[bobby p]

his excuse had something to do with seeing off a friend from uni-  some delay ,  BUT its not the first time  hes  let me down at last minute .  

 he reminds me of a car that occasionally wont start up- nobody can find the annoying fault  but it runs great once started . in this case, the cars got a VERY BAD WATER LEAK too !!!

[Ian101]

19 or below then yup bring mother as well they don't like it then no interview and time saved employing a no hoper .... Sounds daft idea but it works every time

sounds a good idea ian, still i am sticking it alone for now, did it prematurely anyway, still haven.t got what i would consider a matured business as sole trader yet so will perfect that first !

snap !! same here mate ... i employed too early and he was a good lad but too much hassle with red tape etc .... just going to keep refining till its all mint ... then sell and start again down Falmouth  

[dazmond]

i must of had around 50 different lads that i tried out working for me 10 years ago!.not a single good worker!most lasted less than 3 days.a couple lasted 2 months.the rest i sacked before the week was out!!in the end i sold some work on.i got nothing but hassle and headaches and i ended up hating the job.i nearly packed it in!!

it doesnt suit me.i much prefer to work on my own.with wfp earnings are increased and i really dont need the hassle of employing when i can already earn a half decent income by myself.

[Tom White]

I've only ever tried one young lad, and he was naff.  A real wet blanket.  Nearing to when I sacked him, one morning he started crying and I asked him what was wrong.  He said his Grandad had died.  I took pity and said I'd drive him home.  On the way home we had a chat about his Grandad, and I found out that his Grandad had actually died ONE YEAR PRIOR and this was the anniversary of the date.

I sacked him two days later when he was late again.

What a waste of space he was.

[Helen]

i was so mad this morning ,working alone on double-grot new customers ,which were lined up for BOTH of us to do- so instead of picking him up at 11 ,i made him sweat until 1 . hes told me he wont do it again .

don't hold your breath!

im paying him 7 quid an hour ,paid only for hours on the glass

For the next one, why not drop it to £6.00 per hour, but pay an attendance bonus of some sort once a month as an incentive to turn up. Conditions not late turning up, no early finishes etc etc

Ive decided to put the feelers out for a new worker,a small ad somewhere ,while still getting some use from the "peeing  boho " /  by the way, how often are you lot peeing ?, i know my brother pees more than me, but surely not every 20 minutes !

[AuRavelling79]

Yep they do sound wasters but grief £7 an hour! he could get that at Aldi and be in the warm chatting up the Polish checkout girls.

I like Helen's idea as far as it goes but maybe £7 an hour plus attendance/performance bonus so he can make £8 to 10 an hour on the glass if he does well.

Peanuts and Monkeys surely?

[TomCrowther]

I think that you have to take someone on who has already shown a work ethic. This job is tough for those of us who own the business, tougher for someone who is only getting minimum wage.
When you find the right guy, pay him a decent wage and in time offer a part of the business if he is really good.

[LSB]

i have just got rid of my 2nd one this year , both english teenagers on between £8 - £10 p/h , the latest one was a fantastic worker for 12mths , but pretty useless the last few ( should have sacked him earlier , but liked him / gave him the benefit of the doubt ) ,

i know its been mentioned on here before but its a new one on me , he went out over the bank holiday weekend and collected and / or pretended to clean some of my customers that he knew were due this week and obviously kept all for himself ! have spent all aft / eve , speaking to customers and putting a letter through those that were out , hopefully it will stop immediately or very soon !

i have employed for many years , and have found the polish boys  (etc) , to be much better , same wage , no problems , i currently have 2 polish cousins , perfect english , working for me approx 5 years , recently had a couple of lithuanians for approx 3 years

i have only ever had staff problems with english boys ! ( inc a family member years ago ).
   

[Dave66]

he might be diabetic

[bobby p]

he might be diabetic

   hes also often asking to go for a number 2 !  (i absolutely forbid that on customers property)

 -  whats weird is that less than 5 minutes after telling me hes gagging to go ,he then says " ummm,actually i dont want to go  now,false alarm "  just as im thinking wheres the nearest loo.   

 writing this thread has made me realize that he is causing me grief and  i dont need it- will be looking for another lad and will sideline the one ive got

[Johnny B]

I took on a lad three years ago. He was 18 at the time, and had lost a couple of jobs that he had had after leaving school. I had know him since he was in infant school.

I took him on firstly out of pity, as I know he'll really struggle to get another job anywhere, and secondly I was getting too busy to cope with my workload, so I could use the help.

He stayed with me for just over three years, and was often unfit to work 'cos he overdid things at the gym and always had aches or pains, hay fever in the summer, and too cold in the winter.

He didn't drive, so I had to drive 7 miles out of my way to pick him up, then 7 miles again to drop him home. I made zilch out it all, and I finally let him go in January (after he had 3 weeks off sick) when he rang to say could he have a further day off to help a friend with a project.

I immediately sold half my round, and now life is soooo much easier!

I will never go through that again.

John.

[ronnie paton]

how can any one sau £7 for a 19 year old is paying peanuts and getting a monkey???

look at the state of the country and GOLD like you said its not a trade or a profesion should be lucky if they get min wage!!!!!

[groundhog]

how can any one sau £7 for a 19 year old is paying peanuts and getting a monkey???

look at the state of the country and GOLD like you said its not a trade or a profesion should be lucky if they get min wage!!!!!

No wonder they don't want to work with this kind of attitude!! They need a good leader and some motivation that they will get paid for the effort they put in!!!!

