I’ve previously shared my experience with a negligent staff in my blog.

Aside from the earlier listed offenses, she misplaced an important document, an aircon and ducting certification in one of our branches, which is crucial in getting back my construction bond.

I gave her a written memo informing her of her offense. As a reply to the incident report, she wrote back that she apologized for losing the document, knowing fully well she is responsible, and is willing to take whatever consequence of her mistake.

I gave her a deadline.

After that deadline has passed, she could still not produce any document.

Now, without the document, we would have to request another contractor to do another set of testing, which will cost us at least Php 5,000.00 and a lot of headaches. Left with no choice, I booked the contractor to do another round of testing for February 4.

Last January 31, I charged her the entire Php 5,000.00 to her payroll.

The day went by quickly, and it was only in the evening of January 31 that I received her text:

“Good evening Ma’m, I just inquired my salary from the ATM. What are my deductions? Thank you.”

The next day, she was sulking and crying in my office, asking why I did not inform her before I deducted from her salary the full amount.

I told her that for one, I have given her a written memo on her misplacing the document. On her reply, it is clear that she agrees that she is solely at fault in losing the document. Given that doing another round of testing to get another version of the document will cost Php 5,000.00, I am charging the full amount to her since she is the one responsible and she had indicated in her letter that she is ready for any consequence her negligence has caused.

She told me directly that I should have informed her before deducting the amount from her salary.

I apologized that her feelings were hurt, but I replied that as the general manager, the cost of the offense is solely linked to her. It is her negligence that incurred an extra Php 5,000 company expense, and it was my decision to charge it to her as a whole so that she can wake up from her negligent stupor and do a better job, knowing fully well that all her mistakes have a price.

It’s true — maybe out of decency, I should have informed her before charging her. But my intention is to surprise and wake her up. Deducting the Php 5,000 was to do just that.

She sulked and she cried.

I gave my explanation and made sure that everyone in the office understood where I was coming from. Mind you, this is not her first offense.

So far she has lost me my sales ledger, an original Contract of Lease for one of my branches, the aircon certification, and underpaid some of our sales staff because she “forgot” to count some of their days worked. She also did not collect Php 600,000 worth of outstanding checks because she forgot.

So trust me when I tell you that enough is enough. It’s not as if this is her first offense and I can just look away. This is already gross and habitual negligence.

As for you telling me, “Then why not just fire her?” The answer I will tell you in another blog post. This is not the last time you will hear about negligent employee.

Anyway, she’s still here and I charged her Php 5,000.00 from last January 31’s salary. Given that she is a breadwinner and a mother to a 7-year old son, I come off as an insensitive heartless b*tch who can’t give someone a break.

Php 5,000 is still Php 5,000 and goes a long way to support a lifestyle.

So I go on to my meetings outside. I visit one of my branches and talk to the mall manager regarding the status of our store.

When I come back in the evening, she is curt and unsmiling. But she tells me that after 2 months of looking for the document, she finds it.

 

 

 

AFTER BEING CHARGED PHP 5,000, SHE FOUND THE FREAKING DOCUMENT.

Months of stress and headache trying to get a replacement, and she finds it after being charged.

So the story ends happily ever after.

She finds the document and I get to return her the Php 5,000.00 tomorrow.

The head office learns an important lesson on doing their job well. Otherwise, the big bad boss will charge you.

And since I return the Php 5,000 tomorrow, technically, I don’t come off too much of a bad cop.

A lot of you may not agree with how I handled this. A lot of you may have your own opinions on how you could do things differently. I don’t blame you. As I’ve told you multiple times, it’s hard to manage people.

But this is how I handle things.

Love me or hate me, for Php 5,000, I was able to “wake up” a negligent person to realize there are real costs to her mistakes, and I get to teach my entire office to do their job better.

Not bad for a full day’s work.