I have run into a little trouble with a new employee and am trying to figure out what to do. I have used this person before on a temporary basis and have found him to be prompt and trustworthy before hiring him full time. I have this person doing plaster repair and drywall hanging and I am not able to be at the site very often. There is nobody at this house because it is a rehab project. When I do show up he is not there or leaves around 2:00 because he says he gets there at 6 AM. This week I am rearranging my schedule to stakeout the place and insure that I am not being ripped off. I would really like to keep this employee because he is very talented at plaster repair, but need to insure that he is honest with me. In January I will be able to devote all of my time towards the project he is working on, but until then I need to decide how to handle this. If dishonest, My two thoughts are to give him a second chance under a more watchful eye or some system of ensuring time worked, or be a straight shooter with him and explain that because of this dishonesty I cannot employ him again until January. Anyone have any advice as to a system to ensure hours worked or a way to keep things amicable so he will want to come back to work for me in January?
Thanks
Replies
Had the same problem a while back. Spoke with other crew members and suspicions were justified. Stake out confirmed it. Gave him a chance to be honest and correct only the last timesheet and pay back. Refused to come clean and was let go. Suggest you talk to others, then stake out. Document stake out and conversations to back yourself up because it can get nasty.
as far as his time is the work getting done?
I'd pay more attention to what he is accomplishing rather than hours logged. Is he getting the job done?
Set some daily or weekly goals that you (reasonably) expect him to complete. Plain and simple are you getting your moneys worth out of him? Can you easily replace him? If not; that is something to consider before you start Stalking him and break down what little trust there may be between you now.
Sounds like he is an artist.........flaky you know........
Eric
Let him go. sounds harsh but if he will get you on a few hours here and there it will something else next. (Learned from experience) It's stealing the same as picking up your tools and carting them home.
We just opened a new branch about 3 hours away from our main operation. I was over there 1-2 times/wk. Told the guy up front it's a trust issue. I will trust you untill you abuse that trust. well the first man did sign out for extra hours. And was let go. The first 90 days are probation to see if we like each other. Don't like me then no hard feelings and go on down the road.
He probably will test you for 15 mins then increase it. What is an aceptable amount of "extra" hours? 1 hour/day? 3 hours sounds pretty good too? You get the point.
As to the people asking how much work does he get done. That's not the deal he signed up for. If you want to piece rate it then change the deal. But he is working by the hour and comes with all the responsibilities that entails.
There are timeclock manager type things that he can swipe a keyring thingee to start and end jobs. Might want to try that.
The only employee that we have ever fired was because of padding his hours. When this guy was directly supervised, he was fine, willing to do any job no matter how hard. We (the partners) decided that we could abide almost any employee problem except lack of trust. We are in too many situations where people extend their trust to us and we cannot risk abusing that trust. He had to go.
If your paying this guy by the hour and your paying for 8 hrs a day and 40 hrs a week and he's not working 8 hrs a day then it doesn't matter what he's getting done unless your paying him by the job he could put 2 hrs a day in. If he's beating you on hrs get rid of him. How could you want a person working for you that lies about his hours. What else is he going to lie about or maybe steel something from a house that your working on some day.
Joe Carola
I think you need to be clear with this guy.........and for that matter, all your people.......
Normal working hours: 8am to 4:30. Mon thru Friday.
Tell him.........then tell him you expect him to keep his own hours......trust.
Then check him out. And if he's stealing from you, fire him.
He'll be stealing from your clients next............
either put him on a time clock or put him on salary
Does he have a cell? Make a habit of calling him at the time he's supposed to be there, perhaps just to review the day's tasks. Then ask him for something like the dimension of a wall under some pretense. That'll show if he's there or not.
Thank You for the good ideas and thoughts on the problem. He does get a decent amount of work done, but I think I am being shorted 10 hrs of work or so. I like the idea of calling and asking measurements will do that tomorrow morning instead of driving out to the site bright and early. I think I am gonna have to do what most of you reccommend...give him a chance to come clean on friday. If he doesn't, I have little choice but to fire him.
Obviously there are a number of opinions on this and the simplest first thing I suggest you do which I have done in the past is to tell the guy to call you once he is AT the jobsite in the mornings. Then, after he has left the previous day and you go to inspect what he did that day, change something (move materials, write on a wall, leave him a note, whatever...) then refer to it when he calls you in the morning and make him describe it to (in a completely unsuspecting manner like "you see that note I left you, I forgot if it says..........."). If he can't tell you what it says -- busted -- and you have a solid reason to confront him.
Good luck. We expect clients to attempt to take $$ from us, not employees.
thieves steal until caught, period.
That still doesn't seem to stop them...
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
I would be inline with all the suggested mails. Over here (Germany), if I pay a guy too little, he would make it even by adding another hour to the day. Numbers are on paper, words are words...question is really: Is his work (the quality, the entire work done) worth the x-hours. But if you catch a liar - he just cannot be trusted, can he. I would talk to him about your thoughts: tell him, you are never sure about his attendance - you got an odd feeling - maybe he can clarify this. Truthfulness goes both ways.
BTW: The check on the cell phone is only for real good actors - a phony question at 6:30 - will be a phony question.
You could maybe tell him the architect will install mandatory web-cams on the site and that really bugs you...
Mathias