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So employee shows up for the 4:00 meeting yesterday looking way too smug. We found out later in the day that he had already told two other project managers that he was getting a raise.
Chris ushers him into his office and because he knows that he can either leave the intercom on or be forced to recreate the entire thing for me later, he leaves the intercom on so that I can hear.
Chris explains that while we value his efforts, with the entire industry pretty much is disarray, that there is no way he can give him a raise. Employee basically says that if you can't give me 20%, then what's your offer. Chris says there isn't going to be an offer and actually we can't keep him on knowing that he'll be looking for other work; that there is no way that Chris can expect that his bid and work leads will be held confidential, and here's your severance check. Stunned silence ensued, followed by much fumbling for words. He said he thought we were overreacting and Chris pretty much told him that he doesn't cotton to ultimatums. (Yes, he actually used the word 'cotton') We'd be happy to give him a good reference unless we heard through the grapevine that he was claiming that we had let him go because of lack of work; if he said that, there'd be no recommendation. A rumor like that is death in construction because people don't trust you to be around to finish their project or to be there through the warranty period.
Anyway, no loud words until Chris asked for his keys and gas and company credit cards, at which point the F word flew around a bunch and he tried to claim he didn't have them with him. Didn't matter anyway since I had cancelled his authorization to charge on them before he even came in.
So we have our first officially disgruntled former employee, and a very bored laborer who is going to sit around the office for the rest of the week on the off-chance that Employee comes back with an attitude.
Chris ushers him into his office and because he knows that he can either leave the intercom on or be forced to recreate the entire thing for me later, he leaves the intercom on so that I can hear.
Chris explains that while we value his efforts, with the entire industry pretty much is disarray, that there is no way he can give him a raise. Employee basically says that if you can't give me 20%, then what's your offer. Chris says there isn't going to be an offer and actually we can't keep him on knowing that he'll be looking for other work; that there is no way that Chris can expect that his bid and work leads will be held confidential, and here's your severance check. Stunned silence ensued, followed by much fumbling for words. He said he thought we were overreacting and Chris pretty much told him that he doesn't cotton to ultimatums. (Yes, he actually used the word 'cotton') We'd be happy to give him a good reference unless we heard through the grapevine that he was claiming that we had let him go because of lack of work; if he said that, there'd be no recommendation. A rumor like that is death in construction because people don't trust you to be around to finish their project or to be there through the warranty period.
Anyway, no loud words until Chris asked for his keys and gas and company credit cards, at which point the F word flew around a bunch and he tried to claim he didn't have them with him. Didn't matter anyway since I had cancelled his authorization to charge on them before he even came in.
So we have our first officially disgruntled former employee, and a very bored laborer who is going to sit around the office for the rest of the week on the off-chance that Employee comes back with an attitude.
