To feel completely betrayed by staff member

[BurpeesAllTheWay]

I run a cleaning company, I started 6 years ago on my own and over the last 1.5 years have added in 6 more employees. The first lady I hired, Ann has been with me since October 23. I employed her daughter to work with us 2 and the pair of them work in a team and the daughter doesn’t drive. Everything was fine until this year, they’ve had 6/7 clients leave and they are calling in sick atleast one of them weekly.
Today, the daughter called in sick because she was too tired to work. I managed to cover her work and team up someone else with Ann for the day, I did ask Ann if she could work late and she said she had something on, which was fine. Then driving home from work today, I drove past one of their old clients houses, who left us a couple of months ago, to see Ann and her daughter loading up their car with all of their cleaning equipment (which is actually all of my cleaning equipment) I’ve had 2 more clients leave in the last 2 weeks, which I now suspect have been taken on privately by them too. Am I being unreasonable to feel really hurt by this dishonesty from someone who I trusted as a friend?! I’ve always subbed her wages early, helped her out when her husband left, we go out for drinks together and catch ups regularly! How would you go about confronting them?! I also now have to sack them, I’m so upset to lose them as members of staff.

Get a solicitor/legal advice ASAP before you do anything else. I know a lot of comments are 'just sack them', but make sure you do it legally, you might even be able to take them to court and get your money back.

I was going to say this will happen if the said cleaner for said house is liked trusted and does a top job the relationship between both will be can you just work for me ( customer) cheaper than business rates.
As for going out with you as a friend having drinks being obviously very false and stealing your business is a low move .
Isn't there a clause or rule that client or customer caught doing this is liable to be prosecuted because at the end of the day they are not paying tax or not honest tax .

Surely clients have contracts too that they can’t do this..

Sadly this does happen. It doesn't help that agencies charge so much and all you often get is insurance which most home insurance covers anyway. I'd go to your old clients and ask for a quick conversion about why they left and in future get future losses to complete an exit questionnaire. Obviously sack both ladies and remind your other staff about the consequences of doing this. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

If your employees are on a zero hours contract, you cannot stop them from working for themselves or anybody else, e en if you put it in their contracts

No sentiment in business. Don’t socialise unless in a staff situation.
If you don’t have employment contract then start researching for what you want in it regarding poaching clients, insurance cover, sick leave, holiday entitlement, performance review , action for theft, pay, hours, client information and GDPRegs.
Like all contracts point out to new recruits it is legally binding.
Do you have employee insurance and client liability cover.
If local colleges run small business courses then attend, also useful for networking.

I think it depends on the contract you have with both clients and employees. This sort of situation is quite common and is normally factored in contractually. Eg my agency send me to work for someone and they get £20 an hour and I get 12.21 an hour. The agency still has to find the employee, do all the associated paperwork and payroll, pay holidays, pay insurance for their office and their own staff salaries. If the customer came to me direct and offered to pay me £12.30 an hour it’s in my contract to tell the agency. It’s in the employees contract that if they want to employ someone direct they have to pay a fee.

Hit them with everything you’ve got. Sack them, if they have keys that don’t belong to them, they have stolen them, etc, etc. You may be able to claim damages for lost earnings from the small claims court (not sure about this, but worth a try). You can also grass them up to HMRC, highly unlikely they are paying any taxes on what they earn.

Basically do everything in your power to make their lives as miserable as possible.

U

I’d be tempted to highlight to previous customers that keys are missing and it could affect their insurance

You can just tell them it will be a police matter if they don’t return all keys

When you have a business you can’t get too emotional about relationships. You need to ensure you have a contract with your workers that protects you from fraud and from being sued for wrongful dismissal. Money doesn’t bring out the best in people.

I would review their contracts and take legal advice, in the meantime I would say you are running an audit or inventory check and ask them to return all of the cleaning supplies and equipment.

Once this is done, I would state you would like all keys returned and if they argue they can’t do this, be very breezy and state your happy to reach out to all clients for their permission.

I would also contact all clients on the premise of either with a customer satisfaction survey or a service review and have a chat with them and remind them of the benefits of going with a company rather than an independent cleaner (for example insurance/ indemnity etc).

whilst doing this I would try to gather as much evidence as I could that your suspicions are correct.

good luck, sounds like a shitty thing for them to do.

Call their bluff. Say you are unexpectly losing loads of clients so have decided to personally call those clients and maybe visit them to see what you can do as a company to get their business back - would Ann and her daughter like to make any suggestions also on how you get the business back?

You need to nip this in the bud quickly. Have them in, tell them that you know what they have done, that you are incredibly disappointed given the support that you have given them that they have not had more loyalty to you knowing you own personal position. However, as they wish to trade alone you accept their decision, but, they must return all keys to the houses still under contract with you and their cleaning equipment with immediate effect or you will consider it a breach of contract.

Then you send a letter to all past clients, advising them that you have sadly had to let Ann and her daughter go, but cannot discuss the circumstances of this, but they are now no longer insured by your company. Implication is far more worrying than explicitly airing your dirty laundry.

Work on covering any clients that wish to remain with you, let those go that don’t and move on. What goes around comes around and you are better having a home in your business then an arsehole and I say that with many a valid past experience!!!

I would go round each of your clients and ex clients personally and tell them that this por have been stealing from your company and ask them if they’d like you to continue cleaning for them! They have been stealing all the supplies from you! What a cheek!
Id be turning up at a clients and meeting them on the drive and telling them if they don’t hand over all the keys and equipment you’ll be calling the police! And call them if they refuse!

Oh actually yes this ❤️

Personally, I would contact all of these clients by letter (recorded delivery and photocopy each one) explaining fraud and theft and possible lack of insurance, and then tell the clients you will match their rate temporarily for the inconvenience. Sounds like they are being paid for sick days whilst working for the same clients off their own back. Tread carefully, get all of the equipment back for "new updated replacement", especially anything electrical. Then speak to the police regarding theft of wages, withholding keys and isn't "poaching" illegal? Also speak with CAB. Try and get some video footage or photos. If they wana take advantage of ur kind nature, u have to play them at their own game. Be prepared for them to talk shit about you - as hard as it will be, be professional, but then sting them publicly when they least expect it. Lazy mooches. Boils my piss this does!

OP, after they're found guilty and are sentenced, I hope their faces are featured in the local papers, circulars, fb groups and regional news. What a horrible pair.

Get photographic evidence, film them as well, contact all the clients, get your equipment back and go to see a solicitor. What a shower of shits

I don’t think it’s fraud. It’s not a criminal offence if the clients really did leave (even with their encouragement) and they poached them for lower fees. It’s something you could sue for though.

though if they DIDN’T actually leave and Ann has been just stealing all the money for herself then yes that’s theft and report to the police.

Don’t be upset to lose them, they’re not good staff. Awful behaviour

Another option - though you'd need the provision to have been in the contacts - is to charge the client a finder's fee for having sourced their cleaner in the first place

I did it myself back when I recruited locums rather than permanent staff, and though that was for companies not individuals they always coughed up - firstly because they knew they were in the wrong, but mostly I guess because the fee was quickly swallowed up by their savings on ongoing fees

OP isn't saying they shouldn't start their own businesses jus not by stealing her clients. Why would you think she pays them badly?

You need to have a non compete and data protection clause in your staff contract. You should also state in your contract that taking your clients privately is gross misconduct and that keys must be handed back on request. If you have this then proceed down the disciplinary route( ensuring you follow proper process) . You should also have a clause in your client contract that says if they hire your staff directly they will be liable to pay you a fee. ( approximate 2 years of what you would usually bill them + cost of recruitment).