Member of staff off sick AIBU to say AAAAAAAGH (and breathe!!)

[BallsforEarings]

Ok I sound unreasonable, we all have 'stuff' happen but here's the thing - Our company closes down EVERY christmas for the full two weeks! Always has done always will do so that we can all breathe again, especially me who has not stopped day or night for a full year due to building the business AND working out with the teams during the day.

Myself and husband have not had chance to take one single day off since last xmas and personally I have not stopped working except whilst asleep!

I am not properly off work during this holiday, since every day, including xmas eve and boxing day I've spent a few hours doing essential preparations for setting out next year's schedule, stock control, kitting out teams, calling in late payments, running payroll and to cap it all my adult daughter is in hospital and so I have personal stress with regard to that too! My staff all know that!

One of our part-time teams (of two young mums) requested to work a couple of days this xmas as they needed extra cash for their families so I relented and set up the clients for them to service for today and tomorrow, even though it meant me 'on duty' in the background lest anything should occur, I was willing to let them earn some extra and trusted all would go well so I could get on with the days' chores which are a-plenty, especially since these two expressed small disappointment that I had only arranged them a couple of jobs per day as they felt they would have liked more than that but I did what i could in the time I had. I expressed concern about their childcare arrangements because I cannot cover anyone these two days due to having enormous amounts of stuff to do plus needing some clear days without presssure, they assured me they had relatives covering for 'as long as they like' and could work any hours.

This morning one of these two called in sick because her child was ill! The other is struggling to cover as best she can! The day turned into chaos and pressure, of me rearranging things and directing her as best I could!

AIBU to insist we just close for business next xmas no matter who thinks they want to work, even if they plead poverty? I am so frazzled, needed to vent!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!

That is all!

Just to add I have plenty of white cleaners, vast majority are white British, but I will not do business with such a wanker.

Hi Softly - yes that's right, everyone else wanted their full leave, it was just a kindness I agreed to as I never want my staff to leave us, but it did backfire on me!

Never mind you live and learn and thank you!

For what it's worth, balls , I am an employer, and it would never in a million Sundays occur to me to complain about my employees online whether anonymous or not (as there is no such thing as anonymity online, despite your belief otherwise). Respect goes both ways.

I am also a mother to a medically fragile child and I have had to turn my world upside down to ensure she was adequately cared for in a crisis situation. With that in mind, I still see your venting as unprofessional the moment you took it outside your own four walls and complained to a bunch of strangers to give the level of your inconvenience greater weight than your employee's (or their ill child's).

And, we will never see eye to eye. I am OK with that - as my employees know that I understand that the floor can fall out from under you at any time, and I respect their privacy.

This board IS anonymous actually.

Raltheraffe - that is wonderful, I am so happy you did that to that excuse for a man!

We once pulled our cleaners our of a home because the man of the house was being homophobic (those two are gay) long story but he WAS being homophobic and angry, we found out they felt intimidated and just walked in, told the cleaners to go outside and we just packed up our stuff and left! he didn't even come downstairs but we were ready to tell him why we were out of there! We told his wife we weren't coming back and why!

Wouldn't tolerate racism either or sexual harrassment or any intimidation of staff come to think of it!

It is only anonymous if you are unable to connect dots, identify "coincidences" etc. Not everyone is incapable of that.

There have been no shortage of "outings" for identifiable information in the past - and all it takes is for the OP's employee to recognise herself...

Callme - I can assure you nobody will know to whom I am referring but I do see your point more clearly now you have explained it from that angle and i have some sympathy for your view now, I thought you were just being goady for the sport of it like some of the others before (not that they bothered me a lot, it was just banter really but I had you down as one of 'them'.

You're right, we don't agree at all on this, but I too have SN (grown up) child so we do have something in common and I think it a far more weighty issue than thrashing out whether or not this board is anonymous or not, so I'm willing to agree to differ on that, given that I can see you think I could be exposing someone on here, which was never my intention (and I still feel I haven't at all) but I do take your point now that I understand where you're coming from!

I complain about staff/clients all the time on here. It's not unprofessional as its not affiliated to my work in any way and its not recognisable to my business.

By your logic anyone who comes on to ask about their employment rights or complain about their boss would also be being unprofessional.

It's a bit the same as reverse snobbery. Why is it that when people realise that it is your own business they hold you to a different standard than anyone else? Just silly.

People whinge about their unreasonable bosses on here and nobody bats an eyelid.
However set your own business up through blood, sweat and tears and everyone wants to have a pop at you.

Wow YES mrscumber - that is exactly what I was thinking earlier and you've crystalized my thoughts perfectly, some of the posters were not relating to any of my actual posts, more about how they feel themselves about their own employers rather than the situation as it really was, (which, let's face it) was annoying and stressful but hardly amounted to anything serious in the scheme of things! I wasn't thinking about anything else but my day when I posted but it really unsettled a few to my surprise!

I don't know about you but I found it is fascinating to widen my perspective a little like this on here, since, even if I'm never going to agree with certain attitudes, it is a revelation to hear about them and see if i can take them on board 'try them for size' as it were, some I've discarded but then some views to the contrary I did explore and I found it rather a lot of fun so I guess I will be back again sometime soon braving another topic!

