An email from an employee who quit after 10 days

This email is broken down with my responses. Maybe I'm wrong but someone has to help these people.



No disrespect intended,

Of course non taken.

but Ryan has terrible delivery when speaking to people...

If you will recall, there were several gentle delivery attempts to assist you, by not only me, but Lesley and your fellow team mates about your misinterpretation of job expectation and performance.   It is much easier to shift blame on others when one is in the wrong, than take accountability for ones actions and responsibilities.


communication is key, and if you can't have clear concise communication between the boss and his employess in a respectable manner,

I agree 100%. I can see you failed to read our most important Clear Concise Communication delivery  device. We refer to it as our Employee manual. You see it's important to us that our employees know exactly what we expect from them, we took the labored task to compile a list of Clear Concise Communication expectation into a manual so no one, even someone who chooses not to read it would not have an excuse to mislead themselves.


no one Will stay with the company long due to lack of respect for the individu


As far as your wishes for our continued success. I appreciate your concern for our future success for many years to come. You see I choose to surround not only myself, but our employees with individuals who wish to take accountability for their own actions and job performance. Therefore, it is with deep gratitude, I applaud you for removing yourself from further obstruction to our committed team members.  

My hope for you, is that you use this experience as personal growth development for your career path.  I would never wish poor success on any individual. But a positive personal learning experience that can potentially thrust you into years of success in what ever position or career you pursue moving forward.


Providing clean threads,

Ryan J. Strickland
All Pro Carpet Care

Ryan, I'd love to understand this, but......

Maybe it's just my slow, old age?
But I think if you Made your responses/text a different color other then black, it would make it much easier to understand, for old slow guys like me at least.   .....it's easy to do, even just by "editing" your post, by simply highlighting your test, and then clicking the lil colored squares icon thats between the the "blue A's" icons and picking another text color.   

I can tell just by reading this that it is ABSOLUTELY not your loss Ryan, employee like this will hold you down from potential growth of your company, I've had one that went from absolute disbelief that I'm letting him go to breaking down in tears hoping I would change my mind, I told him that I'd think about it and I was being genuine about it until he told me that what's there to think about, either give me another chance or let me go, it's a simple decision and I was like ok, I'll have to let you go, that's my decision, that night he called my cell and left me a message and he cried again in his voice message, I don't feel the need to return his phone call cause I'm done with drama, I've had enough drama once a month at home with my wife, lol   

We all have employees that didn't fit and end up moving on by their own decision or with the decision being made by us. What I find interesting to me is that this employee chose to send an email 10 days after departure.

I would seriously consider sitting down with this guy just to satisfy that curiousity. It wasn't the classic response and it sounded like he at least "believes" that he sees a flaw in the business practices. Most of my formers just give me the finger and tell me I'm a jerk...not many send an email suggesting how to improve my business.

Maybe he is just a fool realizing that there aren't a lot of good jobs out there after 10 days of reading the want ads and a meeting would end up being useless. Then again, there is a chance that you can learn something from it as well as him. I would make the offer....

This email is broken down with my responses. Maybe I'm wrong but someone has to help these people.



No disrespect intended, <<< employee

Of course non taken. <<< Ryan

but Ryan has terrible delivery when speaking to people... <<< employee

If you will recall, there were several gentle delivery attempts to assist you, by not only me, but Lesley and your fellow team mates about your misinterpretation of job expectation and performance.   It is much easier to shift blame on others when one is in the wrong, than take accountability for ones actions and responsibilities. <<< Ryan


communication is key, and if you can't have clear concise communication between the boss and his employess in a respectable manner, <<< employee

I agree 100%. I can see you failed to read our most important Clear Concise Communication delivery  device. We refer to it as our Employee manual. You see it's important to us that our employees know exactly what we expect from them, we took the labored task to compile a list of Clear Concise Communication expectation into a manual so no one, even someone who chooses not to read it would not have an excuse to mislead themselves. <<< Ryan


no one Will stay with the company long due to lack of respect for the individual <<< employee


As far as your wishes for our continued success. I appreciate your concern for our future success for many years to come. You see I choose to surround not only myself, but our employees with individuals who wish to take accountability for their own actions and job performance. Therefore, it is with deep gratitude, I applaud you for removing yourself from further obstruction to our committed team members.   <<< Ryan

My hope for you, is that you use this experience as personal growth development for your career path.  I would never wish poor success on any individual. But a positive personal learning experience that can potentially thrust you into years of success in what ever position or career you pursue moving forward. <<< Ryan


Providing clean threads,

Ryan J. Strickland
All Pro Carpet Care

Ryan please correct me if I'm wrong, lol.

That helps, DP. Thanks!

Now dammit phone start ringing again!!!..........I'm tired of this Apr tax time $hit slow down!!   Sorry, i got a lil off topic there!   

