Thieving Employees? Sue the Sobs!

Employees can be a treasure and a pleasure, but the unscrupulous ones can become a plague visited on any business, but especially a small service company like a residential cleaning company.

THE SUSPECT(S)

If you begin to lose clients, or once regular clients begin exhibiting irregular scheduling, or simply come off their regular scheduled service, it's a sign that they are being solicited by an active employee, a recently terminated employee or a combination of both in an atmosphere of conspiracy as they collaborate to STEAL YOUR BUSINESS.

If you begin to notice the above in your case, then you need to act fast.

TELETALE SIGNS - YOUR BEING SET UP TO BE RIPPED OFF

CLOCK WATCHERS

If an employee doesn't understand or pretends not to understand how they are getting compensated for their work, or that they are receiving an hourly wage from the time they clock in to the time they clock out at the end of the day, then the potential is EXTREMELY HIGH that they will become disgruntled and begin to attempt to steal your client(s). Watch this real carefully it is their excuse, their "perverted" justification for stealing what you've worked so hard to establish - your business!

Oh they're being paid in compliance with all the labor laws, but that won't matter, they've mis-appropriately designated you as an advantage taking employer and that they have the right to help themselves to your property - your clients! It won't matter, how nice you are, how fair you are, whether or not they understand what you must do, for the good of the entire company, etc. Only that they don't feel you're being fair, so that it's okay to behave in such a manner and steal from you. No mater that they are on staff, that you're paying them to do their work, and in essence paying them while they steal from you.

Refusal to visit an existing client

One of the first signs is when an employee refuses to "work" on a clients home. No matter what the excuse, i.e, too dirty, not enough hours, etc. It is what we call the first indication the "clock watcher" is sizing you up for theft. Whether they outright steal the client or pass it off to you to give to someone else to handle, they are putting this client and any revenue derived thereof at risk.

Your policy should be as ours, refuse work and your immediately terminated. Why? It takes a long time and a great deal of money to attract a client, reliable, consistent servicing to keep the client. A good employee, who is will to work for their days pay, will go a long way to assist in keeping the client. Failure and or refusal to service a client, disrupts the schedule of all your employees, makes your company appear unstable, unreliable to the client(s) and deemed unworthy of their business.

As you can see it is a serious matter so nip it in the bud quickly! You can suffer a little now without the employee, or suffer a great loss later! The longer you let it go on, the worse it will get, other employees will see that there are no consequences for their actions and the problem will exacerbate much to you demise.

Refusal to service a NEW Client!

These are the life-blood of any recurring cleaning business, if an employee outright refuses to service this type of client, then you'd be well advised to terminate them immediately - on the spot and without a second chance!

They are a cancer to your business and without new clients you will cease to operate. The thought that they will only work on whom they want, those that are good tipping clients, etc., is a gross violation of the employee and employer relationship and by all outward appearances hs already ceased to exist so, just conclude the disease and fire the employee - EXTRACT THE CANCER TO YOUR BUSINESS.

They are hurting you, perhaps even doing so, to indirectly feed a co-conspirator (terminated employee) that "newly" disgruntled client. Yes, we've heard of it happening as well as seen it happen, many low life employees rise up from this pool of employees. So, be very sure to perform your "due diligence" prior to hiring any employee

Skipped or Flagged CLIENTS

This is similar to the above, but what is so diabolical about this tactic is the fact that it so often occurs after an employee has asked for more work, hours...

So, you comply thinking that you can trust this employee to handle the load and if he/she can do so, that would free up the schedule so you could take on more business without expending additional capital into hiring new individuals, training them before putting them out on their own as a productive member of your staff.

But the minute you misplaced your trust in the employee, you lose. If you make this mistake once that's hard enough, learn from your mistake, don't misplace this trust again and if the employee can't work within the confines of your judgement - Terminate him, her or them they will continue to erode your client base all all the while you're paying them their wages.

