Miserable employee. Take time off?

[cardell]

So I have a girl who works for me. Been here 1.5 years.shes had a hard life and seems to always be going through some major issues, she's either got the worst luck in the world or is a big fibber. I honestly can't decide which- maybe it's both.

She has been told already her customer service most days is pretty awful yet she always has an excuse. She's getting worse and now she has started to bring the whole team down. She'll go the whole day not talking to a client or staff member deliberately yet is happy as Larry on phone to her friends. Everyone else gets on fine but I think where she's becoming the odd one out she wants to bring everyone else down too so tries to cause rifts between people sometimes. She's basically getting worse.

Can I make her take time off to think about if she wants to be here or not and to sort herself out? I feel bad for her if the stories she says are true but I've caught her out on so many lies before I'm not sure what to believe now.

 

[cardell]

I forgot to ad that she thinks she amazing. She blames everyone else for her mistakes or daily attitude and the times we had meetings about the above she doesn't listen and talks over me blaming everyone but her. She thinks she can do no wrong and thinks she's very clever. She's quite a hard person to chat to about herself.

 

[AcidPerm]

Why give her time off? That will just annoy your other staff as it will seem like a reward for bad behaviour.

You need to start formal disciplinary action now. She's not going to take you seriously until you spell it out to her. Give her a chance to improve but be prepared to sack her.

Have a meeting with her away from the other staff. Run through the issues that you have on a point by point basis. Stick to the facts. Tell her exactly what she needs to do to rectify the situation. Write up a synopsis of the meeting and give her a copy. Block out time in the diary to review her progress. Tell her that if she fails to improve, you will have to let her go.

Be completely businesslike and don't allow her to manipulate your meeting.

 

[smallandcute]

Oh tricky one. I would have a meeting with her but away from the salon so one others cannot over hear and two its a more neutral environment. Take her for coffee or something. Then ask her how she is truly feeling about herself and her work. Underneath it all she may be feeling very lost and lonely but is putting on a big fake smile to her friends and family. Let her get it out of her system there and then and depending on what is said put a plan of action into place with targets. If she really wants to stay then also do some team building exercises and really get her involved and mixing with the others.

If she really isnt happy in her job then maybe best to let her go. Put her on garden leave so she cant poach clients and go back to the team you do have and really instill the team bonding and move forward with your business.

Good luck i hope it works out the way you want.

 

[Emma1976]

I agree with small and cute but also a team meeting too. We have regular monthly team meetings now which has helped tremendously with staff morale xx

 

[daydreams01]

Why give her time off? That will just annoy your other staff as it will seem like a reward for bad behaviour.

You need to start formal disciplinary action now. She's not going to take you seriously until you spell it out to her. Give her a chance to improve but be prepared to sack her.

Have a meeting with her away from the other staff. Run through the issues that you have on a point by point basis. Stick to the facts. Tell her exactly what she needs to do to rectify the situation. Write up a synopsis of the meeting and give her a copy. Block out time in the diary to review her progress. Tell her that if she fails to improve, you will have to let her go.

Be completely businesslike and don't allow her to manipulate your meeting.

Great advice and prob what I would do if faced with that situation but When you say 'let her go' what rights does an employer have in this situation and what grounds would you use to avoid a potential unfair dismissal case?

 

[PamieD]

I forgot to ad that she thinks she amazing. She blames everyone else for her mistakes or daily attitude and the times we had meetings about the above she doesn't listen and talks over me blaming everyone but her. She thinks she can do no wrong and thinks she's very clever. She's quite a hard person to chat to about herself.

Classic low self esteem. Personally I would start getting the disciplinary action ball rolling but if you want you could always try getting a workplace counselor to come and talk to her.

 

[smallandcute]

Classic low self esteem. Personally I would start getting the disciplinary action ball rolling but if you want you could always try getting a workplace counselor to come and talk to her.

I completely argee and thats why i think that she needs to be taken out of the salon for chat and try and help her with whats going on before the disciplinary route so that your covered in case of dismissal.

 

[AcidPerm]

She's been employed less than two years so very few employment rights (excepting pregnancy, disability discrimination etc.) Dismssal is based on poor performance and not making satisfactory progress to improve.

Even when you have an employee working for you for ten plus years, as long as you follow the correct process, you can dismiss them. I really don't understand why some employers are so afraid to tackle disruptive or incompetent staff? It's really not that difficult and delaying tackling the problem by hoping they'll just leave doesn't endear you to the remaining team members, if they're constantly having to pick up the slack.

As to counselling? You're their employer, not their social worker!

 

[surf girl]

I've tried both approaches councillor & hard cheese, being firm is much more beneficial when dealing with a staff member like that. They need to know you mean business so definatley follow up with regular progress reports, it helps them to really see their behaviour has or hasn't improved even though any other measures you may have put in place (fixable issues she complained about in the meeting) will have improved.

 

[hazelb]

You do need to take action or she will bring your other staff down and eventually your business.

Have clear guidelines and take the same approach with all your staff. I would back up the 'general chat away from the salon' and talk to her.

Then don't worry if you have to go down the disciplinary route.

To put it into context, many workplaces have stick procedures around lateness, sick-leave etc. For instance if anyone takes more than the 'allowed allowance of sickness' ( eg 3 episodes of sickness in 3 months ) or are late a set number of times, they will automatically go through initial disciplinary procedures.

Think of your other, hard working, valuable staff.... If they see this going on around them it can be pretty demoralising and they will start to question why should they make the effort?

 

[cardell]

Thanks everyone. I will set up a meeting for when she's next back in work on Tuesday. We will go to a local coffee shop and try sort it out.