Mickyblueeyes Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 I have a situation at my place of business. I am lucky to be an employer rather than an employee but it wasn't too long ago that the show was on the other foot. The predicament I find myself in is at 6:30 this evening, an employee (relatively new and junior in terms of the profession) brought into my office a file in a mess. There is a solution ( experience has thought me this) however there's a number of obstacles we need to get over to come out smiling on the other side. Basically worst case scenario, our client will lose a substantial amount of money which our company will have pay. At the moment it's 60/40 in favour of it happening at this point. I have asked him to meet me with a couple of other senior members of staff at 6:30am tomorrow morning ( we need more than 12 hrs of grovelling to get through this. The employee is genuinely shaken up by this I've seen it first hand but he has made a catastrophic mistake which is a complete no no in our profession. The thing is I know what it feels like to be in his position and so does 99.9% of people in the profession. Not for this particular but for other sorts of catastrophic mistakes. My question is how do you deal with it without sacking him (the mistake could be construed as misconduct). What would people do in my situation - I really do not want to sack him. Shit happens sometimes.
Tielemans63 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Could you put him on a probation of sorts with some clear and pretty strict expectations? That way the lad has a chance to redeem himself, whilst you're seen to show your customers and your other employees that what happened Will not be tolerated but that you're a reasonable fella. If the boy cocks up again you can get rid with a clear conscience or he might become a brilliant employee. Is there any chance he'll ever be able to earn back what he's lost you? Depends on severity of his mistake I guess.
Vardinhio Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Well if you do not feel sacking is the answer then perhaps consider giving the staff member some training in the area he made the mistake. If he is juniorn then get him to shadow someone more experienced for a while who can guide him, or perhaps give him a mentor that he can approach and discuss any gaps in his knowledge.
whitlock Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 I think you've summed it all up and answered yourself with the last 3 words of your post. Fair way would be written/final warning and if it has shaken this guy up. £20 says he will never do it again. Experience.
DB11 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 How did the mistake come about? Did he ever ask for help or did he not think he needed it? Or was he too scared to ask so did it anyway but cocked up?
Guest ttfn Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Sounds like you're doing the right thing in just trying to fix the problem to start with. I wouldn't even bother bringing up consequences tomorrow, it's best just to think about how to get out of whatever mess you're in. I would give it a couple of weeks to calm down, give him a formal warning and re-train him on whatever went wrong. Possibly don't pay him for the day of re-training if you want to force your point home. As you say, everybody makes mistakes.
Tielemans63 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 What would Alan sugar do? Send him to Morocco to buy some random shit.
separator Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Was there not any quality control / monitoring over a junior employee with a large responsibility
Strokes Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Was there not any quality control / monitoring over a junior employee with a large responsibility Shit don't travel upwards pal, first rule of business.
DB11 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Sounds like you're doing the right thing in just trying to fix the problem to start with. I wouldn't even bother bringing up consequences tomorrow, it's best just to think about how to get out of whatever mess you're in. I would give it a couple of weeks to calm down, give him a formal warning and re-train him on whatever went wrong. Possibly don't pay him for the day of re-training if you want to force your point home. As you say, everybody makes mistakes. What? How can you possibly think that's right before even addressing the legal implications of that
lavrentis Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Shit don't travel upwards pal, first rule of business. yeah to senior management but what about senior people doing the same as his role ?
Strokes Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 What? How can you possibly think that's right before even addressing the legal implications of that It's a fairly standard solution, so long as it's outside his normal working hours, ie on a Saturday.
Charl91 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Could you put him on a probation of sorts with some clear and pretty strict expectations? ^ This seems to be the best solution to me. Not too harsh, and lets him keep his job, but shows you're not a pushover and keeps everyone on their toes.
Hollism Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 How likely is he to make a similar mistake in the future? If he can be reasonably considered to continue costing your business serious money, then sacking him is the only option. If you feel that you can offer training to avoid him repeating the mistake, then that is what you should do. It will make him a better employee to have that kind of experience, but if you think it will happen again, then you don't reall have a choice.
