Montana Jones

Employees

How hard is it really. I need someone to do work I can't do myself. Someone does that work in exchange for my money. The problem is that employment can be an emotional issue. I understand that. I have quit jobs over petty little things like satisfaction, challenge, timing, happiness, the people I am required to work around. I want to be sensitive to these things as I transition from employee to employer.

Being the employer is as much a commitment as being an employee. When I agreed to hire I believe I was also agreeing to support and nurture along with agreeing to pay. When employee S_ called expressing doubt about the upcoming summer season I dropped all and had a lengthy and candid heart to heart on the rewards and challenges of the work. There was a several day cooling off period and when I heard from S_ again I was given the verdict. No thank you. Fair enough, in the end I don't want to fight for an employee that won't be happy and productive. We parted amiably, the applications came back out and the position was filled again within a day. Then the grapevine spoke and I heard that the no may not be final. There was still vacillation and could I please grant some more time for S_ to decide. S_ would have been a great employee and it saddens me but what is done is done. Support and nurture is good and all but I have a business to run and there is only so much 'I dunno what I want' that I can tolerate.

I have been working toward filling a different position as well. Seasonal, temporary, needs local help. I shelled out 200 clams to run a freakin' dead tree classified. I would prefer an online ad but I don't think the online ads have as much reach around here. In return I got a nice stack of resumes to consider. The position doesn't start for a while so I took my time with the considering. I narrowed down to my favorite three and then spent time with phone interviews. It took a couple days of phone tag to get back to my first choice. Can't do it, already has another job commitment. A day later the next one declined because of schedule conflicts late in the season. A holiday weekend and another day of phone tag I finally reach the final selection and they took up another job just the day before. Damn. Missed by a day. My turn to pay the price for procrastination. This setback could really set me back. I pull another resume out of the folder and call the number. Can't do it, already has another job. I'm starting to worry. Too much time has slipped since collecting these resumes in the first place. These things have cost me $200 and they may already be worthless. Timing is everything. I still have a couple more resumes in the stack that might work out, but they are still in the pile because they failed to impress me. A few days ago I was feeling on top of the world, organized and ready for the season. But now the world is atop me. I guess this is just one of those things, one of those problems that business people are supposed to be able to snap their fingers and solve. I just don't want to shell out another $200 to solve it.

(Note to self: in the future always finish your summer hiring before Memorial Day.)

Posted by: Montana Jones / 4:38 PM