To be confused/pissed off with my employee?

[emmymillie]

I employed a young girl recently as she had some basic skills needed and had no friends so i thought i would help her out as i know her through her mum. I am having to move my offices about 1.5hrs south (1hr drive for her) and i told her from the start this was a possibility. She is from an area where there are no jobs, no opportunities and generally no money, so i think shes quite lucky to have landed herself a job working for me where i'm training her in what she has 'always wanted to do'. So i let her know an approximate moving date, 4 months away so she has lots of notice, and she lets me know that she has decided she cannot possibly travel 1hr to work each day (she already travels 30mins and i pay for it extra) as it will impose on her 'me time'. I understand she wants her own time but i've just spent literally thousands on training her up. I also planned to add on an extra 1/3 of her pay and she knows this, but is going to turn it down on the basis that she wont travel an extra 30 minutes each way bearing in mind she won't be eligible for benefits straight after quitting so will have no money and will have absolutely no job prospects (even after the training i have provided) if she will not travel!

I suppose the way she is going she would have been sacked anyway, she will only work if someone is directly sitting with her telling her what to do and as soon so you stop she goes on facebook for hours even though she has work set to do which she definitely understands. She has a 1/2 hour lunch break (her own choice) but today gave herself 1.5hrs. Then i checked what she had done at the end of the day and she had done the equivalent of 20 minutes work. I walked past her today and saw she was on facebook, messaging someone. I asked her what she was doing and she said 'oh, just on facebook' like that was perfectly acceptable and carried on for another at least 30mins, surely i'm not paying her to send messages on facebook?!

I don't even know how to approach her, she believes that saying she won't travel will stop us moving and doesn't realise she will lose her job. I've never employed anyone like her before (unmotivated teenager with an interesting 'im-better-than-everyone' attitude). I'm pregnant (3rd pregnancy) with my first and my mum popped in and this girl even started telling my mum how she thinks i'm a bit immature to have a child (where did she get that from?!) and how i spend all day pretending to work but actually doing nothing (erm, no.. i think its the other way around, i'm working a minimum of 12hrs a day 7 days a week currently!). We're only a small team and having one person who doesn't fit in really makes an impact.

I only set up my business in 2014 and have never had a problem like this with an employee before. I feel like she should be sacked the way she is acting, I don't need the added stress.. or maybe its just pregnancy hormones and i'm expecting too much?

She's utterly taking the piss. Think you need to stiffen your backbone, give her the old heave-ho and find someone who actually wants to work.

As an aside, DH is a business owner and often complains that the work ethic in British young people is often very off - according to him many of them want instant responsibility and promotion, don't want to do any shitwork ever and have groundlessly inflated ideas of their own value.

It makes me wonder whether all this 'building self-esteem' business is really so beneficial, especially when it's not actually backed up by much in the way of hard skills or consistent effort.

Apologies if someone's already said this (or it's too late!) but I would call her in and explain that

a) the company will definitely be going ahead with the move so
b) since she has made her intention to stop working with you after the move clear you think the best course of action is to part ways now so that she can find more convenient employment and you can start recruiting for a replacement

If she asks to work from home after the move you can of course say no, and if she pushes it then cite the facebook stuff.

If she asks to stay on until the move, then it's up to you but you could keep her on and make it clear to her that you expect her to work when she's in the office and that the use of facebook during office hours is not acceptable, and that if she would like to book time off then you expect x days notice of the request.

I know you'll feel reluctant to a degree because of the training but it will just be good money after bad if you keep her on.

I can see it's hard because you haven't had someone like this before but it's a good learning experience as you now know to:

a) evaluate employee performance before investing in training
b) have a more solid recruitment policy in place

Good luck x

Never, ever employ friends, or friends of friends. It's just too complicated.

The obligations of friendship can so often conflict with your requirements as an employer.

I told her that we are moving (without her) and i'm giving her her notice and she told me she doesn't want any notice and left.. excellent!

Then another employee told me that last week while i was in a meeting she spent a good few hours doing work which she hadn't been set and he thinks she might be getting outsourced work to do WHILE she is supposed to be working for me, and he didn't think to even tell me before. Thankfully she is now gone!

What a lucky escape. You need to set some basic rules though just invade your newbie tries it on. First things first. No internet access unless for work purposes.

That works fairly well for you as she's been given her notice but chosen not to work it, effectively quitting instead. Worth checking but I don't imagine you're obliged to pay her notice now.

Whew! What a relief!

Glad she is gone. Try to learn from this experience for the future. No more favours. Think through your procedures and how you are going to tackle difficult employees. You will meet them again in your working life. Hopefully next time you will be able to deal with them better.

and maybe block facebook (and similar websites) on your work internet?

You need to set some basic rules though just invade your newbie tries it on. First things first. No internet access unless for work purposes.

I disagree with this - instead of punishing the person who abused the privilege, who has now left, you are punishing everyone else in the company. I worked in a place that blocked Facebook because some members of staff had been caught using it in work time, which meant that everyone who would catch up in their lunch hours was penalised rather than the actual issue being addressed. It sounds like the rest of the staff are hard working and loyal - why should they suffer because one person was taking the piss? It damages morale and makes people feel as though they are losing out because you weren't able to come down on her flagrant disregard for the rules.

I'm giving her her notice and she told me she doesn't want any notice and left.. excellent!

CONFIRM ALL THIS IN WRITING! Send a letter summarising the conversation - your bit and (the important bit) her reply.

PS: Well done!

Please change all passwords and codes she had access to as well....

Brilliant that you got rid. I was going to say that if I were her mother I would be glad you fired her. I had to fire my own daughter once because she didn't think she had to be serious about her work as it was just for her mother!

But that was a long time ago and fortunately she has a very good work ethic.

I also totally agree with DoJo

I would be wrong to punish your loyal and hard-working staff for the actions of this abuser

Well, as my mother would say "I hope it keeps fine for her".

She sounds like a rude entitled brat, and will soon get a rough wake up call. Very few employers would have been as nice and patient as you were with her.