Davey Cracker wrote:That helps, DP. Thanks!

Now dammit phone start ringing again!!!..........I'm tired of this Apr tax time $hit slow down!!   Sorry, i got a lil off topic there!   

Lol hijacker!!!!

Rob,

That's what's absurd! This person only worked for us for 10 days and we had nothing but problems. But, they feel they have to beneficial information to help us succeed in management.

This was their response to an email Lesley sent following up after they quit by telling another employee, not the mgmt.

This is the response to my email.




Thank you Ryan for your nasty response back to my email. This job opportunity, was never intended to be apart of my career path, instead just something for me to do to pass time until a career opportunity presented itself in the medical field. Since God! has once again given me favor, that took place for me on friday. I didn't talk trash on you sir or the success of your company, but please be mindful of how you speak to people because you never know who your speaking to. When people piss me off, I don't get revenge, I take it to God. He can and will fix all things including you! I will always be successful, because God is the head of my life. Not man... you should try God out, maybe he will fix your poor attitude and guide your demonic, hateful tongue.

I always used to hate it when people used the "R" word. RESPECT. Unless your a mafia Don, don't use that word. You just sound desperate to be treated like your really important when you have done nothing to prove your worth.

This guy has some nerve. I think he took the job and just couldn't handle the work and in order to justify his departure he shifted the blame on you.

Ryan S wrote:This is the response to my email.




Thank you Ryan for your nasty response back to my email. This job opportunity, was never intended to be apart of my career path, instead just something for me to do to pass time until a career opportunity presented itself in the medical field. Since God! has once again given me favor, that took place for me on friday. I didn't talk trash on you sir or the success of your company, but please be mindful of how you speak to people because you never know who your speaking to. When people piss me off, I don't get revenge,  I take it to God. He can and will fix all things including you! I will always be successful,  because God is the head of my life. Not man... you should try God out, maybe he will fix your poor attitude and guide your demonic, hateful tongue.

Well that settles that then. I hired a guy 2 years ago that needed to make some extra income due to his child's medical issues. Seemed like a nice guy and he was a roofer by trade, so he understood hard work, but it went sour fast. After 2 weeks, he told me that I needed to stop bothering him and just let him make some money. Same kind of response you had, he took the job just to make some money, he didn't care about cleaning nor about the success of the company, so he found my directions to be disrespectful and too bossy.

I think you ran into the same guy. You wanted what is best for the business, he just wanted a temp job until he found something more towards his goals....it was never going to work. What he fails to realize is that work ethic has nothing to do with the type of job. I don't care if you are digging ditches or running Ford, a person's work ethic should be the same. It is a reflection on a person's character and a big one in my opinion.

The best employee I ever had was discovered standing on the highway holding a Slow/Stop sign during a 100 degree summer week. Despite being a rough job, this guy would smile and greet the motorists all day long. He had an infectious attitude and was a joy to work with until he moved on to greater things. Your guy has a lot to learn and reality will be a harsh teacher.

The part that bothers me the most about this is the hypocrisy of this guy, he mentioned that God leads his life but show absolutely nothing of that, as a matter of fact it shows the opposite by pointing fingers at your attitude and tongue, I can't stand hypocrites !

As much as I would usually like some help on jobs, this kind of thing reminds me of why I work alone (except on really big jobs when I hire my overpriced lol O/O buddy) for back up......what worries me is, as I get older I'm going to REALLY need help, but what then?   

Major respect to you guys with employees, and your ability to make that work.    

Davey Cracker wrote:As much as I would usually like some help on jobs, this kind of thing reminds me of why I work alone (except on really big jobs when I hire my overpriced lol O/O buddy) for back up......what worries me is, as I get older I'm going to REALLY need help, but what then?   

Major respect to you guys with employees, and your ability to make that work.    

If I were to go the solo route Dave, as I got older, my price would increase to lower work load and sustain profit margin. Once you find the happy medium of say two jobs a day at the higher cost. You do two things. Reduce wear and tear on you body and retain you most valued customers. I'm sure this route would be scary to start but if you stick to the plan once it's implemented and sustainable you'll have a much more happy life.

Lol had to hijack my thread just to see what the fun of it is all about.

Back to topic.

I started this thread topic not to air out my laundry but to expose something about our labor force today.

I feel what has happened is about 25 years ago as we all were going up our parents, teachers, and friends would say something we all are to familiar with. "You can do anything or be anything you want in life". Albeit a wonderful form of encouragement, this statement lacks some important values. The most important is this statement, when taken at self value, has no bearing on authority. In today's American culture it's about "self". The idea that everyone must conform to "my" way of doing things is detrimental ones success in life, regardless of what one Pursues.

