Really need desperate help, I just started a new business and it's chaos?

Question

I owned this new franchise restaurant last week. I have total of five employees and one manager. All employees including manager are immidiate family. Manager is aunt and four employees are her niece.
With that said, they all look out for each other all the time and do not listen to me. They take smoking breaks every 10 minutes, they stay on cell phone all the time. I also bet they are stealing money. Should I go ahead and fire all of them at the spot? OR should I play it cool at the moment and wait till I hire new employees to back me up? Because if I am going to fire them now, I won't have anyone else to work for me. What should I do?

Answer 1

1) I would start interviewing for new employees.
2) When you hire them, give a start date.
3) Threaten to fire your relatives.
4) On the night before the start date, fire some of your relatives.
5) Next day, you just got yourself brand new set of employees, if they show up.

The best way to build a business is to show leadership and that you are not going to take any more nonsense from people, even from family members.

Answer 2

First never hire someone that you cannot fire. Next never take on a partner. Put a help wanted ad in at least 4 newspapers. Look for 10 part time workers. FIRE the whole crew now. Do not let them stay on premises for more than 5 minutes. If you are closed on any day, tell them on that day or night before by phone. Be ready to close the store for decorating for week...I'll bet your cash will skyrocket...don't wait, it will only get worse, they are costing you customers.

Answer 3

Find at least a replacement manager. Maybe one or two wait-staff people. Even friends and/or family on a temporary basis.

I would fire all of them, but wait until closing. (That way you won't have to run the restaurant yourself. )

Your employees are a reflection on you and the restaurant. If they are lazy, then customers will view your restaurant negatively. There are many capable people out there looking for work.

No sense keeping incompetents employed. It is your duty to get them into the unemployment line.

Answer 4

Well, first of all I would calm down and write down all of the things that are not pleasing you with the business(excessive breaks, not following directions, etc.). Then I would also write down what you are pleased with (them showing up on time, good customer service, etc.)

After you have your lists put together what you would you like to say to each individual, starting with the manager. Make sure she knows what is expected of her and what is expected of her employees. Make sure she understands that even though you are family that this is a business and will be run as a business. Make sure you throw in some compliments of things she is doing well whether it be customer service, scheduling, handling upset customers, etc. This will make the meeting a mixture of positive and negative.

Take the time to take each employee aside for a 10 minute meeting. This would be a good place to have an employee handbook for them to read and sign that they will follow.(this will give you grounds to fire them if it comes to it down the road). make sure they realize that they need to do their job or they can be replaced with someone who will. remember to make sure each meeting is not purely negative or you will come off as the evil owner.

if their attitudes and performance do not improve in a couple weeks start making preparations for their replacements. Start with the aunt as manager since she is directly responsible for the behavior of your employees. Once she is replaced the others might fall into line.

good luck to you. remember you are the owner and all of their negative behavior reflects on you and the franchise. make sure you are prepared to do what it takes to make the franchise a sucess.

Answer 5

one biggest mistake. never hire family.

you should hire new employees but make sure they dont get corrupted during the transition. the first thing you do is bring in a new manager (fire the aunt), let him know exactly what is expected of him. then slowly phase in the new employees to replace the niece. they will leave on their own since the aunt's not around and a new person is bossing them around anyway.

also do consider a system to minimise stealing. think about it.

Answer 6

My experinec has shown that it is never a good idea to do buisness with family. Problems at work are then carried to the home and become a problem and strain relationships if not destroy them.

The link you need to adress is the Manager. Replace her with someone who is not family. The others then take orders from the new person and if they don't work they will be delt with by the manager. You are not involved and should not let yourself be dragged in to any dispute.

Let the manager do the work.

Hope this helps.

Simon

Answer 7

You need a new manager. You can phase in the new manager while phasing out the old one. At the same time, the new manager can be trained. Once the new manager is ready, he/she can take care of the employees. BTW, if the employees are as bad as you say they are, they will leave on their own.

Answer 8

Get some applications and hire some people first. Many people will put as the date they can start to be in 2 weeks (so they can give notice on their old jobs. This will give you time to fire your uncooperative employees. Avoid the use of the word family, because they will use it to manipulate you.

Answer 9

That's hard to decide.... but I say play it cool for now until you hire new employees.... unless you have your own family and friends to work for you and then u can fire them all! haha Or are these people your family too??

Business is business tho, do what you gotta do... good luck! =)

by the way, what kind of restaurant is this?

Answer 10

Wait until you bring new employees in. That way you can tell them to hit the road. They are probably taking advantage of you because you are family and they probably think they can take advantage of you. BTW you do not want there poor etiquitte reflecting back on you. Good luck.