Being the Boss and my expectaions.

As some of you know and for those that don't I own my own business. I have a butcher shop that I bought last year and on certain days of the week I have 9 employees.

Now I as a person have expectations of people in general, I know this is where I start to go wrong in the first place. Now if I am paying somebody decent money for the job that they are doing I have even greater expectations. 2 of my employees I have set out guidelines of step by step jobs that they must learn/complete.

And they are doing them but not nearly to the level of focus I have and require of them. I get so mad that that are just cruising along in the day with out the desire to get it all done.

I think to myself should I talk to them as a person and explain to them my concept of life and not being lazy, always thinking ahead and planning to the best of my ability. Or just yell at them and tell them to work harder and forget the attempt to make them understand my brain.


/rant

Personally, I strongly suggest you talk to them and get them to understand what you expect. Otherwise how will they be able to appreciate what you are trying to do and be in sync with your goals and ambitions. They, as well as you, are part of a team, and if they are not playing the same game as you- then you will not get the results you want.

For me, in all the jobs Ive done, one of the things I felt has really helped me is knowing what the bosses wanted of me. Of being taken under their wing and made aware of their ideologies on why something has to be done a certain way.

There is nothing worse then being told to do something you don't relate to. And when you ask why, you're told not to argue and to "just do it!" Fine if you're working for Nike. But as an employee, it sort of feels like you dont count.

Has anyone ever been made to do something they had no understanding of? And didn't it suck when you wanted to know the point of doing it, and you were just yelled at?

Another thing you want to consider when looking at the motivation of all your employees, is morale in the workplace.

Im not suggesting you are a tyrant Restless as I dont know you. But as a boss who is unhappy with his workers performance it is one of the main factors for people just "cruising" along.

The places that run most efficiently are the ones with the happiest workers. Dissatisfied workers will do the job, sure. But they will do it in their own time and will not put in any extra effort, nor take pride in their work, sometimes even sabotage things where they can, to get back at an asshole boss.

I remember a job years ago. About ten of us were taken on to do some labouring. The first two weeks the foreman was away on holidays.

For those first two weeks we worked very well and put in 100 percent.

The first day the proper foreman came back, he was abusing people and calling them stupid, looking for mistakes, calling them lazy and yelling at them to "just do it!" without any explanation.

In the course of ONE single day morale went to zero and so did the work efforts.

It was a terrible job from that day on, and I along with the other nine employees never again put in 100 percent.

You have the unenviable task Restless, of having to know how to push others to do as you want, and how to get them to work how you want- without making them feel like slaves who will soon decide to just "cruise along."

The bosses that yelled at me and expected things from me without letting me see why, would guarantee that I would only do what I had to and no more.

And the bosses who I put in more effort and did things above and beyond the call of duty for, were bosses that took the time to explain things to me, to give me their views on why I should do what I needed to do, and actually treated me like an equal.

Perhaps the workers you refer to are different to me and you may never be able to get the productivity you want from them.

But try it. It may be you will break through in a way you didn't expect.

Either way, you will get average performance if you dont talk to them.

And if it doesn't work, you can always fall back on yelling at them to "just do it!"

Only this time you will feel more justified in doing so.

Maybe you could ask them individually what their expectations were of the job when they took it on and then discuss what yours were. Tell them where you are coming from. I have had two businesses (ok tiny ones) as a childminder in my own home I only have myself to motivate (and makesure I'm doing everything by the book for the OFSTED inspectors, when I ran my own baby and toddler music group I had to incorporate motivation into the planning so that my team knew how to get the best out of themselves for the good of the group so that everyone enjoyed the sessions. When the group was running at its best was when everyone was enjoying being part of a team, the staff were relaxed so our customers (the children and their parents) felt we were a really enjoyable group to be in and obviously that was when the business was at its best.

Write them a job description with tasks and procedures. If they don't follow the rules write them a counceling. If they don't do it again - fire them. Its just business.

I am a nurse and "the boss" often. I too have high expectations and consider doing a good job paramount. I try and convey my expectations without being a bitch, but sometimes that simply isn't possible, and usually being a bitch gets better results. Seize your inner bitch and deal with them!