Fire 'em All !!!!!!!!
System
5,885 Posts
We have been experiencing a problem with the staff in the cafe at our store. There is a lot of complaining, moping and just plain slacking off. We brought in some nifty store logo baseball caps that we required them to wear instead of their own and they practically let out a collective wail of anguish. Now they are playing the whole game of putting them on when they see management and taking them off as soon as our backs are turned. They make it obvious as if it is a fun game. That just the tip of the iceberg with them.
The problem is that there are some troubling issues in the department that management has'nt addressed regarding safety, such as wires running along the floor through water that leaks from various appliances. We had a trip and fall today and the employee involved became very vocal about the safety issues. She even asked me to direct her to the proper authorities to complain to.
Now management is do frustrated with the staf thet they wantto fire all of them (except the two supervisors) close the cafe for a week, redo it and hire all new staff. I see murky water here but this management team is the kind that really want to do it their way. They have asked me for advice and that is a step in the right direction. To really impress them I thought I would consult the forum.
My concerns are what can we fire them for? Insubordination (the caps) poor performance and various other grievances or do we have to lay them off? If we lay them off they collect unemployment and we would have to hire them when we reopened.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Deez
The problem is that there are some troubling issues in the department that management has'nt addressed regarding safety, such as wires running along the floor through water that leaks from various appliances. We had a trip and fall today and the employee involved became very vocal about the safety issues. She even asked me to direct her to the proper authorities to complain to.
Now management is do frustrated with the staf thet they wantto fire all of them (except the two supervisors) close the cafe for a week, redo it and hire all new staff. I see murky water here but this management team is the kind that really want to do it their way. They have asked me for advice and that is a step in the right direction. To really impress them I thought I would consult the forum.
My concerns are what can we fire them for? Insubordination (the caps) poor performance and various other grievances or do we have to lay them off? If we lay them off they collect unemployment and we would have to hire them when we reopened.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Deez
Comments
My 2 cents.
First off whew, got your hands full on this one. Couple of things, your loss prevention department internally, or the loss control department of your insurance company can conduct a thorough evaluation of the workplace from a safety standpoint and make you aware of what needs to be corrected.
That handles one issue.
Second step that I would do is sit down all of the employees in question let them know that you are doing this, going to make the corrections. Also let them know that you will share the report with them. Next, sit the whole crew down and explain that you are wrestling with if you should let the entire staff go during the repairs or if the current situation is fixable. Use the hats as an example. Don't look with any special favor on your supervisors. If they were great, you would not have the issues you are dealing with now, think about it. Front line supervision is the key. If they were awesome they would have eliminated problem employees, and gotten all of the others focused in the right direction.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman
This is just the tip of the iceberg with this matter. I strongly suggest you talk to your labor and employment counsel before taking any further action on this matter. You have a potential landmine here and should tread carefully.
If you have any additional general questions, plese feel free to contact me directly.
Susan Fentin
Associate Editor
Massachusetts Employment Law Letter
Skoler Abbott & Presser, P.C.
Legal Counsel to Employers
Offices in Springfield and Worcester Mass
[email]sfentin@skoler-abbott.com[/email] (413) 737-4753
And, I would personally avoid walking through the work area as I would not want to be the statistic resulting from the electric lines laying in water.
Third, I would reduce all this to a complete written account of my observations, facts and findings and would present that to management and indicate in your written account the specific date it was given to management and to whom.
Fourth, I would re-read Susan's response.
As an aside, in NYC, if an employee called the city, the inspector would probably close down the cafe immediately upon observing the mess.
As for the employees, I am usually more sensitive to the employees complaints but this is a frustrating lot. They dress shabbily, don't even attempt to work, yell at the only superviser that works hard when she is told to reduce her payroll and so cuts hours. We got them the hats (Deli and cafe are required to wear headgear) because the hats they were wearing were absolutely filthy and they refused to wear clean ones of their own. Thank you all for responding. It's been a hectic day. Now I have a pretty serious sexual harassment allegation to deal with. WHEW!!!!!
I would fire them all.
In order to make sure the same thing doesn't happen in the future, however, you need to have management think about the consequences of such a drastic action.
1. Who hired these non-exempt folks in the first place? Did the managers? Or, did they 'inherit' the lot? In either case, better hiring practices need to be in place.
2. Are expectations for performance and customer service spelled out in a handbook or some other documentation? Is it trained to new employees and then followed up on at a later date? If managers are just handing out policies and expecting people to read it - there's going to be a repeat.
3. Are there procedures in place for discipline issues (as well as safety issues)? Do they get followed?
4. If employees or managers have a problem, is it spelled out somewhere who they can go and speak with? This really helps when you have folks that like to complain, but then don't follow the "chain of command" for addressing their issues.
5. Managers need to know how to manage. If they can't be leaders and have happy, productive employees - they can't manage.
Employees, especially in retail environments, represent the company to the customers, and a customer is no fool. If a customer sees or senses (or worse the employee complains about the company to the customer), you've just lost the customer and about 5 of their friends/family.