torturing bad employees

[treeman82]

Somebody I used to know would never fire an employee. He'd simply put them on a pricker bush clearing job until they quit on their own.

Today I was forced to pick up a day laborer by a friend for a few jobs. The day laborer pissed me off to no end today, between whining about lunch, not doing a complete job, and of course... spilling a half gallon of bio bar and chain oil all over my gear at the end of the day. So at 4:30 I took him back to my house and made him pull weeds, vines, and pricker bushes for well over an hour with no gloves, clippers, or anything else.... all the while yelling at him to move faster, and to do a better job. I dropped him off in the afternoon with a highly reduced pay relative to what other day laborers get. If it had been raining I would have been even happier.

A number of years ago one of my guys was being really stupid and careless... so I made him load some good sized sugar maple logs into the back of the dump truck by himself... giving the rest of the crew orders not to help.


Any thoughts on other ways to torture a temp employee that is legal?

 

[reachtreeservi]

Sounds like we could make him work for you.... LOL

 

[JeffL]

Have 2 people constantly give him conflicting orders on what to do; and have the guys alternately yell at him for not doing what they told him to. opcorn:

 

[sloth9669]

lunch

just take a :censored: in his lunch box.....if he does not get the point i dont know what would.

 

[SustainableTree]

Take the chip truck to the dump site and tell him the hoist is broke and hand em' a pitchfork!

 

[JeffL]

Take the chip truck to the dump site and tell him the hoist is broke and hand em' a pitchfork!

Pffft, thats nothing. How do you think we unload mulch from the dump trucks and put it into wheel barrows?

 

[Tree Machine]

I know a good way.... take em to your house and torture them. That way they know where you live so they can come back with their lowlife, drunk buddies one night on down the road and pay you back properly by stealing your stuff, like your wife's car or, well, it seems that now he knows what gear you own and where you park your rig at night.


Yea. Torture him. Piss him off good. Make him want to return the favor double time. Abused workers have a way of not forgetting.

Ever heard the word Karma?

I'm just bustin your balls, 82. I care enough about you to brief you in basic human psychology.

I have experience in this arena because I'm a real prick to work with, just like you. Intolerant, impatient, and perfectionistic. I expect workers to actually work, use common sense & to be careful and look out for their own safety. See, I set myself up for failure. I go in with unrealistic expectations. All he has to do is pick up sticks, stack and drag brush piles and run the blower. But that's really, truly a lot to ask.


So he's coming off a meth binge and just needs to make rent so he doesn't get evicted. He's feeling pressure, not quite altogether there. You might as well treat him like total dirt and shatter any self esteem he has left, right?
Only if you want this fellow human to leave thinking in terms of revenge.

Are we getting the point?

Like, for instance, that client lady who blatantly ripped you off 4 years ago and you still think in terms of taking gasoline and spelling B-I-T-C-H on her front lawn some night.....

Are we getting the point?


Basic human psychology. What may seem like a big joke to you at the end of the day, the guy on the other end might feel humiliated, shamed, abused, hurt and disrespected. Three days from now you forget all about it, but he's planning on how he's gonna bust out the windows in your tree truck.

Are we getting the point? It's a rather important lesson. It's much easier, I would think, to learn from this rant, rather than, say, taking a bullet in the gut some night just so loser boy can feel some loser sense of vindication.

Ya know how some people just hold a grudge....? Ya never know who they are and you never know when it's payback time.

You're getting this treeman82, aren't you?



OK, so who else has ways in which they torture employees into quitting?
Anybody....?

 

[Tree Machine]

I do!

 

[Tree Machine]

Go ahead, Tree Machine.

 

[Tree Machine]

At the end of the day, find ONE positive aspect. You may have to dig hard.
Spotlight this one aspect and suggest another job in which this person's one and only good trait might fit a particular job. Send him off with something positive. Either way, he's fired.

Stirring bad energy into your life and job...... it's just something to think about. You take it from here.

 

[serial killer]

Be a man and fire the guy. A little bit of torture is ok if you have an employee who shows potential but either needs to step up to another level or improve his work ethic or for disciplinary reasons. If he has any sense to him, he'll realize why he's getting the crap job and what he needs to do to avoid that kind of treatment in the future. But torturing a guy just to make him quit is not just a #### move, but a waste of everybody's time. If you run a business, hiring and firing is one of your most important responsibilities. It may be the most difficult part of your job, but you've got to be able to do it if you want to be successful.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

i worked for a guy that was into torturing people. sometimes even for fun.

last time i heard he had his climbing gear stolen a couple times a month, several flats and busted windows, and recently died of a coke overdose.....

did someone say something about karma?

perhaps a straight forward "sorry man, but your just not cut out for this" would suffice?

