Employees….
For starters, this is a really tough decision to make. This guy’s been working for me for awhile now, and it’s time for me to decide on the “bonus” he deserves, and I want to be fair about it.To tell the truth, he’s really caused me some problems, but he’s really important, you know “visible”, out there representing the company, and he has great contacts for sure.
When I first hired him, he said he was going to be really nice to all the employees we had and make everyone work together. But that soon changed and now most of the people really hate him. He’s fired a few people and they say it was because of what they’ve said about him, but I’m not certain of course.
He does take a lot of vacation, but I won’t hold that against him. He even lied on his resume, but I guess everyone does these days.
And a couple of his friends have been arrested, and even more are under investigation! But I could handle that if his business decisions were working out. He keeps telling me everything is going great, but I’m not so sure.
He wanted to open a store in a new neighborhood and said it would be a slam dunk. We’ve spent almost all our money fighting the competition there for almost three years now, it’s hurting our main stores, and our reputation is suffering because of it.
For instance, we had a big flood in one of our buildings, and this guy stayed on vacation, and then hired these incompetent guys to take care of the mess! It was a complete disaster. Some of the employees even died!
And because of the competition, he had tried to bug their offices to get some information, and he got caught. He’s telling everyone it was in his contract that he could do this, and so far he’s getting away with it, but I’m not sure how long he can keep this up. Of course we’re telling everyone things are going great, but most of our international partners think something is up.
So the big question is, what should I do?
a friend said,
February 7, 2006 @ 11:46 pm
oh boy, I hate to be in the situation like that. It is hard to trust anybody nowadays, but it isn’t wise to be enemy with anyone either. I’d keep distance and observe, for as long as you can afford. [take it easy on the bonus though!] No matter how capable you are, you might still need others’ contribution to the company. Fire him only when you are ready. It sounds like a pretty complicated problem… good luck with everything!
Mr Duez said,
February 8, 2006 @ 11:07 am
This employee does not sound like someone to keep, let alone given a bonus. He sounds like a complete screwup and not the brightest chimp in the zoo. Maybe he needs additional help, or maybe he just bushed and needs another vacation, maybe a long vacation with some friends.
Publicus said,
March 8, 2006 @ 7:44 am
Employee sounds like trouble. Nobody is irreplaceable; find somebody good.
The success of the company depends on getting and retaining good customers. This guy has questionable judgement and seems to be untrustworthy.
When hiring a replacement, keep this in mind: motivation matters more than experience; intelligence matters more than skills. Someone who really cares will impress customers and perform “over-his-head.”
Good luck!