This is a mind set issue, where the "thinking" of one individual is the decay to personal accountability and submitting to those in authority around them.

This person choose to make a stand on our company working around their ideas or life style.

Instead of "thinking" I must work within the boundaries set fourth by those in authority of the organization. This form of "Thinking" contrary to popular beliefs, is actually liberating in so many forms.

So if you are contemplating adding employees to your work force. Go for it!!!! You can archive success with good valued people. But know that "self conformity" is what defines today's labor force. Never settle for mediocrity, NEVER!! It can be done.

We tend to see the world (our perception) as we choose to see it.

The statement you can be or do anything, is a fairy tale like Santa Clause. Opportunity and intelligence control that, as well as a bit of luck mixed in....

While I applaud the younger generation for getting what is theirs (what they earn), I also applaud good old fashioned hard work.

It is of my opinion, that there are TWO sides to every coin, and enough blame to go both ways.

One big problem with "it used to be..." is that it never earned the worker anything OTHER than eking by and just making it. Afterall, if it was NOT for the hard working and dedicated employees, no business could succeed. We can't blame workers for "being greedy" when the employer wants to make money off the workers sweat and toil too. Who is greedy? Greed is not so black and white to define, right?

What has the years of back breaking work done for former generations, other than leave them broken bodied and broken financially?

I see both sides of the point, and I have my own opinions of things. I don't look down my nose at either side. But in order to realize how to work with the situation, you need to step outside of self and see it from both sides.

Your labor and health are not an infinite source. They have limits. How much is a year of your life worth? Can you truly put a value on it?

The kids email may have been a little snarky, but so was the reply IMO.

As a side note, the attitude is not just confined to the ME generation, just look around. Most people young or old have this attitude.

P.S., that post was not meant as a dig to anyone. Just my two cents.

The only people I have had to hire are relatives so I have no idea what it's like to have employees off the street.

Joe "Carpet Daddy" how do you keep your employees happy and working towards the companies best interest. You seem to have a handle on that.

I know DP pays them well but I wonder what else is involved.

For me, hire young and pay well enough to earn some loyalty. All their buddies are making minimum wage they got a sweet job riding around town all day getting $12-15 an hour. Stay on them, train them well, keep them in the dark about anything business oriented. Hopefully you get a few years out of em. Start again.

My point exactly Freemind. It's not a specific generation it is the "thinking" of individuals that causes this set back.

I was there once too. It took being fired for me to realize my "thinking" was wrong. I blamed no one but myself. I looked deep inside me, my thinking, which lead to my decision making, which lead to why I was fired. I shifted blame to no one but Me.

I'm not nessasarily validated my actions, in this case is had enough of being blamed for people failures to succeed, so I responded with the Truth.

Our thinking, affects our decisions, our decisions affect our actions, which in turn affects the out come of our thought process, which ultimatly affect our culture, which affects our society.

Ryan, you must have been wearing some pretty big rose colored glasses when you hired this guy   

Mo, I pay my guys too much $675/wk. If they ask for a day off here and there, I give it to them no questions asked. I know what they can accomplish in a day so I might challenge them occasionally, but don't give them more then they can handle. Paid vacation, paid sick days, paid holidays - Christmas, Thanksgiving, & Easter. No overnight work and a maximum of every other Saturday. When we get good comments from a customer I let them all know. When we get a bad comment or redo, I let them all know and we use it as a learning experience. They know I work at least as hard as they do.

Hey Joe, are you running a van too?

sooner or latter we are all training our future competition. With nothing more to look forward to as a carpet cleaning tech in a family owned business or owner operated.

Carpet cleaning tech is a dead end job but good for a couple of years for a young and hungry guy or gal.

Not a bad gig for some one retired either where it is not a sole income.

Mo wrote:The only people I have had to hire are relatives so I have no idea what it's like to have employees off the street.

Joe "Carpet Daddy" how do you keep your employees happy and working towards the companies best interest. You seem to have a handle on that.

I know DP pays them well but I wonder what else is involved.

What else is involved ? Hmmm pre hired expectations and responsibilities, that has to be cleared, they need to understand that they're on a very TIGHT leash when it comes to their responsibilities, my job is to pay them, I do it well and I do it on time, their job is to do what I want them to do, do it well and do it on timely manner as well, as long as these are understood, most likely there will be no issues, I will listen to their suggestions however the decision is mine to make. The list has a few more things, like honesty and respect, etc.

James, I agree there's both sides to the story however when I read the email, I can tell that the employee didn't have a clue about respect, and that's bad, if they don't respect their pay check signer, they won't respect anyone, including the customer, Ryan's reply may be on the feisty side but I don't blame him, he's the boss, you wouldn't wanna see my reply to his email, lol.

Joe Gaito, hats off to you sir, you pay them very well, hopefully it works out best for you :-)