(47th Entry) the beginning of a new week…

Where to start… Actually we worked Saturday so that our employees could have Maundy Thursday as well as Good Friday off… or a four day weekend which ever you prefer to call it. Mary, my office manager, and I have had a difficult couple of weeks with a few of our employees and our grabado (glass carving) consultant, so we were hoping that this week might get better…

The problem and then the solution… one can only hope!

The two girls that know how to do the grabado the best and have been doing it for several months now continue to be a problem for Mary and their supervisor Juan (last paragraph of entry #43). They’re 16 and 18 and were heavily influenced by Gabrielle, the maestro of grabado, who just left. They’re from the campo, country-side, outside of San Miguel. They feel that anyone who is not better than them at grabado can not be their supervisor. Is this something that they actual feel or something that Gabrielle told them. This is one question. Or is it something else? It’s so difficult to know.

The easy way out might be to just fire them for insubordination. Of course then we lose what little production capacity we have until we find another maestro. One option is to outsource to Gabrielle now that he’s back in his home for a short time. Mary hates this idea because it rewards someone who didn’t fulfill there promise to us and showed us no respect.

My concern is… keeping the business going!

Today we announced that we were implementing a performance/incentive bonus. The main focus of the bonus, and the one item that could determine whether someone gets their bonus or not was respect… respecting their supervisor and respecting their fellow employees. As we told the employees about this new bonus we could see the expression on both of the girls faces. It was obvious to us that they knew why we were doing this. We were hoping this would make the difference and change the behavior, but…

At the end of the day they brought their production cards to Mary which should have gone to Juan. This gives me the impression that they didn’t “get it”! Or simply refuse!

I’ve been extremely frustrated since leaving work. I’m disappointed. As I’ve told Mary, part of the problem was our fault. We didn’t put the girls in an environment to be successful and to be taught good behaviors since this is their first job. I feel we need to do our part to rectify the situation, but at the same time it was apparent in the meeting yesterday that they know right from wrong. Ultimately they must decide what they are going to do.

I feel for Juan. After being made supervisor Gabrielle ignored him. He didn’t continue teaching him and even worse he took it out on Juan’s wife as well. He ignored her and didn’t work with her after that point.

We have a new employee who started last week named Juan Miguel… many, many people with the name Juan in Mexico. On his first day, Gabrielle said that it was as if he had been here three weeks. He has lots of potential. He came to us through a government organization that helps disabled individuals. He lost his last job because his manager didn’t like the fact that he was disabled… yes this can and does happen. He’s personable, educated and has great insight into people and problems. I’m excited about having him as an employee. His goal is to be able to do a whole glass by next Monday.

The bonus was to be the solution, but… if this doesn’t work then I’ll try another solution today. One interesting aspect of motivation… you can’t force people to do things against their will. We’ll either find something that works or… they’ll be gone!

Mary has wanted to let the two girls go for quite some time. Between Gabrielle and the two girls she has had an extremely difficult couple of months. She understands my concern for the business and supports me, but… At the same time she realizes the damage that these individuals have had on our existing employees. I thought I learned a long time ago in business… you can’t let anyone keep you hostage, but… It’s difficult and different when others are relying on you.

On Saturday we asked Juan Miguel if he thought any of the disrespect to Juan was due to Juan’s disability… He doesn’t know. None of us know. We do know that Gabrielle made the statement before leaving that “they”, disabled individuals, couldn’t produce as fast… this comment was made when I was talking about hiring more people. The interesting fact is that the maestro that we met in town, another person named Juan, sits down all day as he does his grabado work. Gabrielle made all of the machines and taught all of the people standing up. He said sitting down is not as efficient which would indicate that someone in a wheelchair, etc wouldn’t be as well.

In the last couple of weeks as Mary and I have been going through these growing pains we’ve found new resources and new hope. I’m just hoping whatever happens next; something good comes along to keep this dream going.