Star performer or troubled employee?
Posted on Tue, Feb 09, 2010
Last week I spoke at the equestrian show outside of Philadelphia. The attendees sell both English and Western equipment for the professional and recreational horseback rider, often referred to as tack stores. This is a group of very sophisticated retailers and I always enjoyed returning to this industry.
My seminars were both breakfast meetings from 7:30 AM to 9 AM. Because of that schedule, I had plenty of time after my presentations to hang around to answer questions and just talk to retailers. I had one very interesting husband and wife team who had been long time subscribers to my newsletter. This probably made them feel comfortable enough to share an interesting dilemma. They did ask to remain anonymous but thought the situation would be the type that my readers might like to respond to. They were also curious about your reaction and wondered if anyone else had ever experienced what they were going through. Here it is:
They've had an employee, whom I will refer to as Amy, who has worked for them for 15 years. They described her as "perfect in almost every way". Three years ago, they had an opportunity to buy a second store, an existing business that was once a leader in the field. It was now was a declining business only because the owner who was dying of cancer. That owner made them an unbelievable deal that they just couldn't pass up. However they realized the business needed some tender loving care and nurturing.
Amy was a single mom and was always looking for any opportunity to work extra on new projects at home because she needed the money. The owners felt that Amy was more than capable of managing this store and would appreciate the extra income it would bring. Amy was delighted with the challenge and of course the money and proceeded to do nothing short of a sensational job. The store looked better than when the owners were running it. The employees' morale was higher than ever before yet the payroll costs were down a couple of percent. The remarkable thing about it was that store's sales for the 2+ years that Amy was the manager averaged over an 18% increase.
If you think that I'm going to tell you that Amy was caught stealing, you're wrong. On the contrary, shrinkage actually improved. They jokingly said the only problem was Amy was actually a better manager than they were. Amy made them a lot of money and they couldn't do enough for her.
So what could be wrong with this situation? You are probably thinking that Amy was planning to open up her own business and compete with them. Wrong! That is the last thing she would ever want to do. She loved the arrangement. So what could be wrong? The owners, which I will refer to as Bob and Sue, would constantly try to show their appreciation for what Amy had done by buying her and her children gifts. They even put an extra $50 or $100 bill in her paycheck at least once a month.
Amy's husband had left her without much money and never gave any money to support the children. Yes, the courts look at him as a deadbeat dad, but he was nowhere to be found and had no contact with the children for years. It was as if he died without life insurance. So you would think that Amy would really appreciate all the little things Bob and Sue would do for her. And she did appreciate it but she never or rarely ever demonstrated that appreciation. In short, she hardly ever said thank you and never wrote any kind of thank you note. It was as if she just expected it or didn't care about the effort Bob and Sue would make. As they described it, it was weird.
Then to make matters worse, Bob and Sue wanted Amy to be aware of everything that was going on in the store and shared all of the plans they had. But Amy was always nice and polite about it. She never had much to contribute other than the cursory, "nice job" or "that's good".
I know this sounds strange but it all came to a head in January. In December, Amy's store did exceptionally well-- not only saleswise but it was profitable as well. On top of a regular Christmas bonus, in late January, Bob and Sue gave Amy an envelope that had five $100 bills in it with a note that said GREAT JOB! Sue NEVER said a word about it. But she continued to work as if nothing ever happened.
Then they asked Amy her opinion on an article Sue had written in the newsletter. She never responded at all. The story was about Amy and her family and how she was a remarkable woman and what she meant to the business. After a week, they asked her what she thought of the article and she told them that she thought it was very nice. But no thank you.
These storeowners are sadly and deeply hurt but just don't know what to say or do. They don't want to lose a great employee but they just want a little recognition.
Any suggestions? Please let us know. Just click here to send an email with your ideas to me. I will share my opinion next week as well. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
