As most of y'all know I just got my market last week.OK here is my problem and I need some advice.so I go in this morning to help get stuff going planning for a good day.me and the head cutter got everything set. With plenty of back up for the new apprentice who just passed his cutting test. So I go in at like 5:30 to check things out.and the counter is empty!!!!!! No chicken,grinds,pork or beef!!!!!!!!!!! So I go in the cooler and all we cut this morning is still back there.
The market was clean and the lights were off! So I find the apprentice in the meat office sleeping at my desk.I asked him about the shale of the counter ,and why the lights were off and he says I WAS DONE CLEANING SO I CUT THE LIGHTS OFF AND I AM WAITING TO GET OFF AT 8:00 .So I send him home and I fill the counter up!! So do I fire him or give him another chance.what would y'all do
start a paper trail and go from there,if he don't want his job he won't be there at the end of it.If you want something done right and you don't have good help you will be doing it yourself most of the time.
i agree with the paper trail. especially if you r company has an hr person. sleeping on the clock is the same as money theft.
they will take it serious and improve or be gone.there is enough to think and keep track of as a manager . without worrying about someone doing simple task as keeping the case full
I know what I would do back in the day but we are in a whole new culture today and we must engage our brains before we engage our mouths.
There are several steps concerning this potential violation. I say potential because you must first find out if there is a written policy concerning sleeping on the job. If there is a policy you must find out if there were any previous examples as to how this issue was handled with another employee that committed the violation. Was he given a written warning, or did he get fired right off? If there isn't a policy then a verbal reprimand is in order and that's about it. Many employees dose-off on the job believe it or not, it is pretty common.
A supervisor or owner must realize that it could be a heath issue believe that or not, this is why you need to get all the facts as I mentioned above. Lets just say this employee (and I doubt it ) has narcolepsy. If that was the case the employee could be covered by The Disability Act (ADA).
Now here is another twist; lets say your employee was hung over from a drunken bout the night before thus fell asleep because of it. Now you may be dealing with alcoholism. Now you have to find out how your company handles alcoholics.
Possibly if the sleeping on the job is in the grey area in your company then go for "poor job performance". But as others have so wisely sated it here, do start a paper trail.
The bottom line is that the employers must handle misconduct in a consistent manner. Not willy-nilly.
I get the impression that this kid wasn't just goofing off or has an attitude problem. I get the impression that he just doesn't get it. He thought he was doing the right thing by cleaning up then waiting until it was time to go home. You would be surprised by how many of today's youth struggle to understand what business means. Somewhere along the lines there was a miscommunication and he thought he was supposed to just clean when everyone else left the store. I would not fire him if I was the owner. I would instead realize it was my own fault for just assuming the kid understood the business aspect of things just because he learned how to cut meat. I would then make it a priority to never leave an apprentice alone in my market until he understands that part of it better.
I think he should be given a good talking to about what the company expects, what the market manager expects and that you never get caught up in a meat dept., he may be turn out a good worker
COOLER TALK! Do they still have those? Actually this may have been a lack of communication I don't know. So I agree with some kind of documentation especially since it sounds that you have invested some time and money into this kid and if so then there is something you see in this kid that says he would be a good fit for your team which is important to have because of how hard it is to get that right chemistry. So some corrective counseling is in order to make clear what is expected of him and he will get an opportunity to grow from this. I wish you all the success.
