To be so anxious about this?

[Tokeepornot]

I am at a complete loss of what to do about this situation.

So the story is, I have my own business and the other week one of my employees told me that they had applied for a job and had an interview the following evening. I said that I completely understand and would support them in a new career change as I get the pandemic has made us all stop and evaluate everything. The next afternoon employee messages me to say that they had called and cancelled the interview and after thinking about things they were happy with me (in the first chat employee said they really wanted this new job choice and wanted to learn more about what they could do it reach this job)

During this time it made me evaluate my business forecast for the year and it really doesn't look good. We have debt because of covid and not much demand for our business this year or next.

A few days later my employee accidentally or on purpose (who knows) sent me screenshots of an email from the job interview saying, thanks for interviewing last week but you were unsuccessful. So it became clear to me that my employee had lied about not going to the interview and in fact the interview was the week before.

I really don't know what to do in this situation. Should I keep my employee or reduce their hours or just fire them?

My husband and I are partners in our business and could manage it together. But what if business picks up? What if I pay out money we don't have and my employee leaves? But most importantly my employee lied to me and I feel that the trust is no longer there.

Am I being unreasonable to let this employee go or should I keep them?

Trust has been broken so for me that would be it. Give them their notice, hire someone else but on fewer hours with a view to increasing them if business picks up.

That's what's on my mind, how could I trust them again. Also when looking back it's like they knew they had the interview so just gave up and work got really sloppy.

I don’t understand why you’d be so worked up about that. People do get anxious about telling an employer they’ve got an interview. Might be a good reason for her lying. I don’t think you can just sack her, there are laws around this kind of thing. If you don’t need her anymore then you need to give her notice etc

You've got two separate issues. 1. What makes most business sense right now ignoring the other issues; and 2. Trust with your employee.

It doesn't sound like you need them now, but I'd be asking your employee have any role in increasing business? If you did let your employee go, how would you replace those skills if you needed them again?

In relation to the trust issue, a conversation would be the first step to get more information. They may say something that makes you feel better or even worse, If you decide trust has broken down you'll obviously need to ensure you're acting within the law with any rights they may have. But your employee has clearly been considering leaving anyway, so they may go whatever you decide.

So they were probably embarrassed and saving face. Not something to fire them for.

Separate issue if your business is failing

Yoh can’t fire your employee for this. However you can make them redundant if the business doesn’t need them.

I was also going to say this is two separate issues.

You have to decide whether there is a post available for this person based on the viability of your business.

You are also saying they've become sloppy in their work. If they stay you might be looking at performance management. If you can't afford them, then redundancy. If they've been with you longer than two years then if you make them redundant you need to pay redundant pay. I wonder though if the timing of you reassessing affordability might not be believable to them and they might think you're pushing them out because they had an interview.

You are considering firing them for looking for another job and deciding to stay?

When they messaged to say they weren’t going to the interview, which is when (I would guess they decided to decline the job, didn’t you tell them the business is in trouble.

Why didn’t you tell them that when they said they were looking for other work? You didn’t all of a sudden realise there were potential problems in 24 hours. You must have been aware of the state of play before that employee spoke to you.

You said ‘one of your employees’ so if you need to make one redundant, why this one?

You feel anxious because you know your thinking is very poor.