Jeez... I am still here

**HR Solutions** · 10-Jun-14, 08:49 AM

Good to hear you have your feet on the ground and have taken charge and things are looking up for you. Keep strong.

I don't want to sound negative, but I think we are generally heading for hard times ahead with all the strikes etc so we must all watch our backs, get that money in and keep thinking of new ideas.

**Marq** · 10-Jun-14, 09:27 AM

Glad to hear you are still in business and going again.

Good luck and well done for not becoming a statistic.

**Alice Rain** · 10-Jun-14, 09:40 PM

Great to hear your update and more-so to give your maid more knowledge and opportunity.

**Dave A** · 13-Jun-14, 09:07 AM

There's no doubt that we refine our craft best not in the easy times of plenty, but when we face significant challenges.

**AndyD** · 13-Jun-14, 09:19 PM

Great to see you're still in the land of the living. You sound pretty upbeat so I've no doubt you're well on your way to larneydom. All the best and good luck to you.

**pmbguy** · 14-Jun-14, 06:21 PM

Thanks guys

So I arrived back on Friday and my technician did not pitch up and did not answer his phone. Today he never pitched up and I gave him a call. He said that he wants more money and wont come to work until I agree to pay him more...he gets paid 25% of the labour charge for each machine which amounts to allot of money, much more than he was making at his previous job. He demanded I pay the 25% per machine plus a normal salary. This would basically mean that I will pay him twice or three times what any other business in my industry would pay a technician. He has worked for every business in my field in pmb. Always leaving soon after starting...I can see why.

So this weekend I have 18 machines to service/repair and I will get 100% of the labour charge. I have loads of call outs for next week and will be very busy...

I learned from this and will simply pay my next technician a stock standard salary with no commission.

Despite this most resent setback I am doing well

**HR Solutions** · 14-Jun-14, 07:51 PM

How often this happens !!!! Please do not give in to that ridiculous demand !!! Get someone younger at a better reasonable salary to start shadowing you, to do some of the donkey work and slowly train them. Take them on a learner ship program whereby you can claim ETI when you do your paye every month - as long as they are under 29 and earn less than R6000 per month. Sounds like a good salary would be R5000 - for this you can claim R1000 back every month for two years. Therefore he ends up costing you R4000 per month.

**pmbguy** · 14-Jun-14, 08:35 PM

Its a bit tricky for me because I am out marketing most of the time so I dont have time to train somebody. I need a qualified technician who can hit the ground running. I am just going to have to work late every night until I get somebody in...just going to be careful and check out references properly this time.

**Justloadit** · 15-Jun-14, 12:26 PM

Is this not a typical African thing. Once they think they are entrenched in your business, they simply start demanding more, thinking that you can not run the business with out them.

I even had someone in my business who professed that then business could not survive with out them, guess what? They were wrong, what they seem to misunderstand, is that as the owner of the business, you have already done all the different jobs that make the business, and that they are simply there to alleviat the tasks, and when they leave, it is more of an inconvenience rather than shutting a business down because it needs them.

I hear the Unions always saying that there can not be a business with out their labour, how wrong they are, I am the labour FFS and that an employee simply helps me with my tasks and allows me more time to grow the business, to employ more people. The day they feel that the business can not do with out them, is the day they become unemployed.

Hang in there, it is for short time, I am also going through one of these cycles, and it can only get better, as the next employee will be hired under different conditions, and when they get slack, well you know what is gonna happen to them, as I pull out my white hanky and wave good bye and have a safe trip to where ever you going!