Business Owner's Nightmare

[eternalsunshine]

My nightmare as a business owner is that I am paying my staff to order me around to work. That's certainly how it feels. :T

I am so frustrated with the work. I am sitting here in front of the computer at 3am after working from 10am this morning. I'm still not done. My staff is pissing me off all the time with their incompetence so I keep having to show them the work over and over again. A staff makes the same mistake every 2 weeks. EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKE. When I ask my staff to follow up on deadlines, they follow up on one or two files and then they forget that they were even assigned the work.

Or better yet, I would ask them to follow up on a client and make sure we get all the documents. they would call and return the entire file to me with a note saying that the client didn't pick up his phone. WTF?

What am I supposed to do?

I've been reading business books on developing good process systems. My currently system is well developed.... yes... for people with brains. But for most staff who don't seem to give a crap about what they do, they're not even using my system.

I'm so so frustrated. It's easy to just do everything on my own.

Everyday I come into the office to work on ALL the tasks, explain ALL the errors made by the staff, do ALL the work, be told by my staff what I have to do.

I am dying. Can someone help me?

[Gene]

I'll certainly try to help you!

OK, here's my advice.

Expect more out of your employees. If you go into work each day expecting them to screw up, guess what!? It'll most likely happen. However, if you go in there convinced that they have the potential to succeed, guess what!? It'll most likely happen.

If however, after doing this for some time, you notice zero changes, you should give the entire staff 30 days to improve, or they're all out. You should make it clear that if all but one straighten up, they're all still going to be fired. When you do that, you'll probably begin to see some changes. Those who want to keep their jobs will begin working, and they'll begin pestering those who don't care into working.

Finally, if the 30 days expire, and nothing's changed. Tell them all goodbye. Yes, you'll be on your own, but from the sounds of it, you're on your own even now. The only difference is that you won't have to pay to carry the full load. Of course, you'll want to rehire eventually, but this time around, you'll know who not to hire, right?

I wish you the best!

[Doodyps]

Well, since you are already employing a staff, i would recommend talking to a head hunter and see if they can find you someone who has recently been layed off somewhere else and has experience in your industry. Then, simply replace one of your employees with that person and make them a manager. I dont know what industry you are in, but there are tons of talented people looking for jobs right now.

If your staff can't cut it, cut your staff and do what's best for the business. If might wake everyone else up to know you mean business, and maybe they'll actually call back clients.

[justy540]

Fire one in front of everybody. you have just cause it sounds like. That's how one stops a mutiny, you execute somebody and make sure everyone sees it. If they're capable, and value their jobs, they'll shape up. If not, you have to fire them too, it's a business not a charity.

[dshiper]

Eternalshunshine,
You are the boss !! Remember that.
You paid them and you can take any action needed.

I agree with Gene, give them a 30 days, and if failed, just get a new employee(s).
There are many people who want to keep their jobs safe and keep loyal to the company.

Good Luck

[ceoglad]

well i think training your employees shouldd work for you...
moreover i think u need to motivate em to do the work properly..else probably u can give em small gifts who does the work perfectly as such.. may be it'l work...
but ultimate solution is to hire people who are experienced...

god bless!

[mthomas]

Sounds like there is a tremendous lack of motivation among your staff. My guess is that it isn't incompetence, but they don't care enough to do it right.

Your job as a manager is to find out why they aren't motivated. The culture and atmosphere of the workplace, pay structures, incentives or even how you praise could be affecting their level of motivation.

It sounds as if the cause of this lack of motivation is the absence of accountability. Your staff may be neglecting to do the work because they know they can get away with it and they know you are just going to pick up the pieces after them. They see no repercussions for not doing the work, so they have no reason to complete it. Hold these employees accountable for what is delegated to them, and be absolutely clear with the repercussions of NOT doing the work, as well as DOING the work.

In truth it could be many things. However, hiring someone new can cost up to 5 times their salary due to lost production, training, recruitment costs, etc... So before firing anyone, try to figure out what exactly is causing the lack of drive in your organization. Talk to your staff and ensure your communication is crystal clear. Ask them WHY they continue to forget seemingly obvious tasks and WHY they think this is acceptable.

If the situation does not improve, you need to start a progressive discipline process. This means verbal warnings, then written warnings. Followed by suspensions and then termination. Firing someone without warning can open you up to lawsuit liability, so at least use the process of progressive discipline to protect yourself.

[TylerBakerllc]

I agree with justy540! It sounds like your employees have mistaken your kindness for weakness.

It is very unprofessional to fire someone like that 99% of the time. But in this case, your employees already have no respect for you... So it's not like they can respect you any less.

[mthomas]

I'm afraid that just firing your current staff is only deferring the problem to the next wave of employees you hire.

