I was wondering what you guys do when employees lose or break equipment. It has got kind of bad. One guy has broke 2 waterfed poles and lost a drill. Today he bent a gutter by leaning a ladder against it. Do you have a policy about things like this?
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If you trained them properly, and are meeting every week, and they signed their positions contract? Policy is hit the bricks.
How have you trained them? Are you with them in the field or are they left to their own devices, in which case a team leader should be responsible for ensuring tools and property are respected.
Possibly find better employees -they simply don’t respect the tools or customers property by the sounds of it.
Where i live employers are not legally allowed to charge employees for damages/losses caused by the employee in the course of their work. So you either have to train them better or let them go. Either smarten up and quit losing or breaking things or get out.
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send him packing
Depends on how far your booked out.
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Super easy to fire when your slow, but if there’s a bunch of work on the schedule you end up putting up with a lot… If you don’t have a filler
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I have not done this yet because we do not currently have employees. What if in the future you had a fund that was the employees to loose. It starts out with a certain amount of money or builds up as they work and deductions are made for loss, negligence and dumb and avoidable things that cost money. That way they also loose when you loose. Maybe it would work. Maybe not. Some people just need to go bother another employer for a while.
I just clicked on your link. BEFORE POSTING PLEASE. That made me laugh for a while.
As far as employee denting gutters goes: do you have a policy that the ladder never touches the gutter?
If you use a Ladder Max for gutter cleaning, you won’t have any dented gutters. I know that you can place ladder against gutter and position it so the weight is on a hangar instead of a section not supported by one (harder if the gutter has hidden hangers instead of spike & ferrule).
What part of the WFP did the employee break?
If there was more information, we could give you a better answer. It’s hard to tell if the employee is just being too reckless with your equipment (in which case it would be reasonable to let him go) or if there may be some technical modifications that would make damaged equipment less likely.
New equipment shouldn’t be breaking very often. If it were a case of equipment being old or poorly maintained, that would be a different matter.
If the issue was simply one of a careless employee, I would can him like [MENTION=3162]JCinNJ[/MENTION] recommends as soon as possible and replace him with someone more careful. Window cleaning is a detail oriented job. There are vases, and expensive cars, chandeliers etc. You don’t want a bull in the china shop.
Hire slow, fire fast
A number of ways this can be dealt with, not saying this is the best but we added a thing to our handbook. Lost, broken equipment will be taken out of year end bonuses. Only works if they end the year with ya.
We had a huge problem last year with one employee improperly calculating invoices. Things like this
Windows 400
Gutters $200
Total due $400 (I am neglecting taxes for simplicity).
Calculators, talking on the phone with me while writing it up, no matter what he did he fucked things up to the tune of $2000 out of my pocket.
Im not even that slow.
It was mind blowing man. Guy worked for us for 7 years and out of no where could not do math.
It is Washington. Just Sayin.
It took you 7 years to figure out he was that, uh, well, um, stupid??
No, if you um, well, um read what he wrote it says, out of no where could not do math.
2013 World Series Champion
Boston Red Sox
What conditions were the poles?
If your equipment is inspected regularly and in good working condition, I’d write somebody up for breaking a pole (depending on circumstances). They break 2 poles I’m going to let him go. It sounds like you’ve got a really careless employee.
The gutter thing might just require retraining.
Things I’ll fire you for:
I’ll write employees up to do a course correction, but it’s hard to swallow two water fed poles.
Personally, I’d give the employee all their equipment and say the first set is on me. If you start losing things, you’ll have to purchase them. I’ll replace a bent channel or a broken handle, but if you lose gear that can get expensive.
Monthly inspections of all your gear and employee gear might help catch some of the problems. BOAB rivet rusting out? Then it’s time to order new one and it’s on me. Your missing your BOAB? We’ve got a problem and it’s on you.
It would suck to be an owner in Canada if you can’t charge employees for lost equipment. I’m all about providing for my employees, but if they’re going to be stupid, they either buy their own replacement gear or find another job.
He broke the first WFP his very first day. It was a Gardiner SLX 35’. He broke the pole tip/gooseneck when he was climbing on a roof with it.
Later he broke the brush on my 36’ Tucker pole. The pole lies next to my ladders, and he shoved the ladder on forcefully. It hit the brush next to it, and broke it in two.
Just the other day, he lost his work belt, along with everything that was on it.
My other employee lost his work belt also, when he didn’t close the tailgate properly, and the belt fell out. He went back but couldn’t find it.
These things just keep happening to us over and over.
Question: Is it illegal to take these costs out of the employees’ paycheck? Our business is in California.
i beleive the the only way you can take the costs out legally in California is to prove that these actions were intentional. This would be hard to prove in any event. I would check further, but I beleive you can require them to provide their own tools if they are paid twice the minimum wage. I am guessing they are not paid that amount so that may not work.
