Reply to Small business owner - Found an employee watching videos on her phone. WWYD?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Adding a note, we have a daily checklist. When you await a customer, you are supposed to clean the facility, follow up with other customers, review inventory, etc. So there is a significant amount of work which can be done. The reason why I pose this question is because it is a low paying job ($12 per hour). I should have asked whether it's a norm for low wage workers to constantly spend their time on the phone. [/quote]

That sounds like busy work.[/quote]

not the OP.  but yes its busy work...  as a small business owner, there is (should be) a certain expectation that when you are at work, you are  AT WORK.  which means, doing work.  even if its dusting your cart, doing inventory of your tools, organizing your work area.  ect.

IE there is always work to do.    a quick call here, or an email check there  isn't a big deal.  but if you think about 5 minutes a day, x200 days  is 1000 minutes or 16 hours.  or 2 work days.

lets say they take 5 of these "text" breaks every day ends up 83 hours or two weeks.

its very easy to see how "its only a few minutes"  becomes real money and real time and real losses.

now if the OP doesn't have something in place to account for the down time (call it busy work)  then its on the OP.  but if there is a task list for things to be done during "down time"  then the OP has thought it through.

I would not terminate someone for the first time it happened.  I'd first make a general chat/reminder to the entire staff and maybe even post a memo that during down time, there are thing to do, post the list and remind the staff that personal electronic devices need to be reserved for use during break times and that abuse of the policy can result in disciplinary actions. [/quote]

But this is the nature of a retail job. There are ebbs and flows of customers, so it is very possible that all the other work really is done.

One summer, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant at the beach. Obviously, lunch shifts were EXTREMELY slow. Sure, we could clean the windows or wipe the menus or straighten up the t-shirt cabinet, but... that doesn't take that long. And we weren't allowed to use our phones, so I would just stand there doing nothing. It was PAINFUL. It's common for managers to say "there's always something that can be done!" but truly, there probably isn't. Because the little busy work doesn't take that long, and any larger projects probably can't realistically be done because there is a chance a customer will show up... that's the point of paying them to be there. Their priority is to handle customers, and neither of you can control what that flow looks like. [/quote]

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