Work colleagues giving conflicting information

[tickle]

Does anyone else find the level of education of their nail tech work colleagues to be extremely varied. There is one particular girl at my spa who when squirting the gel hand sanitiser at the beginning of the treatment will say "this is just to sterilise your hands" and often during pedicures advises the client to regularly give their toenails a "rest" from polish so that the nails can "breath", the list goes on...

What I don't understand is how people like this became qualified in the first place, as the information they are giving to clients is totally unfounded and makes my job doubly hard when I have to explain to the client why this is not the case...

How do you deal with colleagues like this? Is it worth trying to explain things to them, is it best to leave it?

 

[nailaddict2007]

OMG I think about this all the time. I don't understand how some of these girls survive. Its easier to correct someone if they are fresh from school, but otherwise forget it. If the client doesn't call them on anything then I think its okay to tell them your "sanitizing" their hands. If it get really out of hand (as I've had happen, one girl was constantly reccomending skin creams from Walmart and telling her clients that the enhancements she did were "indistructable"!) bring it up to your owner/manager and they can maybe talk to the girl. hth

 

[nailzoo]

maybe her terminology is wrong....... sterilise/sanitise/schmanitise, but i'm sure the client gets the idea (and appreciates the girl has her best interests and hygiene at heart), to a certain point I agree with her, I suggest my clients rest their toenails from polish every now and then during winter (not for them to breathe) but to allow them to be natural (and not covered), no base, no nuthin, it's quite amazing when their toenails get a natural healthy color, oils penetrate better and they can see whats going on. I'm sure your co-worker means well, perhaps she's just not quite so anal in her terminology.
You can call nail glue "adhesive" till the cows come home & I turn str8, but clients will always call it "glue".
I have experienced salon rivalry from an employers/owners point of view many times.... what you "employees" fail to realise is that "I" employed and interviewed my staff in the first place and trust each of their judgments, thats why I employed them, (although I appreciate what you are saying) being trivial and nitpicking gets annoying and often it's the nitpicker that gets the boot.

 

[pinkmummy]

As Carl said, her terminology is wrong but she obviously means well. How would she react if you brought in a printout of the definitions of sanitise, disinfect & sterilise, and acted all surprised. "Look at this, how easy are they to muddle up, I'm sure I told a client I was sterilising her hands, lol."

Not as bad as the two girls I heard a few years back on the counter of a well known cosmetic & skincare company.
Girl 1: "I don't know why all these customers believe that rubbish about the skin absorbing products."
Girl 2: "Yeah, stupid isn't it. If our skin absorbed stuff, we'd all fill up like sponges when we had a bath"
No wonder people wrongly think beauticians & nail techs are a bit daft.:irked:

 

[CadenceAlex]

Got to agree with Pinkmummy and Nailzoo here.... her terminology is wrong, fair enough, but perhaps you could jokingly point this out if you are friendly with her?

However, it's a harmless thing... at least she IS sanitizing the hands...

 

[gillian w]

I have a product called sterilising spray which i spray my files with.On a bottle of surgical spirit it says it sterilises so if the manufacturers are getting terminology wrong what hope have we got.
I must say i too advise not wearing polish if not necessary nails even discolour with base coat on.

 

[tickle]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

@nailzoo: if you saw my post as nitpicking thats fair enough (I do tend to have my moments! :o ), but I wasn't questioning the judgment of my or anyone else's employer - far from it hun.

 

[Katelisa]

It doesnt look good if everyone is singing from a different hymn sheet does it?!

clients should be able to go from therapist to therapist and get the same service, unless of course, they are all space renters, in which case its up to them what they do.

The therapist thats been employed in the salon whee i rent space told one of my clients to "glue down that bit of lifting" I was fuming.