Under serviced clients - clients not being given what you promised

This is the most notorious theft of all, and will cost you clients quicker then you can correct it. The scenario goes like this, you send an employee to service a client's home, you've estimated it will take 6.0 hours to clean. The next day the client calls your office and says the employee was only there for a whopping 2.0 hours! "What" you say? You check the documentation, the sign-in sheets, the job tickets and they all reflect that this employee spent 6.0 hours at this clients home? Ah, the above is documented by direct input by the employee, and not the supervisor, or the client - The employee lied, they stole from you by saying they were on the clock working at this clients home for 6.0 hours when you really know that they were off doing something else, i.e., personal errands, etc.

The best way to stop and or isolate these scoundrels is to have them clock in and out from each location they service, using the client's telephone, which the computerized system will log in a record for you to check, monitor, etc. In conjunction with this have a supervisor and or manager go out and check on the suspected thief to make sure they are where they say they are, and when they say and at the predetermined time you've specified they are to be there!

If they fail to comply and or conform, if you find them "riding the clock", out running errands, etc., then FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY - The message you send to everyone in your employ will resonate indefinitely! One thing I can assure you of, is that this nonsense will stop immediately.

Disappearing supplies, towels, etc.

You should at the very least have your supplies locked up either in a cabinet or a back room, storage area. No one should have access to this area, especially not the field staff. They should never, ever be allowed to have free access to any of your supplies, rather you should daily prepare the employees supply buckets, towel bags, etc., according to the needs of the days route.

The In's and Out's

Only put out what the employee turns in the previous day. If they bring back 20 of the 50 towels you've given them the day before and they only need 30 towels for today's route, then you give them NONE!

If they need 4 bottles of cleaners and they've only brought back one, they get NONE. If they (anyone) of the employee's approach you for additional supplies, then they are stealing from you - TERMINATE THEM.

Disrespectful and or UNNECESARY COMMUNICATION WITH THE CLIENT(s)

Another terrible sign that you've got the wrong person(s) working for you and or they are deliberately sabotaging your business to have either themselves or are collaborating with another to steal you business - Fire them!

Once they do this and you allow this to get by you without retribution, then you settting yourself up for devastating effects to your business.

Continued CONVERSATIONS with terminated employees'

If you've had to terminate an employee, especially if the reason for their termination was for any of the above reasons, you do well to assume you have a co-conspirator, saboteur, a whole-hearted collaborator for you demise in your midst.

No need to lay it out for them, especially if you're in a "right to work" state, just fire them, don't wait to lose one client, not one but if you do suffer the loss of any client either during or after you've terminated an employee, and the remaining employee(s) continue to fraternize with said "terminated" employee, then severe their company ties with you as quickly as possible - IMMEDIATELY WOULD BE RECOMMENDED.

THE NON-COMPETE AGREEMENT

You should have had in place, signed and filed on each employee a "non-compete" or "employee" agreement giving you the grounds on which to sue the ex-employee for solicitation in violation of their "non-compete" agreement.

I once had an attorney tell me that the "non-compete" I had on each employee was good, and could be used to recover damages of the revenue loss from a solicited client. But, asked me; "whether or not I thought I'd really get anything worthwhile from the lawsuit?"

My answer to him was simple; "I don't care whether or not I get anything for my trouble, they'll have it on their record" at which point they will have a difficult time in finding work, when their record shows they were sued for theft, and "the client who went along with the preparation of the theft will also have dues to pay, and at the very least, be inconvenienced for their trouble by being subpoenaed to court and having to come and give testimony to the fact". Once that becomes part of the record, we then sue the "ex-client" for the damages, i.e., loss of revenues suffered for their prematurely ending their account.

If the client thinks this kind of trouble, the inconvenience that will be visited upon them is worth the sacrifice of having this ex-employee of ours continue to service their home - then we're be only too happy to take their money for services we did not supply.

FIND THEM, SUE THEM, SERVE THEM AND COLLECT YOUR DUE!

There are many ways to accomplish your goal of getting paid, some too elaborate to disclose in this document for reasons I'm sure you can surmise on your own. Many books are on the market that can lead you down this path, if this is your desire. The benefits far outweigh the costs, if nothing else your employees will be forced to be or become more honest.