[AuRavelling79]

how can any one sau £7 for a 19 year old is paying peanuts and getting a monkey???

look at the state of the country and GOLD like you said its not a trade or a profesion should be lucky if they get min wage!!!!!

State of the country? Get real - state of your mind more like. Treat employees as you would like to be treated - with respect and an incentive scheme. Look for a guy with the right ethic and pay him well.

Not from Lancashire or Yorkshire are you? Whichever - the days of the Satanic Mills are gone! I remember getting a "motivational talk" from the new owner of the office equipt co I worked for - came strutting in (this was just after all the miners lost their jobs oop North) and told the assembled workforce that he was putting in an incentive plan "you do your job this week and you can come back next"  - this to a handful of salesmen that were doing a good job and pulling in the commission and earning.

Then he tried to lower our commission structure and reduce our basic wage.

Muppet! We took him to industrial tribunal and he paid us on the courtroom steps but we still went in and got a judgement against him and then two months later set up our own business and had great delight in taking over all our old custies.

All he had to do was come in and say "great job lads, keep going and we'll all earn some dosh" - but no - he had a "be grateful for what you've got mentality that ran out of steam somewhere between Cheshire and Birmingham."  

[Tom White]

Being ex army, I've done loads of leadership and management courses.  In the forces you get to do a lot of this sort of stuff, since they're not a private company who're worried about training costs and time away from production.

I've went into it in some depth and even got an NVQ 3 in Leadership and management (LOL).

I've done a lot of studies like Maslow's Theory and lots of other stuff, but nowhere have I ever read or been taught that using financial incentives for motivating people is the only or main way to do it; although I don't doubt money can play a part in this.

It's a vast subject, leadership and management (which are different ends of the same cat), but there's more to it than mere money.  In fact money may only play a minor part; self esteem is probably the biggest motivator IMO.  How can you build someone's self-esteem up through working for you?  It's not an easy question to answer given that the type we do is often viewed as extremely lowly.

I reckon if you can crack that - the self esteem issue - you'll have a good employee.  I know David of St Ives sends his guys away on training courses - now that has got to be a good way of building up an employees self esteem; he's investing time, money, and effort into them to make them better at their jobs, which in turn would hopefully produce a better employee.

However, I've no experience of this and I'm writing about opinion only.


 

[Helen]

Yep they do sound wasters but grief £7 an hour! he could get that at Aldi and be in the warm chatting up the Polish checkout girls.

I like Helen's idea as far as it goes but maybe £7 an hour plus attendance/performance bonus so he can make £8 to 10 an hour on the glass if he does well.

Peanuts and Monkeys surely?

Not at all. IF you are looking to employ, you should check out what rates are available,  look on the job centre site, see what is being paid. No employer in their right mind should start someone on the highest rate unless they have advertised for experienced and it can be proven that is what they are going to get.
Unexperienced starter £6.00  per hour 40 hours per week = £240.00 gross
Bonus of some sort, be it attendance, performance related whatever = £30.00 gross
Gross per week £270.00. Over 14k per year rate...not bad if no experience and under 19!
Is good from all aspects at 3 months:
Hourly rate to £6.50 = £260.00 per week plus bonus. £290.00 per week - Over £15k per year
Is good from all aspects at 6 months:
Hourly rate to £7.00 = £280.00 per week plus bonus. £310.00 per week -  Over £16k per year
IF they go any farther then you can rearrange the payments to suit.
We do not employ anymore, but our top guys were reaching OTE £24k per year, (35 hour per week) built on this basis and with motivation and carressing and wiping their bums if necessary

[Helen]

Forgot to add, searched the job centre this morning Top rate I could find was £10 per hour for abseilers.....loads of meets min wage and loads of £6.00 to £8.00 dependant on experience.

[Helen]

you will go though between 10-15 blokes before you find the right one.

That was about our average too, lost count of ones that didn't turn up on first day or butted out at the end of the first week.
We did have some really good workers, ones that can be trusted which is the most important factor, but due to circumstances, we decided to sell up and concentrate on our other businesses. With the last 2 good ones, one got above himself after a year and threatened to leave 5 times to blackmail us into raising his money Approx £24k (3 years ago) so on the 5th time we accepted his resignation, much to his surprise. The second....got homesick for SA and went back

[ronnie paton]

gold do you employ???

if you think £7 per hour is a bad wage for a 19 year old try asking the hundreds of thousands of 19 year old looking for work.

actually ask the millions lookng for work who are over 19 they would jump at the chance of £7 per hour.

sure someone would prefer to work for 15-20 per hour but i run a business to make a profit and dont do too bad at it, GOLD what would you say was a good wage for a 19 year old?

[groundhog]

gold do you employ???

if you think £7 per hour is a bad wage for a 19 year old try asking the hundreds of thousands of 19 year old looking for work.

actually ask the millions lookng for work who are over 19 they would jump at the chance of £7 per hour.

sure someone would prefer to work for 15-20 per hour but i run a business to make a profit and dont do too bad at it, GOLD what would you say was a good wage for a 19 year old?

Sorry but what kind of incentive is £7 an hour?? His only incentive is that if he dosn't do enough work then he might get the sack!! So he is going to do just enough to keep his job at best! He won't even be that bothered if he does lose his job, so won't be that bothered about the quality of his work either!! Surely there has to be some kind of incentive? I am planning on taking someone on soon and I am planning on giving them a percentage of turnover rather than a flat rate, that way he will feel more a part of the business and have more pride in his work (hopefully) If he proves himself a good worker I plan to get him his own van and to increase his percentage after a year.