Photo Credit: Jumping In

Some of my readers may recall my article So You want to be your Own Boss where I offer the warning that "working for yourself is even harder than digging ditches." This is especially true when it comes to dealing with employees.

Although I covered The 13 Most Important Traits of an Ideal Employee, I failed to mention that it is almost impossible in today's America to find good employees, so forget about even finding ideal employees.

Let me give you a few examples of employee misconduct that occurred in the past two months in my son's phone screen repair business (I am using fake names to protect the guilty):

• Although I do not hire smokers (see my Employment Manual for the reasons why), my son hires them because he believes he cannot get enough trainable employees otherwise.

  During a lunch break, employee Jason exited the mall to get a smoke and when he finished he flicked his butt away and it inadvertently landed in a pile of debris setting it on fire. The mall management, after scanning video records, found out that it was our employee and banned Jason from entering the mall, ever.

  Now Jason has to drive an extra hour to get to a different mall location where my son has another repair kiosk.



• Employee Harry has problems with his wife. Harry's wife decided to bring that problem to the mall and started a domestic fight that required mall security to come over and eject his wife from the premises. My son is considering firing him.

  In my Employment Manual referenced above, I forbid relatives or friends from visiting employees at work. If an employee wants them to see where he or she works, we can, for a small fee, provide a video recording of the work area.

  Harry should have instructed his wife never, ever to come to his place of work.



• Employee Tom has a drinking problem that my son thought was under control. One day last week Tom had too much to during working hours and lost some receipts and company phones. Tom was instantly fired.


• Whenever Employee Dick worked, the number of phones purchased from customers dropped dramatically compared to the numbers generated by other employees during similar hours and days.

  My son sent a shill to sell a phone to Dick, which transaction Dick failed to record so he could keep the phone for himself. Dick was instantly fired.