Nightmare employees: some scary stories from boomer business owners

Being in business is scary. And one of the scariest things about being in business is having to deal with scary employees…Nightmare employees. Not that they run around like Freddy or Jason (I can never keep those two straight), but they cause you nightmares.

For example (true stories):

• The young woman who had her mother write a note for her “excusing her” from working a business event
• The young woman who showed up for her interview with her mother in tow
• The father who berated the business owner for giving his daughter a poor evaluation, because it “damaged her self-esteem”
• The woman who showed up for work at a health care office smelling like smoke, and who said she was “into” health (whatever that means).

You get the idea. Got any nightmare employee tales to share?

Over the next week or so, I’m going to be discussing ways to avoid hiring nightmare employees, how to find excellent people to work for you in your boomer business, and how to let the scary ones go quickly and (relatively) painlessly.

I hope you’ll find something useful in these posts. As Red Green says, “I’m pulling for you. We’re all in this together.”

Don’t forget my “50 things to do at 50-something” contest - comment and put yourself in the running for a $30 book gift certificate. Final comments must be posted by June 20.