Charles - I enjoy your posts!! Your subtlety is amazing!

Tom

my roomate is shipping out to iraq thursday. his unit is in a frenzy to get cone-x's filled w/their gear.

with any organization of people their is always one boss. do you think the military puts up with crap. your first orders are nice and pleasant. if you fail to do orders or complete them in a quality manner..............you then get a superior DOWN YER THROAT!

after anymore failures to complete the job or mission.......................MY ROOMATE IS BEATING THE TAR SNOT OUT OF NEWBEES! he is a NCO and takes no crap.

grew up in military household. werked at garrett aviation, been in coast guardaux, btwn the 2 the only way is the military way and thats a fact jack


this is very simple..................werk or split. kinder gentler my ass!

That is what I would do...

If he thinks he is all that and a bag of chips give him some tough jobs to do with a definite time line and don't help him out.

Let him sink or swim.

I'm sure his fellow co-workers appreciate his efforts..
they work & he think's he's you... or should be anyway.
besides you owe him a job...
You need to stay at home...
NOBODY is irreplaceable..even YOUR biz.

Rika

for some reason, i like this advice. he is looking around and seeing greener grass. you need to open his eyes.

that, or fire him. if anything it will rattle the cages for the other guys.

Whoa...hold the phone here. Lots of bad advice...

$50k+ a year can be big money to someone who has a young child or just married. Case in point- I don't know if he's single or what the situation is, and I believe you he's probably a pain in the rear, but you better have a documented account of everything he's done/said/acted out and present a short term plan for him to straighten out or the hit the highway. Put him on notice for 30 or 90 days, make it very clear to him you are not pleased (and document why so he has a copy (make 2 or 3 key points backed up with instances as to what the issues are), this will put him in his place and give you a defense if it goes South. Not wise in this day and age to just air it out in the office and then can him...put him on a short term correction plan and take it from there. He'll either straighten out or leave on his own accord.

sadly Carrera is right...
CYA....then punt

Rika

If I lived in OK. I would be knocking on your door trying to steal this guys job! :D

I don't know but I presume $25/hr goes pretty far in that part of the country.

I work in the tech field I don't know anyone who gets to be "in training" for two years... six months max and then you are on your own.

Wow! :eek: Just checked in this morning and found tons of good advice. I'll try to respond to most.

Wayne, I have given him a carrot-on-a-stick. If he brings in a new client, we split the proceeds 50/50. He hasn't brought in new clients in two years. As further motivation, I have even given him (small) clients/jobs to keep for himself.

Yes, he is the lead guy. Business is of a specialized technical nature. That's all I can say on the Internet.

He'll argue until he's blue...

Nothing would give me more joy than to can his ass at the end of the day today, but...that means another 6 mo. ~ 1 yr. "training" session with the next one (assuming I find someone right away). I think it would be easier (financially/stressfully (is that a word?)) to re-program who I have.

He was canned from his last job for poor peformance, but I saw some hope in that he was loyal/responsible, etc. I figured if I can fix-up a rusty old Porsche, I could fix this guy. (I'm having better luck with the Porsche).

Hmm...not sure where you can get a job that pays $25/hr., allows you to sleep-in until 9, come/go as you please, take time off when needed, boss regularly buys you lunch, tools, bonuses, etc.

There ain't no-one out there who's going to pay him $25/hr. for what he does. Going rate is about $18/hr.

Out of all the good advice in this thread, I like this one the best. Unfortunately, I probably couldn't pull the trigger.

It's funny that you mention this, as he and I are both former military and I (sorta) run things like a military unit (uniforms, haircuts, yes/no sir to the clients, etc.).

Tried it. Client ends up calling and yelling at me for sending out a nimrod to do the job.

Yep. Agree. Shoulda listened to my gut two years ago, but here we are.

He just was married and had a child. I was kinda hoping this new responsibility in his life would turn on a lightbulb in his head and make him realize how good he has it at work, needs the job, etc.

But...different day, same BS.

Yes, $25/hr. is far/above what others in this field are paid.

To be fair, we do a lot of different "stuff". So, as we get in new & out-of-the-ordinary projects, the training curve can start over again. But, after two years, you should just be able to look at something/RTFM and just do it without supervision.