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is it just me, or is managing staff a total nightmare?

6 replies

sausagesupper · 01/09/2009 15:39

Dunno if I have this out of proportion (am 8 weeks pregnant and v hormonal)!
Dh and I run own cafe and have about 10 part time staff. At the moment it feels like one problem after another. It is not so much the nature of the problems that bothers me, rather the way that they deal with it. Either Dh or me is there at all times, but instead of asking us in person, they go home and moan to their parents who then get on the phone to us in the evening and rant and rave etc... I am finding this so stressful and very difficult to deal with. For example, one girl thought that we had underpaid her. I asked her to write down the weeks that were wrong (she didn't raise this till the day she left). The notes she gave me were not sufficient to help me figure it out. Then her mum gets on the phone and starts shouting saying if we don't sort it out she will go to local papers etc (wtf?) etc. I stay up till 1am printing out all her hours, rates of pay, pay dates, tax paid etc and send it to her. Then heard nothing. She had misunderstood the pay system.
I can understand the protective parent urge kicking in, but why do these people insist on making a mountain out of a molehill and are unable to speak about it in a rational manner instead of all this carry on. Last night was the 4th irate parent I have spoken to since May.
Any advice please?

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flowerybeanbag · 01/09/2009 15:44

Their parents? I wouldn't speak to them tbh. If people are old enough and mature enough to have a job and earn money they are also old enough and mature enough to speak to their boss themselves about any problems they are having.

I would suggest next time you politely refuse to discuss your employees with their parents as their pay and other issues relating to their employment are entirely confidential between you.

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sausagesupper · 01/09/2009 15:46

Thank god for that flowery. I thought it was me. My mum was always supportive of me, but would never get involved herself unless things got way out of hand.

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GeneHunt · 01/09/2009 15:55

I refuse to talk to parents. I also don't accept parents phoning in to say that their child is ill. Their child is 22 FFS. Bizarrely, they then find that they are able to struggle into work where they have a good whinge about missing a party whilst forgetting about the CCTV with sound right above their head.

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sausagesupper · 01/09/2009 15:58

God don't get me started on the dramatics I have seen that accompany even the mildest hangover!!

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SouthMum · 01/09/2009 16:57

I don't talk to parents either - I just tell them I cannot discuss any of the employees terms or issues with anyone except the employee.

The papers would laugh at this none-story

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sausagesupper · 01/09/2009 17:02

Exactly, that's why it's so stressful, you have to listen to all this ranting and raving about nothing. I just want to shout, wait a minute, what the hell are you getting so upset about, get over yourself and hang up.

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