Outside Influences

[DrFaroohk]

How long would you put up with an employee who always had outsiders (non-employees) interfering with your work? for example, an employee's mother will call and yell at you for keeping her baby (26 yrs old) on those late, late shifts, or a husband will come in and get in your face because you had to write up his wife or somethign and it made her cry.

[Bright_Star]

About 5 minutes...lol.

[Shangri-laschild]

I think partially it would depend on how the employee felt about these people doing those things. If they had a problem with it too and didn't mind if you, for instance, told the boyfriend he wasn't welcome there anymore, then I think maybe I'd try to see if things could be worked out. If the employee thinks that it's ok for people to be doing this then their attitude isn't much better.

[Umingmaq]

Tough situation. I think a lot of the answer lies in an understanding of the total environment. How intense was the confrontation? Is this a small group/small company environment, or a big corporation? What is the attitude of the employees involved? How much do you have to worry about their reactions, or do you have a shield of company policy to defend your response?

And now a reason why you shouldn't necessarily listen to anything I have to say on the subject. Some time ago I went through manager training at a Big Corp. In one exercise I was role playing a branch manager and the instructor a wife complaining about her husband's treatment. I did OK for a while and she (the instructor) quite properly kept escalating the situation. Finally I hit a blank when she whined "Why hasn't he got a raise? X does the same work, and he got a raise." The only thing I could think of was "Well, he just isn't worth very much." Broke the instructor up - and I never did actually become a manager.

[digilight]

First time it happened would be a written warning with the notation that this person is banned from the premesis for minimum 3 months (if they pick up said person they are only allowed to wait in the vehicle). If it occurs again then the person gets their walking papers.

I don't need employee's who need mommy or daddy to fight your battles for you. This also applies to calling out for work. If you can't do it yoursef, unless you physically can't for some reason, then it doesn't cut it for me. Example, Hi, this is Joey's mommy, he can't come into work to play today he has the sniffles (this is not an acceptable call out)

Try this one. Hi this is Anne, Marie's mom, she was in a car accident last night and is in the hospital right now. Nothings broken, but she is real woozy and they want to run some tests on her, I'll give you a call when we find out more. (this is a good mom)

[Emrld]

I agree with digilight

With the added acception of meeting ADA required practices.
As in someone with special assitance in understanding needed. And then it is for the cartaker/ parent to find out the manager/ companies side of the story and help the employee understand the who, what, when, where and why of what happend. Not getting in the manager's face.
Unless that manager/ company has done something against ADA rules and regs. But that isn't what this topic is about.

[MiloMorai]

The parent calling in a bitching about the late hours: employee would get a written warning and told that if it happens again = fired.

The husband coming in to bitch about a write up: He'd be stopped mid rant and told he's just gotten his wife ANOTHER write up and he's banned from the property OR I can just fire your wife immediately. What'll it be pal?

[Ringtail Z28]

About 5 minutes...lol.

You're a lot more patient than I am, that's for certain.

[icmedia]

I totally feel your pain on the supposedly grown adults being called in for or complaints made by mommy...

Worse, though, is when the person actually is a minor- thereby requiring you to accept parental call-ins.

At my last job, I had two teenage sisters working for me. One was a hostess/server, another a dishwasher/prep cook. Both were probably the hardest working, most dedicated, responsible employees I had working for me. The slashes in their titles above represent what they were promoted to, while I promoted very few employees during my tenure there. In other words, these girls were model employees.

Their mother, however, failed to see them in the same light. I can't count the number of times I got some long-winded call from their mom- if one of them were sick or had a scheduling conflict, they called me themselves with plenty of notice, often having already found someone to cover their shift. Despite their handling the situation responsibly on their own, I would then get a phone call from their mother which generally lasted between 5-15 minutes, and consisted of mostly the following:

Mom: "Are you suuuuure it's OK that she misses work? I don't want her to get in trouble."
Me: "Yes, it's really no problem; she called in earlier and she's covered her shift. Tell her I hope she feels better. Thanks."
Mom: "But are you suuuuuuuuuuuuure? She just has soooooo many problems with *insert random medical problem here* and I don't want you to be maaaaaaaad."
Me: "Really, it's no problem. She's one of our best employees and she rarely calls off. Don't worry, she isn't in any trouble."
Mom: "OK, I just don't want her to get fiiiiiiired, or lose her jooooob, because it just means so much to her, you know? You won't get her in trouble for this, will you?"

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Dry. Straighten. Style. Set. Wear around town. Sleep on. Wake up. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. And so on and so on.

One time Mommy Dearest kept me on the phone for an hour. Yes, an hour. She wanted me to hire her son...which, I almost did until she started explaining why he was fired from his last job, and how he "really hardly ever has violent outbursts like that, even with his criminal record." Yeah, and unlike the two teenage daughters, Son #1 was 19 years old. Gag.

But don't even get me started on parents who tried to help their Pwecious Wittle Snowfwake obtain a job, despite Pwecious Wittle Snowfwake being in his/her mid-20's.