Employees not having respect for you is a real problem If there are any behaviors that you are exhibiting that cause employees to lose respect for you, this needs to be fixed before you spend even more money on employees who will inevitably do the same thing.

Practice leaving the responsibility of the work on your employees shoulders and ensure they know that you will not be there to fix whatever they forget. Let them know that they will suffer the consequences if the work doesn't get done, not you. If they see that you are no longer taking responsibility for their work, they will start to take their work more seriously.

[ZingerIntl]

Not an insult but

Attitude is a reflection of leadership.

Change the way you lead and they change the way they follow. All YOUR problems start and end with YOU. No one else.

You can do it, there is no better time to change for the better than today.

[akula]

I'm afraid that just firing your current staff is only deferring the problem to the next wave of employees you hire.

Employees not having respect for you is a real problem If there are any behaviors that you are exhibiting that cause employees to lose respect for you, this needs to be fixed before you spend even more money on employees who will inevitably do the same thing.

Practice leaving the responsibility of the work on your employees shoulders and ensure they know that you will not be there to fix whatever they forget. Let them know that they will suffer the consequences if the work doesn't get done, not you. If they see that you are no longer taking responsibility for their work, they will start to take their work more seriously.

i'm thinking that mthomas has really hit the nail on the head
...some stellar advice right there

[TRM Development]

My nightmare as a business owner is that I am paying my staff to order me around to work. That's certainly how it feels. :T

I am so frustrated with the work. I am sitting here in front of the computer at 3am after working from 10am this morning. I'm still not done. My staff is pissing me off all the time with their incompetence so I keep having to show them the work over and over again. A staff makes the same mistake every 2 weeks. EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKE. When I ask my staff to follow up on deadlines, they follow up on one or two files and then they forget that they were even assigned the work.

Or better yet, I would ask them to follow up on a client and make sure we get all the documents. they would call and return the entire file to me with a note saying that the client didn't pick up his phone. WTF?

What am I supposed to do?

I've been reading business books on developing good process systems. My currently system is well developed.... yes... for people with brains. But for most staff who don't seem to give a crap about what they do, they're not even using my system.

I'm so so frustrated. It's easy to just do everything on my own.

Everyday I come into the office to work on ALL the tasks, explain ALL the errors made by the staff, do ALL the work, be told by my staff what I have to do.

I am dying. Can someone help me?

Ahhh, we deal with this all the time! Basically your staff is suffering from a lack of accountability. Well developed systems work wonders, when there is accountability for their process actions.

Like you said above, it is easier to everything on your own. If this were true, you wouldn't need the staff & you wouldn't be this frustrated. They need to know you're the boss & that they work for you! You need to reorganize your business management plan of action.

[byrneof]

You should fire the worst offenders and replace them with contract workers that are paid when the tasks are done.

Or replace them with people who you put on a low basic wage plus commission to motivate them. It's very hard to motivate someone who is on a regular wage.

[dan2009]

Well try to simplify the way you manage thing, little things like auto-reminders email auto-responders can reduce the work load

[WealthNet]

Some good input so far. I agree that leadership, you, may need a bit of a tune up. Not sure how long you've been putting up with this kind of behavior. But it sounds a bit messy to me. Here are a some things to consider...

1. Evaluate how you as the leader "show up" at work. Would you follow yourself knowing what you know? Check your ego at the door when asking this and be brutally honest.
2. Establish very clear roles and responsibilities. Detail how each job is to be done. Have each employee detail the processes for the most common tasks first, then all tasks. Proper documentation is important.
3. Hold everyone accountable for their performance. Make it clear that everyone will be held accountable and if you are the manager, which is a very different role from the leader, then discuss how accountability will be managed. Decide what the consequences for lack of performance will be. Then be disciplined about it.
4. Get yourself a coach who has tons of experience with leadership, team building and HR. (If you don't have a budget for this, get some new reading done. For example, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick M. Lencioni is a good read.) The HR hat is important so you don't end up getting sued for breaking any laws related to employees and labor. Have your coach help you learn what to do when people don't perform. I only give people as many warnings as I have to by law. Then they're out.
5. Hire the best. Ditch the rest. It's a great time to be recruiting. One of my philosophies is "Always Be Recruiting" (ABR).
6. Create a culture of accountability. Get your whole team involved so the spirit of the workplace is along the line of people thinking and behaving as if, "We're all in this together and we're going to get things done right the first time."
7. Is everyone clear on your vision, mission and company goals? Create time to involve your team in your strategic planning process. If they don't feel included or have some stake in the game, they are less likely to be top performing employees.

I could go on for a bit, but this should give you some more to think about and do.

Good luck to you.