Where is he?

(See parts 1 and 2.)

He pouted all day and only spoke to the other manager or me when absolutely necessary. When it was time for his break, he clocked out just like he does every day at break time and left just like he does every day at break time.

Hourly employees get a half-hour break. Half an hour later, he wasn't back. Long line? Bad traffic? Forty-five minutes later, nothing. Maybe he was in an accident? An hour later, no sign of him. OK, so he's probably not coming back. Two hours later......he's had plenty of time to call.........terminated.

I haven't seen or heard from him since. You want to hear the funny part? A few days after he was hired, when it looked like he'd be a good employee, he told me that the day after he'd gotten the job with us he'd been offered a job at one of our competitors making $1 more per hour, but he didn't think it would be "honorable," I think was his word, to go and work for them after already making the commitment to us. I'd like to ask him if he thought it was "honorable" to just leave and not come back. At least wait until the end of the shift; at least TELL us you're not coming back from break; at least CALL and say, "I quit." Easy, it is. Don't make us wonder. If someone wants to quit, there's no reason for me to talk them out of it. Walking out..........cowardly.

His last paycheck will be mailed to him, so I'll probably never see him again. I hope he got the job at the competitor.......the owner's a real asshole. I know this via one of our employees who used to work for the competitor, and also through my own phone dealings with the owner. Our employee is the hardest worker, pleasant with customers, all you could ever ask for, and long-term here. But our employee lasted only two months at the competition before he couldn't stand it anymore. Good luck, coward. Eventually you'll either learn how to work or you'll have to depend on someone else to support you.

We shouldn't have been surprised

(See part 1)

There's a routine task that's rather involved that one of the other managers is responsible for. Usually she does it, sometimes she delegates it to someone else. It didn't really matter who does it, as long as it gets done regularly, and gets done WELL. The other manager was sick and tired of doing it herself, so since it involved the guy's specialty area, she trained him how to do it so she wouldn't have to do it every single time. Well, the manager wasn't supervising the guy as closely as she should have, and he wasn't doing it as thoroughly as our regional manager demands it to be done. We didn't discover this until a few days before the regional manager was due to visit.

So on this particular day the manager who's responsible for it and I spent ALL DAY doing the task, together, to make up for the slacking-off the guy had been doing and getting the area up to where it had been so the regional manager would be satisfied. I planned on having a "chat" with the guy about doing things thoroughly, but I needed time to cool off first, plus the task had to get done.

The guy was in a bad mood that day, upset because he had misread the schedule and come into work an hour early and I wouldn't let him start work early. Occasionally I will let someone start before they're scheduled, if there's something to do. (Some of the high school kids use the bus system, which isn't particularly good, so in order to get to work on time they leave home/school/wherever REALLY early so sometimes arrive at work REALLY early. Sometimes I let them start early, sometimes I don't. Most of them bring homework with them to do on the bus and/or when they arrive at work. The break room looks like study hall some days.) But there was nothing for this guy to do that early, so he left and came back when he was scheduled to start.

He might have also been upset that we did the routine task because it's somewhat isolated from customers. Instead, he was cashier, which should have made him happy because all he'd really have to do all day is talk to customers. That particular day there was no cleaning or stocking to be done in the front. Just check out customers. That's it. No exerting himself or anything. I didn't really care if he was happy or not. Because of his negligence, the area was in bad shape and it was taking a lot of effort to get it back to where it was.

Despite all that, we weren't quite to the point of firing him.

Where is he? (part 3)

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)

OUCH

I'm a real klutz. Yesterday I dropped not one, but TWO boxes on my shin (the same shin) and now have two beautiful bruises/swollen spots within inches of each other.

I also got a cardboard cut on my finger (don't you love those, so much more powerful than a paper cut).

Today I was climbing down a ladder. I had two steps left but I thought I had one.........that last step is a long one! I landed on my feet but while trying to maintain my balance ran elbow-first into a wall. Bruise #3. Ouch!

Gift Cards

Yesterday a woman returned a gift card bought just before Christmas. In all of the years I've worked here, NO ONE has EVER returned a gift card. The card says right on it that it's not redeemable for cash, but nowhere on our receipt or return policy or gift card does it say that you can't return it.

Of course, the woman had a story to tell about why the person she was getting the gift card for didn't need it anymore, blah, blah, blah.

Not sure if policy allowed me to do the return, I looked at a couple of menus on the computer and found that the computer system *would not allow me* to return a gift card......there was absolutely no way to do it.

I called Boss, who also had no clue of how/if it could be done.

Then on to Big Boss (regional manager) who thought that someone had successfully returned a gift card at some point in time, but she didn't know who or how and the office was already closed for the day.

So......I explained the problem to the customer, who was frustrated but not as angry as some people would have been. The plan was for the customer to call me the next day.

Big Boss sometimes doesn't follow through on stuff like that, (maybe she forgets?) so I was planning on reminding her the next day, but not long after the office opened Big Boss called and explained how to do the return. While not something we want to be doing often because it could look suspicious, a one-time thing with a very detailed note to accompany it was OK.

What kind of policy does your store have on gift cards?