SystonFox Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 I THINK WE NEED GORY DETAILS sorry caps I'll leave that
separator Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Shit don't travel upwards pal, first rule of business.true, I can only speak from where I work. Where I used to work there was a £5k a minute fine for causing a tube station to close due to faulty equipment. That sort of cost causes managers heads to roll
DennisNedry Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 For me it depends on the nature of the mistake. If he was given a task that he was not properly instructed on, or trained for, then admit partial blame and be lenient. If he was given something within his ability/experience and cocked up due to an honest error or mistake, then do the disciplinary and probation period option. If he was given something within his ability/experience and cocked up due to lack of effort, messing about, general negligence etc, then sack him.
cambridgefox Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Without knowing more details about it/ time frames of tasks/ importance of task/ its hard to judge this one.Being Jnr and new this really should have been checked over along the way by a more senior member of staff and NOT after its too late.Think ( without knowing details) senior members of staff are just as liable if not more so.Its also hard to sack someone these days and it could come back to bite you if it's found he wasn't given the right supervision or support.
cityfanlee23 Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 I have a situation at my place of business. I am lucky to be an employer rather than an employee but it wasn't too long ago that the show was on the other foot. The predicament I find myself in is at 6:30 this evening, an employee (relatively new and junior in terms of the profession) brought into my office a file in a mess. There is a solution ( experience has thought me this) however there's a number of obstacles we need to get over to come out smiling on the other side. Basically worst case scenario, our client will lose a substantial amount of money which our company will have pay. At the moment it's 60/40 in favour of it happening at this point. I have asked him to meet me with a couple of other senior members of staff at 6:30am tomorrow morning ( we need more than 12 hrs of grovelling to get through this. The employee is genuinely shaken up by this I've seen it first hand but he has made a catastrophic mistake which is a complete no no in our profession. The thing is I know what it feels like to be in his position and so does 99.9% of people in the profession. Not for this particular but for other sorts of catastrophic mistakes. My question is how do you deal with it without sacking him (the mistake could be construed as misconduct). What would people do in my situation - I really do not want to sack him. Shit happens sometimes. Shit does happen - Dependant on the size of the catastrophic mistake im sure a resolve can be made. Obviously business comes down to your instinct, and you should not let anything anyone says on here influence your decision, but it's always good to seek opinions. Personally, If this employee knows the magnitude of his error, I think he will be far more precise from now on, and I'd avoid sacking (depending on how catastrophic) Without wanting to go into too much detail, from a business point of view, if you're willing to give the lad a chance, What can YOU do as a business to ensure that this sort of mistake is not possible again, Better training, better systems? obviously without knowing your business or how it's run this is more than likely not the issue, but something to consider nevertheless. How does this employee stack up to other employees, does he have potential? How has he handled the situation himself? assuming you've spoken to him, how has he reacted? is he likely to let this affect his confidence? Is he worth giving another chance, or is his role easily replaceable? Ultimately I think the main concern is if this issue came from laziness or lack of respect for the business, he should go. Alot to consider for sure, If I were in your shoes, I'd make sure he gets a fine pasting for his mistake, but keep him on, and end a formal meeting with a sign of respect to him, let him know of his errors, but also that you are backing him to progress into being fantastic in his role and future roles.
ozleicester Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 Does the company offer any kind of supervision of new/inexperienced employees? Does management take some responsibility for not adequately checking his work? Warn the employee, make it very clear what they did wrong and that to make a similar error again will lead to sacking. Change the company rules and structures to prevent restrict the likelihood of repetition. Acknowledge that you as the manager/owner of the company were also at fault for allowing the error to be able to occur and make sure that all employees understand that this is not acceptable and due to the changes you have made since the error, you will not tolerate someone else making the error. good luck
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