Courteous but Lazy

Latest employee issue.........

A few weeks ago I hired a guy with extensive knowledge of an area that most of our current employees have only a minimal knowledge of. According to him, he had extensive knowledge of that area. I asked him a few questions to gauge his knowledge, and it seemed fine. However, a week or so later he recommended something to a customer that resulted in damage to the product. To make the customer happy, the store ate the money necessary to fix the problem. We talked with him about not recommending stuff that he wasn't sure about, and that was that.

With customers, he was courteous, friendly, and helpful, although a little over-talkative. You know what I mean? Ten people are waiting for help and he spends 45 minutes helping a single customer by encouraging unnecessary questions, that kind of thing.

In the short time he worked for us, he called in "sick," on average, once or twice per week, usually after a day off or when he knew there'd be a lot of work to do.

When shipments come in, he had to be told to get started, and repeatedly prodded to continue. One slow morning he was main cashier and stood there watching several employees stock the shelves in the front. I walked by a few times, curious as to how long he would watch before figuring out that it was a REALLY slow day and he needed to step out from behind his register and help put away the sizeable shipment. After all, he had been on stock crew before and seen the cashier help out between customers. Well, it probably would have taken him all day to take the initiative to help on his own. After about 20 minutes I told him he needed to help. It was obvious he didn't want to, but he did obey.

To sum him up in one word, L A Z Y.

We shouldn't have been surprised (part 2)