We're all humans and we are all here to learn otherwise we wouldn't be interested in posing questions like AIBU in the first place would we? There's a gift in every (serious) reply if you look for it and if you haven't been flamed on MN you haven't experienced everything IMO!

Sorry op I don't understand why you would have paid out holidays if someone has just started as they probably don't accrue much?

?

So how have you paid out holidays accrued for the first week?

What about statutory holidays?

What type of contract are they on?

To be honest, MrsCumberbatch, I think that anyone who complains about their boss online is equally or perhaps moreso unprofessional. Asking about employment rights is an entirely separately critter. For all the small business employers out there who seek to their best for their employees (and still earn a living wage for themselves) there are, unfortunately, those who seek to exploit

Sadly, the internet has morphed into an unintended complaint zone - not what was initially intended - but holy smokes - not the worst of it, right?

I have always maintained personally (and please understand that is is my personal view) that I will not post online what I would not declare out loud in a room with my parents, in-laws, spouse, children and vicar.

Balls, I think you sound like a brilliant employer. That's all.

Balls it is a total nightmare.

I'll meet up with friends and they'll all be mouthing off about their bosses and I can't help but fear that somebody is talking about me in the same manner.

We have had a few really unlucky moments staff wise where we have been taken advantage of (stealing, lying, outrageous lies (3 different people!)) and it is hard to remain optimistic.
I go out of my way for my staff and some of them do the same for me. It's more of a give and take balancing act than "You're entitled to 24 days holiday and that's it." Unfortunately there's always some who aren't happy no matter how much you give them.

I also had a great team of staff but one 'bad egg' joined the team and was hellbent on poisoning them all against me.
It was so disheartening and hard to prove. I can't believe I was being bullied in my own business

She has now left and the staff are all moaning about how she is manipulating them socially, I'd love to remind them how they were all manipulated against me a few months ago but have to stay on the fence and not say anything.

Having your own business does not always lead to having more personal freedom... So I have learned the hard way!

Snapple - I am not willing to discus the details of their individual contracts since apparently just moaning about my day has completely violated their privacy in some way! Its NOT zero hours if that's what you want to know but other than that we will keep things vague and anonymous - even I do think it could be overstepping the mark to discus my employees' contracts and xmas bonuses with everyone on here! Do other people discuss these here? Surely not? Also I can't see how their individual contracts pertain to my original stress issue at all? Or their xmas bonus for that matter.

I now feel Im revealing too much because of earlier posts so no more irrelevant personal details about the staff's wages if you don't mind, I feel you may want to know their payroll number's next or how much they each earn, no more personal questions!!

OldLadyKnows - thank you so much!

Mrs CB - I can relate to the one 'bad egg' it happened to me too a few years back, and soon after that person had had a communication with another employee for the first time then THAT person started trying to steal my clients!

One rotten apple can spoil the barrel so I guess we have to watch our backs at times, sad but true!

Snapple
Anything else you want to know ? Sticky beak!

Thanks Frog - wow and just after I got a roasting for being too blatant comes a request to see my staff's bank account numbers and last names (or some other such nosyness!) I shall refer all other questions of this nature to my accountant so he can tell you where to stick 'em and not me!

Some mother's do 'ave em!

Good night folks I have really enjoyed this thread funnily enough, it's been fun!

Ynbu, you went against your better judgement. I guess you won't be doing that again. I would have thought it was a safe vent to have. Sorry. X

YABU to question employees about their childcare arrangements.

Lordy, bonkers thread, so much projection and imagination.

You are an employer therefore you are EVIL!!!!

Bonkers.

YANBU, obviously.

Balls, we need people like you, hardworking and a fair-minded manager.

You give people employment, and also your cleaning services are indeed gold dust. My cleaner comes to me through an agency (it's a franchise) and I know what it's like if one of the staff is off sick. The business owner has to come out to me and so that person's job. I don't demand that, but she does it because she feels responsible to keep things moving and I want to ensure they continue to get revenue flowing in otherwise that business won't last very long!

No problem having an arghhhhhh on here, but you are taking your life into your hands on AIBU . Hope your employee's child is better.

Good morning, me again!

Thank you to everyone who really read my posts and empathised with me yesterday! [flower]

Sorry to all those who got a bit unsettled and projected their own experiences of living with a unjust employers onto my words - it was not my intention to be goady to you guys, was just saying AAAAAAGH from my own perspective! That was all, had not even considered any 'politics' at play!

Thanks to CallMeExhausted too, who pointed out that, although it's meant to be anonymous on here people have been 'outed' which I have to admit, I had not considered a possibility but will be a bit more vague in future posts, although I still think I haven't exposed anyone or anything from RL this time.

It is a fair point though, that if you post enough details, there's a small chance someone COULD recognise you and even their part in your saga and, given that it's meant to be anonymous and given that people are also adding their own fictional slant on things which could be taken as something you DID post earlier, then I suppose in RL all this put together could potentially be flamable and cause a bit of upset all of which I've taken on board for future posts.