[D woods]

Over the years I have employed well over 100 window cleaners, I suspect most of them were doing private jobs in their spare time.
 
It has never bothered me that much, as long as they keep my customers happy, I cant understand why some of you get so upset by it.

[H S and Son]

Good move, nice one.

[king marko]

Glad you and him have seen sense chap - its a shame when folk resent a little bit of enterprise
I bet you'll find him to be a good asset now, and it might be worth you offering him a few quid to canvass!! 

[Crystal-clear]

Ian

what letter do you send out in a situation like this? you couldnt send me one could you ?
many thanks.

crystalclear.inbox@gmail.com

[tony atkinson]

Might just do that if he has picked that amount of work up in 6weeks must be doing sumthin rite doin better then me an  i been at it for 16 years I am not botherd about them doing there own work in diffrent areas as long as its not on my rounds and they ask to use my gear  its like today 1 of the lads cleaned a car showroom we do and when he was doing it he was approched to clean a big house down the rd he rang and asked if he could do it after showroom told him do it and keep first clean then add it to round he charged her £30 so of that clean when its due again he will get £10 bonus evry time he cleans it so today he done 2jobs and made £80 cash £50for is wage and £30 for first clean on house only worked 3hours if thats not good going what is you cante beat honesty and thats what i keep tellin them all if they wana set up thats fine i will help them out but i think they are happy with the way we work

[pristine window cl]

hi tony            get trackers on your vans!

[bobby p]

id start asking around about him, he could be a real bad egg. only 6 weeks in and a chancer already  jeesus

in my opinion this bonus you are paying will give them ideas to strike out on their own. i just tell my lads any new enquiry has to ring me ,its not up to them to give a price or anything .  
 Tony you say you are happy to help them start up on their own,well you are shooting yourself in the neck .  Everybodys different but if one of my lot  says they are going it alone ive selected the wrong type of worker in the first place and ok ,you can go alone but youre a competitor now and youre on your own.

[Window Washers]

trust issue is broke, if hes only just started your well shot.

the money side I can see where your coming from taking it, not sure if it's legal or not but it is unlikely hes going to say anything when being caught red handed. if he does van rental was more than he made give him an invoice for being cheeky.

[wfp master]

dont believe any of it.

[Moderator David@stives]

A leopard never changes it's spots

You will always be suspicious of this guy is that a good basis for a long term relationship ?

What example has it set for your other employees ?

[Window Washers]

A leopard never changes it's spots

You will always be suspicious of this guy is that a good basis for a long term relationship ?

What example has it set for your other employees ?

Totally agree

[Paul Coleman]

It's all very well saying that a leopard won't change its spots.  If you use analogies like that, you can "prove" many things that may turn out to be untrue.  People are more flexible than leopards' spots.  It may well be that he turns out to be a bad one.  However, now he knows your ground rules better, the opposite is also a strong possibility.  The only down side IMO is the possibility that your other staff think they have one "life" - one chance of taking the micky.  So maybe the way forward is a memo to each of them saying that any future, similar  transgressions by anyone will be dealt with by dismissal.

[Alistair@AWC]

If that was me there would be no way you would take that hard work's money from me and there would be no way you would use your precious van and tools i borrowed off you to work on those houses in the future because they would end up wrecked and you would end up smacked.

 Sorry but i think you're an arsehole.

If you think he's an arsehole, I'd have taken the money, fired him and then had police charges brought against him for gaining the van keys by deception and taking the vehicle without the owners consent!

And if you had bothered to read all of Tony's posts on this he has given him the money and his job back!

[tony atkinson]

Hi David what would you of done if it happend to you. at the time i was mad but when i calmed down and he had been to see me i give him is money and job back at the end of the day he was in the wrong doing wat he did and i think any1else would be mad if it happend to them........

[Crystal-clear]

that was nice of you in the end tony,

i think everyone deserves a second chance, hopefully he will prove him self to you again,

[Moderator David@stives]

David sounds like a bundle of fun,

If he was using my tools and my van van, then he would be sacked.

