Owners: what do you do when your worst employee "needs" a raise?

I have five employees, mostly various flavours of electronics assembly techs and machine operators. They make between $17/hr and $8/hr depending on skill, expereince, yadda yadda. This is Ohio.

The $8/hr is an 18 year old kid, dropped out of high school, recently spent a week in jail for underage consumption. He has fairly habitual attendance/timeliness issues, but as a company we're pretty lax about that. Left to his own devices he has an annoying habit of making a 30 minute task last the 5 hours til quitting time.

That being said, he's a nice kid. He mostly solders and does some cleaning. As an employee he does reasonably good work as long as I'm always watching to make sure he's actually working at a real pace.

When he got arrested his roommate (who also works here, great employee, basically got him the job) kicked him out, so he went to live with his brother. Now his brother has been in the hospital for some sort of medical problem (this is independently corroborated) so that household needs money, and he's the only one in it working right now.

So, today he came in and said he really needs to be making $10, and overtime. That's not huge money, of course, but I'm not sure what behaviours or job skills I'm supposed to be rewarding here. If it was one of my best employees and they had a similar situation I'd give them more money in a heartbeat (out of my check if I had to.) If this one was asking because he felt he "deserved" it I'd just tell him to go to hell. But this situation has me torn.

I've only been at this three years. Anyone with more expereince want to chime in with advice or anecdotes?

Thanks

Tell him to go get a second job .

reasonably good work as long as I'm always watching to make sure he's actually working

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Help the poor kid out ... by writing a nice letter of recommendation as you lay him off. He perfectly fits the definition of "too good to fire but too bad to keep".

Firing someone who is simply marginal is really hard, particularly when you know that they're capable of doing the work and their situation is going to be made a lot worse by losing the job. That said the only thing worse is keeping someone around who isn't pulling their weight and everyone around knows it - about the only thing worse that you could do would be to give them a raise.

I once had to fire a gal with a couple of kids and who was collecting food stamps on her pay. It was the end of her probationary period and she wasn't going to hack it, she was really lacking in pretty much any skills for the job. I'd pushed things as far as I could keeping her on to the end of the probation. That was a rough one for me, likely rougher for her, but keeping her on would have been a big slap in the face for everyone else there.

If you like the kid lay things out - his slacking, needing constant supervision, etc. From there you can suggest that he straightens up to either retain his job or to get a raise, your call. I'd probably give him a shot after talking to him, but then I've always been a softy.

I'd tell him that he has to be on time for two weeks and eager to work all day - enthusiastic to get the job done.

Then you could give him the raise - you get a deal because he's doing more work.

Chris P

While I don't agree on laying him off, I would agree on what bcstractor said. I would try to figure out a way to explain to him just why he hasn't already gotten that much of a raise, instead of him having to ask for it. Explain it to him and make him a deal, of some sort. Also make him understand that once the raise is earned, it is just as easy to take away. Might also let him know that he was on shakey ground as it is, and only your good nature is keeping him there right now. Give him every reason you have as why your not going to give him the raise, then tell him how to earn it. Might wake him up and turn him into a good employee, or not.
David from jax

My favorite saying over the course of the past 7 years was "Good help is hard to get".
I quit saying that when they terminated me.
David

Job performance and attendance are two separate issues to me. On attendance I've given a condition a raise/bonus: show up at 8:00 and work till 4:30 ALL week and you get an $80.00 Bonus! See, you are only paying the "raise" when he shows up EVERY DAY ON TIME! He has to earn the raise/bonus every week, no sense of entitlement. I really like to keep people on modest hourly rates and generous incentives.

I also find improved attendance (especially on mondays) by paying on mondays.

On the issue of job performance, are you telling him your expectations?? Like: You should have this done in half an hour. Or better yet " How long do YOU think it will take you to do this?

tell him exactly what you just told us, and if he follows through give him the raise. If he is constantly working and doing good work compared to before the $2 an hour will be a bargain for you.


I will never forget how my dad told me the first time he had to fire someone it took him 2 weeks to build up the courage, now after many years he doesn't even feel bad about it if they are not doing what is expected.

Tell him he has 2 weeks to justify his raise.

Tell him he has a 2 week period in order to prove he is worth $10/hr, and not $8/hr. He MUST show up to work on time, work at a reasonable pace, and do good quality work. You'd be suprised what somebody can do when in the hot seat. More than likely you'll have to fire him anyways because the courts will jerk him around making his attendance even more spotty. It's a bad situation for both of you, and if he can pull it off, you'll have a better employee. If he can't, either put him back to $8/hr, or "lay him off" as poeple like to put it now. I've personally been on the other side where I had to shape up or ship out. After I got my raise, I worked hard enough to get another a couple months down the road. It was DEFINETLY worth while not to slack, and prove myself. He might be of the mindset that his hard work isn't rewarded, so he doesn't try like he should. Sometimes all it takes is a few $$$ to properly motivate somebody to please.

