Ray

Joel, we’re back, and we’re talking about dumb things. Now, forgive me, folks. Not dumb things in that cleaning is dumb, but every now and then, you just run into a, “What happened?”

 

Joel

Think of about 100 exclamation points dumb.

 

Ray

Maybe a couple of colorful expletives. I know, in the course of your consulting business, you talk with a lot of business owners, small and large, and every now and then, you get one of these.

 

Joel

We get some interesting stories about, “How do I deal with this?”

 

Ray

Okay, so What do you have on the, “I’m dealing with dumb today”?

 

Joel

This is an interesting story because, this person definitely knew better. A supervisor had put in their notice. It’s their last day of work. Okay. Do you expect a supervisor that has a lot of extra training and has to enforce rules and all that to do something really crazy on their last day?

 

Ray

On their last day, I might think it was going to take a little longer because they’re sandbagging it, but that’s about what I would expect.

 

Joel

They’re not really sandbagging on the last day most of the time. They went out early. They’re turning the keys and things. But no, in this case, this supervisor, it was their last day. This particular client had a high-profile client. They were very excited about the account, and they were excited that they managed the account, supervised the account. The first thing that they broke was the protocol of not letting people into the workspace, into that building. Okay. What happened? This individual decided on their last day they wanted to show off this elegant client to their children.

 

Ray

Are we talking like their teenage children?

 

Joel

Teenage. Teenage level. (So, we’re NOT talking like babies.) Not babies. But still in a facility that has high level of security and sign offs about not letting unauthorized people, unbadged people, people that just knock on the door, things like that. So you should never bring your children in.

 

Ray

Can I assume they have security?

 

Joel

They definitely had because there were still shots of the individual.

 

But I don’t know if they were at the doors or whatever. I don’t know all that intricate detail. But this individual definitely brought people into the building, that were unauthorized, that were not allowed to be there, that hadn’t gone through the safety training prior to entering the building. And remembering that this supervisor actually had to enforce all these rules. And on several occasions had written up and terminated individuals previously for conduct. (So, they really knew the rules.) They really knew the rules. That was the first thing they did. So, they broke that safety protocol. The next thing they did was they realized that the badge that they were given was like an all-access badge that could get anywhere into the facility. And I don’t want to blame a client’s client, “Hey, you shouldn’t have had it like that”. Because you can alter those things with the way that electronics work today, and you can lock certain badges out of areas that people shouldn’t be in. But unfortunately, this was an all-access badge. And this This person went into areas that people weren’t supposed to enter without certain kinds of training, as well as gowns and things like that that they should have had on in these areas.

 

Joel

They just went in with their street clothes.

 

Ray

It’s a lot of potential safety protocols.

 

Joel

So there was safety protocols being broken. There was security protocols being broken.

 

Ray

And the former supervisor thinks they’re just showing off.

 

Joel

And that’s what this individual felt. And again, this was their last night working for this company.

 

Ray

So what did they have to lose, right?

 

Joel

Well, yeah, that It’s how they thought about it. It’s like, Oh, it’s my last night. I just want to show things off. Well, obviously, the client found out all about this. They talked to my client, and this client ended up being removed from the cleaning contract effective immediately. So even the individual that was working there-(Not the supervisor.) Not the supervisor. Their frontline employee who was working there, everybody lost their job. That employee lost their job. The fact that this was a high-profile client that paid a fair amount of monthly revenue. They had to lay off some other staff to help recover. It was just weird. And these are some real-life experiences that happen to clients. And it happened every day in our janitorial companies. It could be me. It could be you. It could be anybody who has a cleaning company this could happen to. How do you deal with that? With that loss, they had to recoup. So that was one of the reasons why they reached out to me is like, “ What do we do?” I asked them, well, how good is your relationship with that client? Well, it’s been great.

 

Joel

We had some bumpy times, but we put in all kinds of additional training needs and additional checklists. And they had done everything right. And the client was delighted and was a client that they could always count on to be a Reference check. (Right up until?) Right up until. These are the dumb things that sometimes happen. All the protocols were followed up until last night, and the person who violated them was the enforcer of them. It’s hard. Sometimes even a supervisor or a manager or an owner, we trust certain people within our organization. Maybe being their last night, maybe there should have been a little closer supervision on that individual.

 

Ray

I guess perhaps if we’re going to leave business owner or even a well-intended manager with a piece of wisdom out of this, how would you wrap that up in a nutshell for them? I don’t want to leave them hopeless.

 

Joel

Well, you tried to work the relationships. In this case, this client was not able to work that relationship. But usually when you have good relationships with your customers, and I’ve had some run-ins with some of my customers in the past where somebody did something dumb and it’s like, Okay, yeah, we realized it wasn’t you. And yes, you always make things right for us. And it’s like, always be transparent. I suggested having tighter controls. I even talked to my outside HR consultant, am I telling my client everything I should? Is there anything that we should have done different? That told my client of what they should lay out to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. And even my outside consultant said that everything was done right. All the things were checked, and this person had been enforcing the rules. They understood the rules. I just think they were just so excited because it was a high-profile client that they just wanted to show things off to their kids and say, This, is what we do. And unfortunately, sometimes there’s nothing we can do. To be sure that you have your eyes dotted, your tees crossed, and that everything is done properly in your training, particularly with supervisors and managers that are out in the field. Because they’re a representation of your company.

 

Joel

And when they do something wrong, that falls right back on the owner. Because you’re going to be seen as the individual who trained and developed that person.

 

Ray

So, Joel, in this situation, what do you tell the business owner?

Joel

The best bit of advice that I can give the business owner, obviously, there was nothing they could do to save this. They did everything that I had said to try to save this. But then it’s like, what if this happens again? What can you do? Or if you, the listener, might be experiencing something like this upcoming soon. (You have an employee who’s leaving, right?) You have an employee that’s leaving. This is maybe what you would like to do for the future. So, one if you’re a smaller company and you have one supervisor, you the owner, you know what? That’s part of ownership. That’s part of entrepreneurship. I’m sorry. It may sound harsh. You need to work with that person on the last night to ensure that everything is right. And it’ll be a good way of you double checking. Making sure you have the keys and you have the codes and things like that.

 

Ray

Not only that, are you retaining the account, but you’re retaining the account for perhaps another team member who’s going to clean there.

 

Joel

Exactly. So that’s the first thing that you should consider if you’re a small company. If you’re a bigger company and you have multiple supervisors, maybe one of those supervisors slides over. Because who’s going to be taking over after that person is done? Or do you have an organization where you have management or supervisors in training to take over and you have them work because they’re going to know what the protocols are for that account, in this case, hey, you can’t bring the kids in. Leave them in the car. I mean, first of all, why do you even have your kids with you? That would be the first question I would ask. Why are the kids riding around with us tonight? They need to go home. This is not proper protocol. So, that could have been headed off way, way earlier than when this happened in this case. So, I guess for the (start-up) company or even the company that is maybe facing something like this in the very near future, you need to have somebody work with that individual on the end of the night because It’s not that they’re a bad person. Obviously, they were in a very respected role within your company.

But you want to make sure that you make a smooth transition because just like a frontline employee that may be transitioning out, you don’t want your client to know. Same with the supervision and management staff. You want to make sure it’s a smooth transaction.

Ray

Joel, just because employees do dumb things doesn’t mean we have to do them as owners, right?

 

Joel

That is correct.