Conflicted

I've always wanted to be my own boss, or in charge of whatever I'm doing at the very least. Now the phrase "be careful what you wish for because you might just get it", is coming back to haunt me. Running a business certainly has its pros and cons, but I have found that the biggest pro is also the biggest con, and that's dealing with human resources.

The need to hire people is a good thing, it means the business is growing. However, managing a group of teenagers is the equivalent of trying to herd cats at times. They're fearless, cocky, arrogant, and they already know it all, so what's there to learn? Although they've gone through most of high school, they still haven't gone through the school of hard knocks taught by Prof. Life Experience.

I'm conflicted because when I acquired the most recent annex to my business, I also acquired a new employee. I was excited about it at first because I figured what could be a better deal than to acquire someone who has been with the business since its inception that already knew the operation inside and out, was already familiar with the market and the vendors, and was someone who had been my customer and "work" friend for the past 6 months. Little did I know the drama that was about to ensue.

I'll admit, I've always struggled to keep my temper in check. It doesn't take much to set me off and get me to run my mouth, which my new employee soon found out. Unlike her previous boss, I have not been shy about pointing out the things about her behavior, attitude, and administrative tasks that need to be corrected. Of course, it began nicely at first by explaining what my expectations were, what our current policies are, and what needed to be done. It's a very simple job and for the most part, nothing changed much from what she had been doing before, so I didn't think it would be an issue.

Well, evidently, not texting or playing with your cell phone, greeting and engaging with customers, smiling, offering samples, keeping the 8 x 8 ft space tidy, staying inside the booth, using the radio to call for breaks or extra supplies, and taking inventory is a bit much. Since leaving her in charge of the main booth, sales have dropped to less than 30% of what the previous owners were generating. In three short weekends I have already busted her:

• Engrossed with her cell phone texting and ignoring customers on several occasions even after having prohibited texting while on the job.
• Leaving her booth to supposedly get more change or supplies despite having a radio. Which part of STAY IN YOUR BOOTH didn't you get the first 15 times? Even when she didn't work for us, she would wander from her booth to ours at which time CP and I would always tell her to go back to her booth.
• Insisting that it didn't matter if she left the booth because nobody was there anyway. How would she know if she's not there?
• Stereotyping customers by telling me after I had instructed her to greet someone and offer a sample, "I know the type. They're not going to buy anything". She's a mind reader now? Well, she was right. They weren't going to buy anything - from HER.
• Telling my mother, who is a sales expert and was teaching her some customer service and sales techniques, that she didn't like sales and was only there because she needed the job. That kind of sucks when your job is to sell stuff.
• Pretending to have done inventory when it hasn't been done. We did random audits and caught it. I guess it's kind of hard to miss when she's reporting there are 68 ice pops in the freezer when I know I only purchased 40 of them and it's been passed over from one day to the next to the next.
• Ignoring my direct instructions to do something. How many times do I need to tell you to clean the same thing? I had asked for the same thing to be done for 3 consecutive work days and it still hadn't been done. Of course, the final straw was when the owners of a local business that I want to affiliate myself with dropped by unannounced to check out the location. I had to do the best I could to strategically stand in front of the things I didn't want them to see in fear that they'd think I'm a slob. It was humiliating. 
• Feeling entitled to come to me exasperated and upset questioning the reason CP and I made some decisions we chose to make that had nothing to do with her and arguing with me about it with dramatic fanfare in front of my other employee, customers, and whoever else may be passing by to hear it. That really pissed me off.
• Deliberately showing up late to a meeting I had scheduled a week before with coffee in hand when she's never been late before.

These are just a few of the highlights, but needless to say, I'm not a happy camper. If there's something I despise it's passive aggressiveness, hyper sensitivity, drama, and being disrespected. She wasn't happy when I told her that I didn't invest in a business only to make enough money to pay the rent and her salary, so she'd better shape up. She was even less pleased when I put my 12 year old sister to run the booth she normally occupies and my sister outsold her by over $70 from the previous day, when there had been more foot traffic.

So the time has come to do something I'd hoped I would never have to do, and that's to fire someone. I know enough about her personal situation to feel sorry for her, but I can't continue to employ someone who isn't producing anything for my business. As a business owner, it's my responsibility to make sure everyone gets paid, but who guarantees that I'll get paid? Nobody... and I've come to the realization that nobody really cares, either. I've already found a replacement, but I really don't want to deal with this awkward confrontation. I suppose that each time I'm feeling a little conflicted, I should remember how screwed I am. Yep, that oughta put things in perspective.