The Joy and Misery of Being an Employer

Henry and I have both worked for others in our lives, and have had good and bad experiences with being on the employee end of things. We definitely were hoping that once we're on the employing side of things, that we can be great employers, and treat employees the way we feel people should be treated...

Well, now that Henry has bought his own practice, complete with 5 employees, we've gotten our chance to 'be all that'. Turns out it's not that easy to be a great employer.

We've tried to do nice things for the employees from day one, even before we had bought the practice (ie. free lunch for all staff paid for by Henry, little gifts for Easter, etc.). The staff has not been getting any health benefits with the past employer, and yet that was one of the first things we looked into, and we were willing to offer some benefits, but the staff said they'd rather get more money...so we didn't do that. Also, almost right away, everyone got a pay raise, something that apparently the last employer only did sporadically. The staff gets taken out for lunch for each employee's birthday, and for staff meetings. We've randomly brought in treats, and occasional gift cards.

I know Henry has expressed his appreciation for his staff on various occasions to them. We thought things were going well.

And then a few weeks ago, one staff said that she's trying to find work elsewhere, because of a pending separation from her husband. Ok, nothing personal, but it sucks to potentially lose a good employee. Then shortly after that, another employee gave her 2-weeks notice. That one was a bit frustrating. Supposedly she was leaving for another job that had health benefits. Yet, she was one employee who said she'd rather have more money than health benefits, and the other job isn't paying more. So, that made us suspect that it was something personal rather than the other job simply being better. Henry was really worried about being short-staffed, and since she gave her notice on a Wednesday evening, he couldn't even get an ad out in the newspaper here for at least another week.

The employee agreed to stay for as long as a month, and Henry said if he can get her out sooner, he'll try that, but he'd really appreciate 1 month. So, with 3 weeks to go after the ad, he finally decided on a person about a week ago. However, that person also needs to give 2-weeks notice, so she will not start until the other employee has left. Her last day was actually yesterday. Today Henry gets this note from her about how offended she was that she didn't train a new employee, that she thought she was being generous in staying for 1 month and giving him that time, and then he just kept her there without a replacement to be trained and so forth, and then he didn't even say good-bye and she just felt really unappreciated, and just wanted to let him know so he could learn from  it for the future.

Ok. Gag. Seriously. I'm so pissed with this girl. It bugs me because it's so self-centered. You cannot magically come up with a new (good) employee out of nowhere. Those things just usually don't happen within 2 weeks, and a month turns out to be just barely enough to replace someone. Oh, and then Henry has a wife at home who just had a baby (which all the staff know), and hasn't seen wife or family because the last week he had to work 6 days a week, and then this week he had to work, and yesterday (employee's last day) was the first time he's been home since the baby was born. And we actually had to go to Redding for baby stuff that could not be delayed.

But all employee can see is how she's not being appreciated because...she's leaving and Henry didn't throw her a good-bye party maybe? Or didn't come by to say thanks (for making his life so much more stressful and difficult during this already busy/stressful time than it should have been)...

It's annoying when you think you try to do everything you can to treat employees fairly and with appreciation, and then they get all self-righteous on ya. With this employee, Henry actually suspects that she was leaving because he's asked her once whether she didn't have enough to do when he noticed that she'd spend a lot of her time texting etc. and having boyfriend visit her at work. She was still a good employee, but he thought maybe there were some issues that she got offended over.

And now, instead of my husband coming home to spend time with his family, he's still at work, writing to an ex-employee who felt she needed to 'lecture' us on how to be what, a better employer? So. stinking. annoying.

Urgh. And then we already have drama with the new employee (who seems to be really top notch, but some of the staff wanted Henry to hire another person, who they all knew and who also seemed supernice, but who got a bad reference, and also seemed to struggle with being direct and upfront which is a quality Henry is really looking for in a new employee). Anyway, staff preferred someone else, and don't understand why Henry hired this person instead of the other one (he's looking for someone who can potentially take on various positions in the practice, including becoming an office manager, and the other person didn't seem to have the personality necessary for that). So, they're all confused. And then when the new person  came in the other day for a quick training, the staff complained about her smelling a lot like smoke, and that that gives the one staff migraines. So, then Henry felt like he needed to address the smoke issue right away with the new employee, and of course that sucks because you don't want to talk to anyone about how they smell.

Sucky. I feel bad for Henry. I wouldn't mind that drama as much, because I don't mind confrontations as much as Henry does. But for Henry this is all just nightmarish. And it makes him feel really sucky, because he feels like he's suddenly having all these staff issues, when all we tried was to really show employees in word and deed that they're appreciated. But now it feels like they think Henry has no clue, and that they should be calling the shots, and he's just ignoring their imput.

Arrghhhhhhhhhhhhh - drama!!!! If we've learned anything so far is that the best employees so far have been the older ladies. The younger ones (like the one who just left), are just drama.