I was talking to some friends the other day about how to schedule your staff for New Year’s Day if your business is open. It brought to mind one of my New Year’s Day experiences back in the day.
We had a skeleton crew on for most of the day, knowing we’d have a slow morning and maybe a moderately busy afternoon. Most people were scheduled for short shifts, so as to limit the impact of overtime and also to limit the impact of callouts.
After a fun and exciting New Year’s Eve where I got home pretty late, I arrived at the store about 15 minutes till 10 and was joined by two other opening crew members. The store was very quiet until about 11:45, when one of my staffers called and told me they didn’t feel well after going out last night and they wouldn’t be in. He was scheduled for a 4 hour shift. I was pretty upset with him, but then realized we’d be better off without having someone there who already decided he was going to be unproductive.
At times like these, it’s important to make the employee realize that they are being irresponsible. I informed him I was out until 5am (which was a bit of a stretch) and still managed to come in to run a business at 9:45am. He fell silent on the phone, and then said, well I am sorry but I am still not coming in. Believe it or not, he knew not to call in like that again after this occurrence.
