To tell a business owner her employee is crap?

[Anon75]

I've namechanged as it's sensitive

I know a lovely woman who bought quite a bit of product from our business when setting up a cafe a while ago. I wouldn't say she is a friend at the moment but definitely a close acquaintance and on the way to becoming a friend.

Her cafe has done really well, but in the last week or two she has had a new member of staff every time I've been in (owner not present) and to say she's having teething problems is an understatement. She can't make coffee (she thinks a latte is coffee with a splash of hot milk- and I had to correct her when gave me a half full cup, which was cold) , she constantly overcharges even though the prices are written on the wall, and she gets flustered to the point where it makes customers uncomfortable.

AIBU to mention carefully to the owner about this new member of staff? I know from firsthand experience that a new business needs to start strong, and I can see her quickly getting a bad review online.

She's obviously taken a risk on this person who has presented themselves as an accomplished barista and customer focused, when they're anything but.

Are you the cafe owner? Unless you are then you can have no idea what they presented themselves as.

Come on NoCry, you're not going to recruit anyone for a role serving in a cafe who presents themselves as cluless about coffee and unable to add up.

Sounds like this poor employee hasn’t had the required training

Yet you call her ‘crap’ op??

It’s a cafe? Not a coffee shop

No need for pretentious ‘barista’ staff!

Tell her.

At a local cafe I noticed what I considered unsafe practices around hot liquids. I told them, nicely and accurately. If someone had been injured because I did not speak up I would feel terrible. It is the business owners job to train and re-train the staff.

The owner needs to train her then. Not assume she knows. I would advise the friend to provide additional training and observation.

@RunningOutOfCharge sorry but if you advertise that you serve different types of coffee you should be able to serve them correct, full cup and hot.

I don't want 'pretentiousness' I want what I've asked and paid for!

If she’s your friend I would tell her. I used to go to a local independent cafe every week after school as a treat for my boys for nine years!. The original owners sold it to new owners. Those new owners became less hands off and now never work there. The cafe closes at 5pm as they need to be out of their garden centre by 5.30 when it closes. Week by week they stopped tidying up after 5 for the 5.30 Close until they now are at the point where they have closed up before 5pm and then stand around clock watching so they can run out at 5pm on the dot. Going there any time after 3.30 feels really uncomfortable as they sweep and mop around you so they can go at the absolute second it’s ok to close. You can buy a drink at 4.45 but you get you get kicked out ten minutes later. You can’t buy anything ten minutes before it closes as they cash the till up so it’s done to run out at five. I don’t the know the new owners but I would be tempted to leave a review saying not to go after 3.30.
I go to to costa now. Standard product with standard service. There’s too much choice out there to take my money too.
I feel like my custom is a chore

I'm assuming she's not been trained. Cafe/coffee shop managers often neglect this part of their business, and it's horrible because it reflects badly on the employee who bears the brunt of their lack of training (customer dissatisfaction etc).

Tell the owner, sure, but I'd frame it in a "she clearly needs more training" kind of way.

Come on NoCry, you're not going to recruit anyone for a role serving in a cafe who presents themselves as cluless about coffee and unable to add up.

So, what you’re saying is either the employer didn’t check at interview or the employee is pretending she can’t add up?

I worked in hospitality for 15 years. Usually someone has a trial shift, and if you are experienced you can tell in about 15 minutes if someone actually can do the job or if they are full of it.
However, there is often a dire shortage of professional staff, even in big cities. The industry is outrageously competitive, and people definitely 'put on a face' for their trial, and you can miss an average employee slipping through because they are on their best behaviour for their trial.
I think I tended to be my snappiest too when I was massively over worked, or had other pressures such as broken equipment or a lack of stock, all of which are out of my control. If you have 15 people come in and have a bad attitude at you, if you are feeling a bit rough, that can really impact your day, and your ability to be nice to customers. You can say 'but thats her job' but service is a very complicated job, to be pleasant and skilled all at once requires a LOT of training.

You don't have to be a bitch though, if you want to let your friend know, just say that the new staff member is in need of a lot more training, when left alone she gets easily stressed which results in many small mistakes and a snappy attitude.

Why does dh need to ‘add up’?? Doesn’t the till do that? Ours does...

Depends on the till. My last retail job had a manual till. You had to put the price then mentally calculate the discount (one of those stores where there is always 10/20/50/70% off) and take it off on the till. Can’t imagine there would be discount on coffees though.

Just tell the business owner what you saw, flustered, probs adding up, maybe suggest she needs more training = an informed owner, and a better trained member of staff. Job done. 👍

New business would require manager on site more

Op.... you’ve visited several times and your ‘friend’ has been absent?

It's your friend's fault too - if she hasn't noticed her staff member cannot do the job then she doesn't have her eye on the ball, or a good head for business. It sounds as if this employee gets nervous in public which is a real shame. But really your friend should have addressed this. I think I would say something in your shoes but please be very careful with your wording

I owned a successful business for many years before I sold it, and I can assure you that you should DEFINITELY tell her. A small business working it's ass off to succeed can be ruined by a terrible employee.

I'd speak to the owner as they need to be aware that their employee is potentially costing them business, but I wouldn't use it as a way to slag off the employee but I would frame it in that she seems like she needs more training as her skills in X/Y/Z areas are an issue.

I think the employee does need to take responsibility for the fact they are making mistakes but the employer also needs to take responsibility for the fact they haven't provided any training or support for the employee. I don't understand how the owner could hire someone without at least a couple of trial shifts where they worked with them and had an opportunity to see their skills (or lack thereof) and check they could do the job without getting flustered. I also would never work somewhere that hired me and then had no interest in even supervising a shift so that they could show me where everything was/how it worked or answer any questions I had as well as seeing how I got on working alone.

I work in a small but very busy shop. You get an interview then you get a trial shift which usually shows if they have the experience they claim they have. Some pepole decide it's not for them. If they look like they can do the job they are then put on probation and trained up for a good few weeks, even if they have experience they need to learn the way our shop works as it's so busy and there is a lot to learn. They would never be left on theor own in this period. There are people who claim they have done it before but it is blatantly obvious they haven't, that doesn't mean they can't do the job they just need trained up and it's done on the job with trained staff helping, others just never pick it up.

I would, yes.

And maybe she's so nervous because she hasn't been trained properly, customer notices so she then gets flustered, if customers are noticing then the boss should without customers having to tell her.