[julianbiggs]

Morning people. Heres our situation.

We have a well established round. There are three of us, 2 business partners and one employee. We work trad out of 2 vans, taking it in turns every 5 days to work alone. We pay him £8 per hour for 150 hours every 4 weeks. So no matter what the weather is he gets 37.5 hours pay per week.  He is a very nice bloke, hard worker, never been off sick in 8 months, never been late. We have had no issues at all with him.

But its been hard paying him whilst the weather has been bad.

However, I have calculated that myself and my business partner could do 14 days as a 2 and 6 days as a 1 and a 1 out of 2 vans and based on the weather we should get 16-18 of these days done every month. So we'll always be a few days behind.

So, the question is do we keep our employee and just ride the bad weather or do we unfortunately let him go and go back to just the two of us ( that sounds gay !) and earn more money ?

[Carl2009]

I don't employ, so am speaking here only from a view having been in commercial business other than window cleaning for 30 years.

As I see it the considerations are:

1. Do you NEED to make more money than you are doing now? If you want to make more money than need to, then keep him.
2. If the weather changed next week to that which is more usual would you prefer to have him and indeed could you, at that point, make more money than you could if there were the two of you? If so, keep him.
3. If you let him go where would you stand with regards to finding a replacement of a similar standard; reading on CIU it seems you have a diamond.
4. Are you prepared for the guy to set up on his own if you sack him; if he's got the nouse and a good work ethic that what he may do.
5. Are you prepared for the possible legal implications; check if a spell of bad weather are grounds for redundancy - it probably is if your work overall has dropped, but if he starts to fight it.... If you've not been scrupilous in your paperwork and all dealings with him he might have some sort of other case against you.
6. Are you prepared for the actual difficulty of saying, "You've are great bloke, a good worker, but you're sacked cos it's raining".

The weather won't last. Why not get him out cleaning whilst you canvass, or get him doing wet weather jobs like gutters and soffits, pressure washing. Communicate with him - tell him the situation and you'll have a good worker for life.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

[Ian101]

Have you employed too early ?

If you rekon you and your partner can get thru all the work then why did you employ ?

Now if it was because you wanted to expand into more vans thats fair enough and if so then u be shortsighted in letting him go because of some bad weather.

I can understand your situation as I have just done interviews yeaterday for a van assistant and to be honest should have empoyed someone months back but didnt as would hate to have to sack someone for my poor understanding of where my business is at so left it for as long as possible ....  

2 years ago I had a lad on a 3 month placement from college when I first started for free and promised to keep him on after the free period which I did but had to let him go after 2 months of me paying him as not enough work or rather I was too disorganised and not compact enough so this time around I have left it for as long as possible.

Like I say if your planning to expand then u maybe want to think long and hard before sacking him ... if your not expanding would you have still made the same decision to employ now as you did back then if the answer is NO then you have some choices to make.  

[bobby p]

i would force the issue by drumming up a tad more work so you simply wont cope without him

[bumper]

I say to the 2 lads work for me cash in hand, no work  no pay  if you want paying work in rain they  both said they do not work in rain so i dornt pay them

[Ian101]

I say to the 2 lads work for me cash in hand, no work  no pay  if you want paying work in rain they  both said they do not work in rain so i dornt pay them

good system Mr Bumper !

[dazmond]

you can always rely on bumper to come up with some great advice for all us window cleaners/criminals!!!

[Pete10]

....what is this "cash in hand" can someone translate please?

Mr I. Revanue

[aftab]

Just a thought but could you not try to reduce his hours and still keep him on. 

[ben M]

I say to the 2 lads work for me cash in hand, no work  no pay  if you want paying work in rain they  both said they do not work in rain so i dornt pay them

come on, it is not serious! 

[steve rix]

If you are both going to be working flat out, what are you going to do for holidays, shorter periods of bad weather etc?
I employ 6 people, all on the books, but only pay for the hours worked. If we have to stop for the weather they can make it up by working earlier/later or at weekends.

[Carl2009]

Steve - out of interest how did you find the staff you have? What are their roles (does it include canvassing, van/equipment maintenance?), and what sort of contract do you have (did you have one drawn up specially?). How many weeks holls do you pay them for and how do you work it out?

Cheers

[julianbiggs]

Some good points for us to think about.

We have discussed reducing his hours to around 80 which is equivalent to 10 days work @ 8 hours. He's been with us for 8 months. Legally are we allowed to just reduce his without notice, I think we can ?

[steve rix]

Hi Carl, my first employee was one of my customers sons, 4 others were from my wifes home town, and the other I met in the pub! They are all on conctracts drawn up for me by my solicitor, and all include a restraint of trade clause. They get 25 days holiday a year plus 8 bank holidays, based on 7.5 hours per day. Hope this is of use to you,
Steve

[Carl2009]

Cheers Steve - that's great. Am thinking for when I get past it.

[steve rix]

I'm there already!!

[ben M]

steve,how many vans have you got and when did you start? thanks

[steve rix]

I've got 3 vans, started this company from scratch in 2007. I have never canvassed only used self produced leaflets

[ben M]

well done mate,very impressed! you must have a very good leaflet!

[steve rix]

Ben, send me your email address and I will send a copy
S