I had trouble with one of my lads claiming hours he had worked, and not doing certain jobs when he told me had.  I phoned my HR guy and said draft me a sacking letter, because I was going to sack him straight away, later that day I had calmed down and told HR guy my new plans just to give the guy a talking to.

He told me that in all his years of giving people warnings, the very same people were 99 times out of 100 were sacked within a couple of months, and said I will tell you one thing, that a leopard never changes its spots.

Anyway I got my staff in and gave him a warning, during that warning I asked him was there anything else he wanted to tell me, he swore there was nothing else, he apologised profusely, so i sent him back off to work.

Lo and behold the very next day, we discovered even more naughty things which he had done, so needles to say I had to sack him, My HR gave me a told you so, when i told him.

We are still putting things right, even now, the guy could have caused my business a lot of harm had he carried on.

I learnt a big lesson that day, in that I should of acted a lot sooner and sacked him straight away, there were a few warning signs, but i was to trusting to see them. my reaction was always "there must of been a mistake"  or "Oh John, not John he is a really nice guy"

How stupid was I ?

Like I said before, just sack him, you will regret it if you dont, if he has broken your trust once , he certainly will again

[chopsie]

what i did was to rent a round of a windy the work had not been done for 6 months i cleaned it,went back to the bloke who we were renting from and said you only have a couple customers left most have new window cleaner,give him the book back and started cleaning  them all my self still cleaning them 20 years on.
happy days 

nice one 

[boshravie]

David sounds like a bundle of fun,

If he was using my tools and my van van, then he would be sacked.

I had trouble with one of my lads claiming hours he had worked, and not doing certain jobs when he told me had.  I phoned my HR guy and said draft me a sacking letter, because I was going to sack him straight away, later that day I had calmed down and told HR guy my new plans just to give the guy a talking to.

He told me that in all his years of giving people warnings, the very same people were 99 times out of 100 were sacked within a couple of months, and said I will tell you one thing, that a leopard never changes its spots.

Anyway I got my staff in and gave him a warning, during that warning I asked him was there anything else he wanted to tell me, he swore there was nothing else, he apologised profusely, so i sent him back off to work.

Lo and behold the very next day, we discovered even more naughty things which he had done, so needles to say I had to sack him, My HR gave me a told you so, when i told him.

We are still putting things right, even now, the guy could have caused my business a lot of harm had he carried on.

I learnt a big lesson that day, in that I should of acted a lot sooner and sacked him straight away, there were a few warning signs, but i was to trusting to see them. my reaction was always "there must of been a mistake"  or "Oh John, not John he is a really nice guy"

How stupid was I ?

Like I said before, just sack him, you will regret it if you dont, if he has broken your trust once , he certainly will again

David is absolutely Right.
I had a similar situation while back, and I sack him on the spot, why give yourself so much worry and stress of thinking  if he is going to do it again or what ever.

Once you have sacked him, you feel much better within very short time when you employ some one much better.

[Crystal-clear]

poor guy come on guys , he prob has kids , wife , presure in personal life, not saying its an excuse he didnt steel anything , money or customers he only cleaned when he shouldnt have.

maybe he thought its not a big deal now he knows it is sorted.


i think giving him a chance then keeping your eye on him is ok.
if it was anything els like steeling,money or customer, then fine , this was bad but worth giving the kid another chance.

[Simon@ Clearview contractors]

So having read this from start to finish...

The lad built up work to the value of over £100+?

He had only worked for you for 6 weeks?

My question/point is this...When did the guy start getting these new customers? they must have been over the space of a few weeks, so in effect the lad was embezzling money practically from the word go.

This is only what you know about,  I've had various staffing problems over the last few years and this guy building his own business off the back of yours could prove very costly indeed, I had an almost identical situation to deal with last summer.  The lad got fired.