Mood: Excited 
Vaping: Vozol 12000 Puffs Peach Ice
Weather: 27°C, Cloudy
Location: Mont Fleuri, Mahe, Seychelles
Today is the 18th of December – the beginning of the Christmas rush and retailers in Seychelles are all feeling the difference, especially with shoppers running around trying to get their Christmas presents sorted. Our 2 employees have been busy since the shop opened this morning, and I hope this energy continues until we close this evening! It’s also my father’s birthday and honestly, I don’t even know how old he is. I think he might be 81 years old today.
12:27pm
I asked my father for an account so that I can send him some drinking money. He first said “next time” and then he asked me if Western Union is an option for us here in Seychelles. My parents are like 2 peas in a pod – they think they’re so different but talking to them is like talking to the same person. Once you’ve figured out someone’s love language, you’ve figured them out. I’m just digesting my lunch and then I’ll go to JPL Exchange at Eden Island where they have a Western Union branch.
Yesterday Employee #1 (the casual worker we promoted to employee) was having an argument with a customer. From what I heard on the security camera, the customer purchased an item the day before and they wanted to either do a modification to it or to exchange it for something that fits better. At our store, you get to try before you buy so we do have a ‘no exchanges’ policy. We did brief her a while back though, that my sister and I will make the decisions so even if we have policies in place, just get the customer to fill in the form and we will see what we can do to resolve the issue – the the decision was never hers to make. She decided to come up with an idiot story of how her bosses are abroad and will only be returning next month so we left her with the store and she makes all the decisions. She then proceeded to call the casual worker who was having her lunch break, and tell her – in front of the customers – that this is how you deal with unruly customers; that you have to put your food down.
I was livid! I initially told my sister to deal with this employee and she did it so chill that I had to text her again, letting her know that this behaviour was unacceptable. I then had to contact the casual worker, telling her that no, that is not the way to deal with customers – ever.
This morning I woke up and remembered that this employee told us prior to us hiring her that her previous boss “lives overseas” so she gave us her “supervisor’s” contact details in her reference. This employee clearly lies left, right, centre. I’m pretty sure her ex-boss lives here in Seychelles and that she was probably fired from her old job. Going back to the casual worker we had to fire last week, it was the same story – according to both of them, they left their previous workplace because they were having issues with the other employees there. But who in their right mind would leave a job without any other prospects? They were clearly fired. Now, it’s Christmas season and there is nothing we can do but to deal with this employee, but it is obvious she is not cut out to be a customer sales rep. She has an attitude problem that shines through and it is affecting our sales. We were doing GREAT before she started. It’s just too much of a coincidence that our sales dropped as soon as we employed her. Now that we are constantly monitoring her on the security camera, we can see issues all the time. There is a reason why we had to stop monitoring it too much – there’s always an issue with her. Earlier, Employee 1 called the Employee 2 (the casual worker) inside during the younger girl’s lunch break so that she (E1) could go to the toilet. This happened as soon as E2’s lunchbreak started. How fair is this? She is treating E2 like some kind of slave. E1 has got to go. It won’t happen this month but it’s going to happen eventually.
I realized E1 understand things differently, like if I say “we work as a team” she assumes that there is no leader in a team, when everyone else knows every team has a leader. When I say something like “E2 will assist you” she hears “do whatever you like and get E2 to fill in whenever you need her to” when what I meant was that E2 will assist in the shop.
The casual worker E2 is a shining star at the store right now, she greets customers when they walk in, she provides assistance to the customers when they require it and from day 1 she was already cashiering. She doesn’t spend all day gossiping or chatting with E1. Instead, she walks around reading and learning about our items and she is also seen cleaning. Yes, people generally give it their best when the first start working but let’s not forget the casual worker we had last week with 4 years cashiering experience, that one was DOA. E2 is expected to start A levels soon and in Seychelles it’s pretty obvious that if you want any chance of a good employee, you have to start at A levels and nothing below that. Why waste your time and money on truant staff that just lies all the time and come up with excuses? Not to mention they seem to always come with an attitude problem. If budget permits, collect CVs and omit anybody who didn’t go through A levels, period. Unless you enjoy the drama that comes with employing adults who act like children with behavioral issues.
It’s already 1pm so if you’ll excuse me, I have to go send my father some dosh and buy my cats some treats.