanding.

Aggie67

My two cents:

Employees - without fail - will show their stripes sooner or later, and they will have them for life. The old scorpion stinging the frog while getting a ride across the river trick.

We had a guy that came with a really bad reputation. "That guy will snap within 8 months, and you'll be sorry." But we hired him, because we recognized his skill as a tig welder, and we felt he was manageable in the shop.

He gave me a good 6 years of great work, then totaled one of my welding trucks on a Friday afternoon.

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CookeCarpentry

Now I am just curious. Who said that he had a bad rep?

Seems that the totalling of the truck would negate the 6 yrs of work regardless of how good he was....

jtpro

Not being a smartass Warner, but the old daylight savings time date was changed.

Alarm clocks such as one of ours with auto update are off by one week because it was bought with the old date pre programmed.

BamBamm5144

As someone who has gone through 30+ employees in three years because of my trade to only find 4 good ones, keep him if his work ethic is of your standards as well as his quality of work. We have a 20 page booklet of employee expectations and what they can expect from us. If something like this were to happen with any of my guys, we write up what the incident was, go over it with them, make sure they understand it cant happen again, they sign it, then they get suspended two days without pay. If it happens again, its 5 days without pay. If it happens a third time, you are fired. It is good to have it written down for documentation when they try to collect unemployment off you.

Except in my case, guys usually fire themselves when they feel like showing up at 7:30 their first day and never again. I think everyone of us would pay good money to find an employee that is our replicas. If that makes sense.

Willie T

These are similar to the kinds my wife uses. Kind of juvenile, I know, but maybe you can get some ideas.

http://www.parentcoachplan.com/behav...FRhinAodcTEVNQ

As I said, mine are legal contracts with the Court System, so I can't share them. They aren't exactly what you'd want anyway.

THIS ARTICLE might give you some insight. The article is obviously geared for office workers, but we can easily put a construction focused spin on the info.

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Willie T

Not sure I'm following this line of thinking.

An employee with a good six year work record has an automobile accident, so that is proof of his unreliability?

Am I missing some tongue-in-cheek humor here?

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JP171

no Willie, your missing the school room zero tolerance policy mindset. yes I agree that there are bad employees and good ones, but alas most fall somewhere in the middle and we have to realize that. we also need to not make excuses where none should be, talk to the guy and see whats up, suspension may be something you should shy away from, I just left a job that I had for 15 months from a suspension, ya lie on me too damn bad, the plant is still out a refrig tech and the contractor is screwed and loosing the contract due to my leaving. but all that aside find out if the guy has a problem, if its an isolated incident the give hime a written verbal warning that this behavior isn't tolerated, happens again then suspend him for 3, then terminate

mics_54

I just skimmed over the OP but...i gathered the employee didn't clean up and was late once. Do you really want to go through an I9, and all the crap of hirung a new hand that isn't going to be any better? Don't you have enough to do? Maybe not.

Zinsco

First off, I have nothing but contempt for my employees, they will never be as good as me and I hate them for that. I love to fire people, it's absolutely intoxicating. I say these things to prove that I am not a push over where employees are concerned.

But, this guy has been pretty square for 3 months and has built up a bank account of credibility. I would call him and tell him that I value him as an employee and appreciate the good work he as done. I would tell him that he is part of the team and is missed at work. I would ask if there's any issues that I need to be aware of, and if not, that I need his help on the next work day.

Aggie67

I got that word from two sources - the guy's brother in law, and another contractor that worked with him 20 years prior.

When I got the call about the truck, I put my hand to my forehead and said 'D'oh!' I instantly got transported back 6 years to the day those two sources told me I'd be sorry.

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Aggie67

My point was that no matter how hard they try, the problem children will always be problem children.

I probably should have also mentioned that he blew a .23 right after he wrecked.

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Aggie67

I admit it, I do have a zero tolerance policy for grown men that get drunk on my time and wreck $37,000 vehicles on NJ Turnpike on-ramps.

(To be fair, I was too vague and didn't mention his substance abuse problems in my initial post in this thread. That was an important fact that I left out.)

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Meetre

You sir, just made my week!!

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Willie T

Yeah, ya might have a point. I grew up with a friend who was a real problem child. He joined the Marines, got out, went to college, then joined the Air Force. He retired as a major in charge of Intelligence at a base in one of the Dakotas. After which he became a Sheriff's Deputy here in Florida.

But he had a friend that was worse.... me.

I think that your post just might lean a little toward being a bit of an extreme blanket statement. As I recall, Einstein was considered a problem child.

To say that no one can lift themselves up and change is close to saying that none of us here has ever made a mistake... and that we were perfect kids. I rather suspect that ain't necessarily so.

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Warren

Call me a softy, but I hate firing people. Not that bad if they just started, but after 3 months I usually feel like a friend and an employer. I have fired probably a dozen people in my time, and about half of those were people who worked for me for a year or more. This is somebodys job that were joking about. Plus like someone said earlier, the hassle of having to go through the re-hire process needs to be weighed here too. My brother use to refer to these guys as "the evil you know" Which makes any new hire, "the evil you don't know.

Tinstaafl

Just to contribute to thread drift if nothing else...

To me, failure to clean up before leaving is way, way worse than oversleeping and taking a day off, especially on a Friday. About the only way I'd countenance that is if there's a dire emergency at home--and on the way, you call whoever you need to, to go over there and clean up for you. Young guys can be dumb about that, and I was young once, so you get one warning.

Pretty much the ultimate non-illegal sin: showing up for work with the smell of alcohol on your breath. Bam, you're done.

Aggie67

Willie you have a point also. My post was pretty much judgemental of anyone with a problem. Wrong on my part.

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CookeCarpentry

Hey all,

Just wanted to update you on the situation - I know, a few days light but the weather created a royal mess for us this week.

Anyway, had a sit-down with the employee, they manned up right away admitting that they F-ed up. I gave them a written warning (which was signed without hesitation) and told them it was not to build a case against them but to remind them how serious the offense was and I also suspended the 90 day pay raise (which would be happening next week) until further notice.

Thanks again.

J F

you cheap bastard