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When an employee can’t get to work on time


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It would depend upon what motivates the tech. How about cutting pay or charging when late? You are right that it will kill morale if one tech has one set of rules and the rest have another set. That killed the morale where I use to work. It wasn't the different rules, it was the politics of one tech getting all the gravy and the rest having to follow up after him and fix his crap. It's still that way 2 yrs after I left.

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I had a similiar story, but this tech was good. I hated to let him go, but life goes on and we survived. It's not that I don't worry about losing a great tech, but if the tech stays, what will that do to my business due to bad morale and hard feelings among the other employees?

I've had similar problems with techs. Some ... when they do call in late for the 3rd or 4th time... I tell them not to bother coming in at all... but I reserve that for the bad ones. The good techs.. well, I won't assign them work... If you come in late... you get nothing. Eventually they either get the idea or they quit.

 

My worst offenders of this whole thing has always been the interns... I ended up handling them this way.... first off they are usually college or high school students... keep that in mind too. What I do is stand by their work area at exactly the start of the day... IF you are not there ON TIME... then GO HOME... all day. Until you can make it in the real world at the real time... you don't need this job. I'll usually play this game thru their entire internship... then when it's grading time it will show on thier report card.

 

It's worked in the past... hope this helps. Gonzo

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  • 1 month later...

Ahhh one of the benefits of running a one man shop..... The shop I was at before going out on my own it was a constant problem. One tech I ended up changing his hours instead of 8 to 4:30 I gave him new hours, 9 to 4:30. Which amounted to less money for him at the end of the week. He did make it in by 9 and the other techs referred to his walk across the parking lot to the shop at 9 every morning to his walk of shame as he came in. Had it turned into a problem with other employees he would have been let go. The only thing that saved him was the hard time we had finding anyone worth hiring. What I could never figure out is how come the guy that lives an hour away shows up on time every day rain show or shine, but the guy that lives a mile away on the same street is always the late one?

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All businesses seem to have this problem with all types of employees with 30 somethings. First, speak to him/her about the tardiness. He may have mitigating problems. Since in my primary business, I deal with mostly women, I have learned ask questions. Most common problem is taking kids to school in the morning. With this problem, I allow them to come in late and take a 30 min. lunch to make up for the tardiness. Failing this, I would start progressive discipline to get rid of him. Don't allow this situation to continue or as others have written, it will cause problems with the other employees. Good luck.

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Welcoem to the forum! Sometimes one can get away with things where it is all family.

 

 

Sometimes I wish I'd fire myself... but then Monday morning rolls around and I have to fill out that employment application thing again.... then the interview, then the trial period...

 

Well, I'm here... might as well stay....

 

I guess I'll stick around for that gold watch...

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I don't remember lateness being problem years ago. Maybe I'm getting old, but I remember a more responsible work force. Sure, you always had the expectation, but the majority of people knew there were a set of rules and they stuck to them.

 

I think this lateness is at epidemic levels and part of the reason may be the enormous amount of obligations people have with their lives today. But regardless of what the reason is, lateness kills productivity, costs this industry valuable dollars and should not be tolerated.

 

 

Hi Joe, I think you're right in every case.... especially the old part.. LOL

You know one thing I did find... back when I had a lot of employees ... is the one time I had a guy who would leave during the day because of some ... stupid... made up emergency... (I'm sure of it) What he would do is leave a job half done... and then the next day he wouldn't show up... then somebody would have to finish it. It turned out .... he didn't know how to do that paticular job, and he would come back later to find out what we did to make the repair.

 

He didnt' last long...

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         2 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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