How would you react?

[Neuson510k]

Had a snapchat incident with a member of staff, Yesterday while doing some contract slurry work for a "5 star establishment " and having to unblock the tanker a few times every load my guy decided to vent some of his anger at this place through snapchat. The problem was that he forgot the farmers son is a friend of his on snapchat and seen the full story. He did use some choice words to describe the farm in some of them but too his defense one had the caption " What a swell place to spend the afternoon " which i thought was quite nice

The Farmer is not a happy camper!! Had to hang up on him twice today, told me where to stick my bill etc etc..

What do i do? Let the farmer cool for a few days and see if he accepts the drivers apology for a few flippant comments? Im sure in court the views expressed by my staff aren't that of my own and cant be used as a non payment excuse?

Yes what the driver did was wrong but i will not be spoke to like that on the phone ever.

 

[Recoil]

Tell your driver not to do it again. Tell the farmer to pay your bill. No reason not to pay the bill at all.

 

[Keepitsimple26]

I would put myself in his shoes. If it was me I would also be livid however in time I would calm down and accept that I'd need to pay.
Write an apologetic letter. Hand deliver it with a bottle of scotch. Tell the farmer you will be disciplining the worker.
Very strict disciplinary for the worker.

 

[foxbox]

Depends if he's also a member on here, thread could get very interesting then! At least he'd know you still wanted to be paid though .

Tend to agree though; driver very wrong but not an excuse for the customer not to pay. I would have thought a suitable warning for the member of staff would show you have taken the incident seriously; you often hear this trotted out and as it's been dealt with internally no-one is ever sure of the outcome. This process is nothing to do with the customer though.

 

[GTB]

I would send the worker back to the farm to apologise and I would also give him a written warning to never do it again. Let the farmer cool down and I'm sure he will pay eventually. Might be worth sending a memo to all staff reminding them about do's and don'ts on social media.

 

[P.O.T]

Should be apoligising for all the crap in the slurry causing the blockages! Hope you billed him accordingly! Sounds a bit of an arse to me...

 

[GTB]

Should be apoligising for all the crap in the slurry causing the blockages! Hope you billed him accordingly! Sounds a bit of an arse to me...

I agree but it was very wrong of the driver to comment on snapchat in any case.

 

[P.O.T]

I agree but it was very wrong of the driver to comment on snapchat in any case.

Yeah will agree with you there, guess im laidback, dont think it would overly fuss me.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

1st off is sack the employee as from now,

then go and see the customer, and say your very sorry for what the employee said, and he is now an ex employee,
say your sorry but you had not control over what he said, and them thoughts do not represent the thoughts of the company,
hope he will then see scene and pay his bill in due coarse, but remind him payment will still be due whatever he thinks

 

[7610 super q]

Errrmmm.........What is snapchat ?

 

[capfits]

Look at it in 2 ways?
1. How are you paid? For tanker time or per volume basis. If for tanker time he should keep quite but,

2. Would you be happy constantly unblocking a tanker? I would not! And I have access to the house for a change of clothes, wash, dinner when doing the slurry in the unlikely event that I do have a serious blockage. Not having facilities to get clean etc would be a Health and Safety issue.

Franky if I were a contractor I would be ensuring that the blockage issue did not arise in the first issue. The farmer is being utterly unreasonable in saying he will not pay for the job.

 

[Neuson510k]

I did have a word with the employee and told him to wise up and maybe 'Know your audience' but i will not be sacking him.

In one of the snapchat's my guy filmed the farmer moving mixing points.... There was a pallet covering the hole...Farmer put slurry pump straight through it

 

[DRC]

1st off is sack the employee as from now,

then go and see the customer, and say your very sorry for what the employee said, and he is now an ex employee,
say your sorry but you had not control over what he said, and them thoughts do not represent the thoughts of the company,
hope he will then see scene and pay his bill in due coarse, but remind him payment will still be due whatever he thinks

Why do that. I'd be a bit peed off if a slurry tanker kept blocking. Not saying worker should've vented his anger via snap chat, but sounds like the farmer is trying to cover his embarrassment of his slurry being full of solids.
Bill him by the hour

 

[Neuson510k]

The more I think about it tho maybe should introduce a complete social media ban, it could cause quite a uproar among them and maybe an official warning to the staff member

 

[Shutesy]

1st off is sack the employee as from now,

then go and see the customer, and say your very sorry for what the employee said, and he is now an ex employee,
say your sorry but you had not control over what he said, and them thoughts do not represent the thoughts of the company,
hope he will then see scene and pay his bill in due coarse, but remind him payment will still be due whatever he thinks

Sack him?? Hardly a sackable offence IMO

I did have a word with the employee and told him to wise up and maybe 'Know your audience' but i will not be sacking him.

In one of the snapchat's my guy filmed the farmer moving mixing points.... There was a pallet covering the hole...Farmer put slurry pump straight through it

I think you have dealt with your employee suitably for this incident.The farmer should still pay though, written apology and bottle of scotch as suggested above probably wouldn't hurt handed over face to face. Once paid I wouldn't go back there again sounds more hassle than its worth unless your desperate for the work.

 

[Happy at it]

You do know that you are digging the hole even deeper here chief. Your employee got you in this mess by slabberin on social media, and you continue it with your 5 star establishment description and silly winking emojis. Why do that?

You must've knew the set up before you went, and went you did. So it's not entirely fair to belittle the man and his farm. To hang up on him instead of apologising and making the thing right is hardly the smartest move on your part either. I'm not saying it's right for him not to pay you, but I can understand why you'd be bottom of the pile for a long while.

 

[Beef farmer]

What's your employees snap chat name, I like lively ones

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Sack him?? Hardly a sackable offence IMO

so let weigh it up, the employee was working for a customer, and he was getting paid in customer time, and the customer was getting bill for the work, the employee while in customers time was on social media, posting pictures of said customer, along with giving the world his not very nice thoughts of the said customer, can i ask why you think this should not be dealt with hard,
any professional business would not tolerate this at all, as the employees are the representatives of the company,
and if not dealt with publicly now, people will start to think that not only does to boss not seem bothered, but may think posting this sh1t on social media is fine,
only a unprofessional firm would let this pas by without sacking him,
there is people in other walks of life been sacked for less, this is in order to try to keep the good name of the company

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

You do know that you are digging the hole even deeper here chief. Your employee got you in this mess by slabberin on social media, and you continue it with your 5 star establishment description and silly winking emojis. Why do that?

You must've knew the set up before you went, and went you did. So it's not entirely fair to belittle the man and his farm. To hang up on him instead of apologising and making the thing right is hardly the smartest move on your part either. I'm not saying it's right for him not to pay you, but I can understand why you'd be bottom of the pile for a long while.

I agree with this,

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

just a note, everyone at some point makes a mistake, its not the mistake that's the problem,
its how it is sorted out that can cause problems later