 

[deeker]

I, too once worked for a guy that used "torture" the employee tactics.
Only for a couple of days. He now is a competitor of mine. And not doing very good at it. Drove his help away with his customers.

I would have just fired the guy.

Kevin

 

[ClimbinArbor]

Have 2 people constantly give him conflicting orders on what to do; and have the guys alternately yell at him for not doing what they told him to. opcorn:

i like that tho lol

 

[clearance]

i worked for a guy that was into torturing people. sometimes even for fun.

last time i heard he had his climbing gear stolen a couple times a month, several flats and busted windows, and recently died of a coke overdose.....

did someone say something about karma?

perhaps a straight forward "sorry man, but your just not cut out for this" would suffice?

I agree with ClimbinArbor, very much. You did this to a guy you had only met that day? I could see doing it to someone who had pizzed you off and you were a fellow employee but could not fire them. You pull that on some people and you will get a bar wrench in the neck. Be a man.

 

[ropensaddle]

I gave one guy a retirement party after his one day! If they ain't worth
squat I got not time to raise them. If they have promise I will encourage
growth and teach them but I guess you could call that torture
I don't have time to play games on men by torturing or belittling them.
That is reserved for the ones that have gumption and they are free to
give it back a little **** or riving keeps it fun.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

If they have promise I will encourage
growth and teach them but I guess you could call that torture

AYE there it is boys and girls!

the true torture is not for the one timers. its the ones that stay in that get the torture! working in the sticky clay mud, pulling brush, while its raining. climbing snow covered trees, in the rain. lifting half ton logs with 3 guys and a big green dolly, in the rain. abusing your body to no ends for your fix of sawdust.... in the rain. lol

so why the torture?
it isnt torture to us.

we love it. if we didnt we wouldnt be here. and neither would they.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

This is an interesting thread.

I'm guilty...I guess. I've picked up the pace and applied a little pressure before to persuade those not really up to the task for one reason or another.

We call it 'make em or break em.'

But as one very shrewd observer pointed out...the true torture is all around us for the taking.

Case in point: This past spring I had two brand spanking new greenhorns after the two inferiors I had prior walked off the job in the same week. (I picked up the pace, after they refused to progress)

So I'm looking at 3 single phase spans of solid thorny locusts that had taken over a fence row. Man comes out of the cabin and asks to have them removed. Now, I could have easily said no and just trimmed them, but instead smiled and called my contact at the electric company to get the nod.

You should have seen the looks on their faces. Shear torture to some, shear pleasure for a termite trapped inside a man's body. We had so much fun at the ole chuck and duck. I think I really sent them over the edge when I picked a solid six incher out of my skull.

Generally, I use a proven technique that doesn't put a scratch on me, but sometime you just have to get in there and make it happen.

Fencerow looks nice, and now there are just two of us. But I've got a good, proven man out of the deal and one on the way, so it works.

No yelling, screaming, fussing, and no games. Just good ole fashion, straightforward hardwork. I'll give them the knowledge and encouragement, but they need to supply the heart. That is something I can't give, nor teach. A taste for blood, sweat, and saw chips doesn't hurt none either.

Another observation.

When a newbie complains about getting a little whip at the chipper I just remind him to remember all the things he got away with as a kid.

"Take your whippings ya had coming to ya boy. LOL!"

If they laugh and keep chipping I get to keep em for awhile, if they don't laugh they generally don't make it. opcorn:

I could say more but I have a 6am appointment to groundpound a backwoods row. Good fun.

 

[tree MDS]

Somebody I used to know would never fire an employee. He'd simply put them on a pricker bush clearing job until they quit on their own.

Today I was forced to pick up a day laborer by a friend for a few jobs. The day laborer pissed me off to no end today, between whining about lunch, not doing a complete job, and of course... spilling a half gallon of bio bar and chain oil all over my gear at the end of the day. So at 4:30 I took him back to my house and made him pull weeds, vines, and pricker bushes for well over an hour with no gloves, clippers, or anything else.... all the while yelling at him to move faster, and to do a better job. I dropped him off in the afternoon with a highly reduced pay relative to what other day laborers get. If it had been raining I would have been even happier.

A number of years ago one of my guys was being really stupid and careless... so I made him load some good sized sugar maple logs into the back of the dump truck by himself... giving the rest of the crew orders not to help.


Any thoughts on other ways to torture a temp employee that is legal?

Dude, you are my new hero.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

I have to believe this thread is just for "fun." If an employee is not doing the job, for whatever reason, I simply tell him that it doesn't seem to be working out for us, and he will be much happier in another line of work and/or working for someone else. I have never had an uncomfortable termination, that way. I cannot see anything to be gained by "torturing" an employee, new, old or otherwise. As others have said, what goes around, comes around.