Weird employee issue

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

To start, I run a small 2 guy operation. Myself, working all of the lawn treatment business and other misc stuff, and my mowing guy, who does just that 90% of the time. Hired a guy this year who is more than a HS/college kid, good worker, gets the routes mowed, quality is good (could be excellent, we have discussed that). Guys a strange dude though, kind of loner and not socially capable in a sense. He HATES working with me and prefers to do everything on his own. Almost a little cavalier about it, and it rubs me the wrong way. For example, I finished my work a bit early yesterday and saw him finishing up his last mowing acct as I drove by. I stopped to help him finish up (cause thats what farm boys do, help out) just to give him a leg up in this torrid, humid heat wave we've been having up here. Went to pack up the truck and he lectures me on how he gets shorted so much time if I help out, that I need to stay out of the mowing segment. I see his point with wanting to get his hours in, but his attitude irked me. I've never had a guy yet who wasn't willing to sacrifice a few hours to get the hell out of the bad heat and finish up for the day. Maybe I should count myself lucky to have a guy who wants to leg it out on his own, IDK. This is probably just a rant....how do you guys deal with an employee that you really don't see eye to eye with well and who seems cavalier almost to the point that they seem like they could run the business better than you? Pisses me off, but I'm all ears. Thx!

 

[Crazy 4 grass]

Definitely peculiar behavior on his part!

If he is capable and causes no other headaches and is reliable and making you money... well then I'd probably give him his assignments and let him be.

Most of the time its all the opposite problems lol

 

[MowDaddy]

I'd leave him be.
For 3 years I had my brother doing his own route, he is almost hermit like.
Doesn't even have a cell ph. Hates all paper work, doesn't even want to fill out time card.
So we came up with an allotted amount of hrs to do his route. Plus a couple extra hrs each week for maintenance on machines and truck.
Some weeks he may finish a few hrs early or run a few hrs over. He had a set paycheck no matter what.
It worked great. Sometimes I wouldn't see him for 2 to 3 weeks. But he always had everything taken care of.
If I had 10 of him, life would be smooth.

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

I'd leave him be.
For 3 years I had my brother doing his own route, he is almost hermit like.
Doesn't even have a cell ph. Hates all paper work, doesn't even want to fill out time card.
So we came up with an allotted amount of hrs to do his route. Plus a couple extra hrs each week for maintenance on machines and truck.
Some weeks he may finish a few hrs early or run a few hrs over. He had a set paycheck no matter what.
It worked great. Sometimes I wouldn't see him for 2 to 3 weeks. But he always had everything taken care of.
If I had 10 of him, life would be smooth.

Being your brother, you probably had an unspoken expectation of how work should go. I totally get that. But he was related to you. My guy is quite frankly cavalier, a bit inept socially, makes some off the wall buns-hole comments sometimes, and just rubs me the wrong way. Sure he gets his work done, but when you have to cringe interacting with the guy in the morning every day, jeesh. I'll probably leg it out for the next 3.5 months and wont bring him back next year.

 

[Gus McGee]

You have to decide which battles are worth waging. If he is reliable, does his job well, and turns a satisfactory profit just leave him be. If you lay down the law you might be out a decent employee and have to train a few bozos before you find another decent worker.

 

[zlandman]

Send him my way! You can send him out to a mow route by himself and he takes care of it!?
Think I'd say "I wasn't trying to save paying you the time, I'll make sure you get paid that extra time"

How many hours would you ideally like to work?

 

[Andrew H]

How many hours would you ideally like to work?

I like to work between 126-168 hours per week,
You know to make the really good money

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

You have to decide which battles are worth waging. If he is reliable, does his job well, and turns a satisfactory profit just leave him be. If you lay down the law you might be out a decent employee and have to train a few bozos before you find another decent worker.

Probably the route I will go the remainder of the season, just bite the bullet. It's going to be strictly business with him from here on out, and he'd better be on the money as he's paid well. You can't even shoot the breeze with the guy he's so stove up.

 

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Send him my way! You can send him out to a mow route by himself and he takes care of it!?
Think I'd say "I wasn't trying to save paying you the time, I'll make sure you get paid that extra time"

How many hours would you ideally like to work?

I get it, but he can spare me the butthole comments and cavalier attitude. I'm sort of done trying to be the easy going, friendly employer. It's all biz now get out and work.

 

[zlandman]

Take him out for a beer and see what he's all about.
A little beer diplomacy can go a long way.
Maybe he is a high functioning autistic or something.