Getting Your Money's Worth from Employees
By Steve Berkman
In the past several issues, I have covered the importance of quality checks, the variety of quality checks that can be performed, and even a few tips and tricks. But this month I want to rant about a subject that really chaps my hide — lazy employees!
Why is it that some employees believe they have the right to waste time and be lazy on my dime — or yours for that matter? As I see it, an employee agrees to sell you a certain amount of his/her time for a certain amount of money. Why then, do some believe they have the right to lie down on the job or wander away when there is work to do? Just because there may be no cars in the bay does not give them the right to disappear. There are other jobs to be done. Do we, as owners and managers, have the right to only pay them based on the hours there are actually cars in the bay? Of course not! Oh, but I wish this were legal.
So what was the straw that broke the camels back? What finally pushed me over the edge and caused me to vent in a national forum?
I only have five full-time lube techs, one of whom is the manager. As time has gone on and the economy has worsened, car counts have plummeted like a well-weighted corpse to the bottom of a reservoir. This is not news. Many of us are experiencing this. Nonetheless, I have really tried not to cut employee’s hours, as I recognize that well trained, long-term techs are hard to come by. Not to mention, I genuinely like most of the people I work with.
As a consequence, I have spent thousands of dollars in payroll I did not really need to spend. One would think that as bad as things are, employees would be grateful to have a job at all, much less one without reduced hours.
On one recent day, a slow one at the shop, I walked in to find one of my long-time techs lying down on the floor. Granted there were no cars in the bay at the time, but this guy could at least have hidden himself in the basement! There were filters that needed to be crushed, floors that could have been mopped, etc. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to fire the guy on the spot. I really should have, but last time I verbally ripped into an employee it cost me 60 grand in a lawsuit, and I never even touched the guy. (For 60 grand maybe I should have; it would have been worth it.)
So I told him to get up and to never let me catch him lying down on the job again. It’s worth mentioning that this is an employee I had grounds to fire at least twice before, and whom I re-hired once before after he quit. (I was hard up for help at the time, as these were the days when we actually had a decent car count; am I a sucker with a capital S or what?)
Well, I stewed in anger for three days and decided on an intermediary step that would leave me the most available options. I wanted a way to teach the guy a lesson but still have him available if things picked up, so I cut him one day a week, reducing him to a four-day workweek. Plus, every time I see we have no cars in the shop, I stick him outside with a sign. If he quits, so be it.
My question to you, dear reader, is how much are you willing to tolerate for the sake of keeping your long-time employees around? My challenge to you is to gather your employees and have a meeting, a refresher if you will, as to what exactly you expect from them. Remind them that times are tough — we are lucky to have jobs at all. Reiterate that you expect them to be busy at all times. If there are no cars to service, there is always cleaning that can be done, training that can be reviewed, etc. Cut where you have to, and get your money’s worth out of the rest.
STEVEN BERKMAN is owner of Foothills Car Wash Lube & Oil Center in La Cañada, California. He may be reached at: sirberk@gmail.com
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