Mike Andes talks about Debbie, a maintenance crew driver who gets fired and rehired repeatedly because she's the only one who can drive. Paid $25 an hour in cash, she sits in the truck for hours while the crew works, tanking morale and productivity.
Questions this video answers
About three times.
Paid in cash.
Around $25 per hour.
"Like 16" (speaker's phrasing).
Sitting in the truck for long periods (example given: about two hours) instead of helping with tasks.
Do you have an employee that you're like, oh, we totally trust them and be on a job site all day long.
So Debbie, my ex wife. Okay. I taught her, so she knows exactly what I want.
Right.
The work ethic's not there.
Got it. Oh, it's not there?
No, it's not.
And is she leading the maintenance crew?
Yeah.
Okay, that's.
That's part of the problem. And I think a lot of the guys were afraid to, like, if they thought she was lazy or wasn't doing what she's supposed to. They were afraid to approach me because I was gonna be mad, and I was like, I want you to tell me, like, you know, why is she still around? Because she can drive and she's here every day. She's been fired, like, three times, but we always bring her back because we're like, okay, we need to drive her. We need. She is here. But it's like, you know, Brandon was all frustrated because she was supposed to be helping him plow, and he's like, man, I might as well just be here myself. But she'll be like, oh, you know, my hernia popped out. I gotta sit in the truck. And she'll sit in the truck on that big property for like, two hours. But I would try to tell him, like, look, if you want her gone, learn to drive, learn the properties. Like, I mean, just. I can make it very simple, you know?
So is the only reason we're keeping her right now is that she can drive the maintenance crew. Okay, and what is she. She gets paid cash.
Yeah.
And around the same amount, 25 bucks an hour or so.
She's like 16.
Okay.
She's cheap. Okay. Okay.
So. Because from my perspective, I see a team member that is. Is demoralizing the rest of the crew. No one wants to work with her, so it's preventing you from keeping any good labor. They're not productive in terms making us money. And yes, they're cheap, but cheap. Like, a good employee can do five times the amount of revenue as. As like a pathetic employee that sits in the truckle.