I hate to be such a hard a$$, but I have to agree with precisionworks...send him on his way, but remember, you have some damage control to do with his exroomate and the others. Tell the guys you are keeping how it is not fair to keep the other guy on when he doesn't pull his weight - it takes money away from their (your good guys) next raises!

Since you are a small shop, you have to oversee everything and watching him should not consume so much of your day - you just do not have time for it. If you put this in another perspective, paying a really "good" guy $24/hr in comparison would be a bargain, as you will more than 3x the bang from him than your bad guy, and a good guy will bring the rest of the group up with him.

One thing I learned about managing a group of guys in the shop...the bad work ethics, bad productivity and all is very contagious, and causes animosity with the others - you set the culture of the shop with this and it is very hard to change. When I managed a shop of 35 (we have floor supervisors - I know no one can really handle than many guys well) and I had to handle the personnel side of it, my wife was teaching Kindergarden...seems that many of our evening stories were VERY similar!

As much as you want to keep him around and try to help him out, you have four other families that your shop supports. If you keep your bag guy around, you are impacting their lives with the culture you ALLOW in your shop - they may go home grumpy and such, and in the long run, they will make less money as your shop's productivity is negatively affected by your one bad apple. Explain to him that you facility is not a good fit...you need motivated guys with initiative and send him on his way...maybe without a letter of recommedation - you really do not want to put your good name on a bad apple.

Whatever you do, remember you have other employees who will know what happens here. The grapevine is unstoppable. Be prepaired to live with that situation.

I would suggest that you not simply dole out a raise that is not earned. If you want to help him, spell out a plan of action he can follow to become a more valuable employee who really deserves a higher salary. Help him in any way you can or care to. This is tough, but fair.

I worked at a restaurant when I was in high-school - my first real job. It was a boring job and I was pretty lame about working hard - still, it paid pretty well. At one point, the manager of the restaurant, someone who I really admired, said "Bob, you are lazy." That really stung and it was enough to make me want to prove that it was not so. Within a month, I was working so hard that I could not walk all of the way home without taking a rest. I made a lot more money as a result and felt much better about myself. I think that frank assesement was one of the best things that happened to me in my work life. Sounds like this guy needs the same kind of talking to.

Cheers,
Bob Welland

I think most younger employees need active feedback about their work performance so they get a feel for what is expected of them. They can gain this by being sacked a few times which gives them time to think about what they did wrong. This can take time to sink in as they are usually upset at being fired.

My first job at 17 years was as a federal government apprentice and it took years to straighten out the bad work habits picked up in that "Job", e.g. at that time in Australia it took 18 months to have a phone line connected by the Gov't monopoly and the level of esteem co-workers held for you was proportional to the amount of beer you could drink and still drive a car home.

If you can link work performance to higher pay such as working, tested-good, units/assemblies produced with a per unit bonus payment. This makes the pay raise a privilege and not a right which is entirely dependent on him behaving like a good worker. My small company boss did this to me when I had the same attitude problem as your young employee. My attitude at the time was: "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys" but with a piecework/productivity bonus I sure pulled the finger out.

You have to assess whether this guy is a complete waste of time or whether he just needs a good talking to, like Bob has mentioned and act accordingly.

Give him a glowing yet non committal reference and get rid,........ ok I'm a miserable old so and so, but this has gone on too long, you've let him get away with it, given him chances and he's still taking you for a ride.

You're the boss, it's your reputation and butt on the line.

The above is the PC polite version.

Email him the link to this thread...then have a talk with him again and see where he stands....go from there.

Sean

...Also, you might want to do some reading on Millennials.

Or more directly to the point Read THIS

Your 18 year old fits the description. This generation and those needing to employ them are facing some issues on a national scale. It might help both of you (and you and your future young employees) to be versed in the obstacles.

No way give him a raise. If he "needs" $10/hr, he needs to learn to earn it. If you don't teach him the lesson, his next employer will anyway.

Just tell him what $10/hr employee performance is, and he'll get that when he does that.

Show him the post that you started this thread with and ask him what his response is. If you think that he has the potential to justify it give him the raise and make it clear that he will have to earn it by better time keeping and more enthusiasm.

Charles.

i've been in your situation for 23 years and had a ton of them come and go. this guy's a classic and it ain't gonna get anybetter. you're just going to get more frustrated. more than likely you haven't documented and warned him in the past so just let him fire himself.

Like many others have said, have an honest discussion with him. Let him know that you aren't satisfied with his performance, identify specifically what he needs to change in order to be a satisfactory employee - come to work on time, work while at work, etc... Following the conversation, get ready to replace him because his performance probably won't improve and you will have to fire him.

Finally, while it is nice to be sympathetic to his predicament, you should be making compensation decisions based on the value an employee is delivering, not on their personal circumstances.