This week was a sad, frustrating week for me with respect to My Gym. We had an employee who was just about to have her one year anniversary with us. She had progressed from a part-time, hourly employee to Assistant Director with a salary and health benefits. In all respects, she was a key employee, able to manage the business when both Addie and I are out. Over the Labor Day holiday, she had a falling out with her boyfriend of seven months. In the space of 48 hours, she decided to move 350 miles away without notice. After giving her the world, she screwed us over without a second thought. She was 21 years old without a college degree but with a salaried position and health benefits. Additionally, she was poised to advance even further as we grow and expand. To add salt to this wound, this week just happens to be the busiest week of the year for My Gym with a huge Fall Open House that typically brings 250 families to the gym over the space of three days. We needed her in every sense of the word.
Now I am fully aware (and reminded all the time) that an employee owes a company and its boss nothing. I know that this is a dog-eat-dog world and that most people only look out for numero uno. That being said and out in the open, I treat my employees very well. I regularly check in with them, ask them how they're doing and how they're feeling. I have a defined system in place of hurdles that must be met for raises to be earned. We host regular staff nights and make our job as fun as possible. I am regularly told that I am great to work for. Blah, blah, blah.... So I am at a loss for why most people don't have the common decency to at least give some notice before leaving us high and dry. Most people can only look to "what would I do" when trying to understand another's actions. I have no idea if it is my upbringing and my instilled sense of duty, morals and common decency or just my experience in the corporate world; however, I can say with 100% conviction that I would never fathom leaving a job without providing notice or an explanation. I grew up with the phrase, "Don't burn bridges," pounded into my head. It has served me well over my 34 years.
Our business is not one where just anyone can be slotted in. A trained assistant teacher takes at least three weeks. A trained lead teacher takes at least six weeks. Unfortunately, we don't have the cash to pay the quantity of employees that it would take to be overstaffed, and we can't afford to pay the quality of employee that definitely wouldn't do something like this. We predominately employ young, high-school and college-aged individuals who need part-time jobs. Regardless, when employees leave us with absolutely no notice, I can't help but feel personally affronted and wonder where I went wrong.
These are the questions I ponder when we have an employee shoot us in the foot:
Do I get too close to my employees? Do I make them feel as though they can't quit unless they do it stealth?
Is this a result of a deficiency in their upbringing or just a sign of their generation?
For those that still live at home, why do their parents let them handle things in this manner?
If I was a hard, uncaring boss, would I have better luck with employees due to sheer fear on their part?
Why is he/she so selfish that he/she can't stick around for two weeks to allow us time to find someone else?
Should I just get back on the floor with my Director and minimize the need for additional employees at the expense of off-floor work and growing the business?
I am convinced that we are doing our younger generations a mass disservice by allowing them to get away with these types of actions. What has happened to the strong work ethic of our forefathers and the common sense of right versus wrong? Have we given our children too much and expected too little? Have they not been required to work for the things they want, instead of being handed everything on a silver platter? Have we gone so far to the left in wanting to be our children's friends that we've forgotten to teach them morals and virtues and to redirect their erroneous actions?
I know that these thoughts seem deep and based solely on my experiences with a certain subset of individual. However, the consistency with which I see these actions makes me assume that my employees are not the minority and that this is going on around the world. It makes me very sad....
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