I'm so sorry to hear about this and I feel your pain! For me there is nothing worse in our industry than discovering a person we've hired is a poor or even deceitful walker ): I've always based the speed of my fires on the safety of the dogs. If a walker is unsafe with the dogs I take their keys on the spot. But if they are just cheating time but are good with the dogs I'd sit them down to discuss the issue, you can say a friend of the neighbor has been timing them, or there's a security system that clocks their time, etc. if you want to avoid saying you've been watching them (not that there's a problem watching them it might just make the conversation less confrontational and allow you to accomplish your core goal of NO MORE CUTTING TIME). No matter how the conversation goes I'd 100% find an alternative for this walker/sitter. If the sitter comes around and does a better job then at worst you have a new employee to help grow your company.

Most importantly, try and fire someone on terms that work best for you! I've always been very fair with my employees, too fair and this has many times worked against me. Try and fire someone or push them to do better when you have the ability to cover them if it doesn't work out. But again if there's a safety issue I'd take their keys and figure out the route however you can, shorter walks for awhile, etc. If clients have things explained they usually are understanding (: and by explained to them I just mean the past walker didn't work out, wasn't a good fit, they don't have to know every little detail.

I hope this helps, best, Josh

I'm finding that when it comes to honesty, some employees are a lost cause and it's next to impossible to resolve the situation amicably. What makes it worse is the psychological manipulation they employ. I've been in that situation a lot and it's been happening with an employee again recently.

First there were a few suspected "little white lies" which made me red flag her, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Then there was an occasion when she completely forgot to do a weekend walk I'd scheduled as a one off for a new customer. Rather than come clean, she acted as if she'd done it and even gave me a sum of money that she said the client had left out as payment. Only the payment was short $5, the surcharge I apply to weekend walks. So I emailed the client and brought the error to her attention. The client told me that her dog was never walked and that nobody took the money she'd left out. When I confronted the walker, she came clean and said that she stupidly thought she could get away with it by giving me the money herself. I still can't believe anyone would think they could get away with that.

Once you've caught them in a big lie like that, it's very hard not to be suspicious of them in the future. I know it sounds horrible, but on a few occasions she's texted me in the morning to say that she can't work because she has to go visit her sick mother in hospital, and I've even found myself suspecting that this was also a lie. Would some people be so callous as to tell such a lie? Yes. Of course I'm 75% confident she was telling the truth, but that 25% of uncertainty is because of the lie she told in the past. Once a person identifies themselves as dishonest, it's hard to shake it off.

Yet people like this are very hard to confront. They will nearly always try to turn the situation around to make you look like the guilty party: "I can't believe you don't trust me," "I'm so insulted that you would think that," "you automatically take the client's side over mine," etc. This same girl has screwed me badly over the last few days. She had given me 3 months notice to quit because she was going back to school, then she told me yesterday that she was leaving in 2 weeks because she'd been offered a job (don't even really believe her!) and yesterday morning she texted me at 10am to tell me that she couldn't work that afternoon because her "new job" had asked her to come in at 1:30 to do an afternoon's work for them (apparently she couldn't tell them that she had other responsibilities, no that would be too much to ask). Coincidentally, many of the times she has dropped bombshells on me have been snow days.

For the first time in our working relationship, I gave her a hard time over the phone and told her what I thought of her in no uncertain terms (not abusively, just a stern talking to). Immediately she turned on me and said that I was an "abusive boss" who would "never give her a break." This, after I have jumped hoops for her, let things slide, forgiven many things, even walked a full day's dogs for her and still paid her for the day. I had never raised my voice to her, never given her a hard time, have been as understanding as possible about her sick mother and gave her a nice holiday bonus just a few weeks ago.

Sorry to rant at length but I'm coming to learn that some employees will cause you nervous breakdowns and hurt you deeply if you let them. I'm becoming a harder person because of it. In any other business, I would fire someone like that immediately. And I know that it's probably easier to do that in a company as large as Downtown Pets than it is in my more modest company, which has fewer backup resources (and no secretary!). When you're already covering for another employee's absence, walking dogs of your own because you're trying to build a new route, and then a rogue employee constantly drops you in the fire at the worst possible times...well let's just say it's not good for your health.

Another issue with firing employees is worrying how they'll take it. This is a problem in our business because they have client's keys. If you give them notice, will they work out that notice amicably? Will they give you they keys back? Or will they say "screw you" and just refuse to answer their phone?

Hi Willy,

I hear you, times I've realized a walker is not going to work out I get sick to my stomach. Sometimes we'll need to grow slower and have our companies be smaller to try and limit these type of issues. I can attest that since I've made my company smaller it has greatly improved the quality of our walkers...at a cost but well worth it to me.

Definitely agree on the slower growth. I've limited my growth tremendously through turning down clients I suspected would be a pain, as well as turning down clients because I wasn't confident I could find a good walker in time to cover a new route. Sometimes I see large pack walkers who really don't look like they know what they're doing and I think to myself, what kind of problems do these companies have to deal with on a daily basis?

Yep, if guys like you and me didn't care about the quality of our walkers we could hire 10 people today and our growth would be endless....of course maybe dogs would get injured or god for bid lost or killed...apartments robbed....clients stolen...etc. etc....and what's one of the great things about owning you business anyway than being able to control the culture right? One of my employees was over for breakfast the other day and told me my company has made her a nicer person, love that.

Willy, Im sorry to hear about that girl. I wouldnt keep her after I found out about her not walking the dog and lying. I would start looking for the new person and will let her go. Also, think of somebody who can do cover ups for you. For example, a freelancer who lives in your service area. You can take the dog out of the apartment and give to your cover up and run to your dog, then meet cover up, put the dog back, get another dog and run to your dog again.... thats in case you dont want the cover up to go inside clients homes. When it was me and my husband working out there, it was easier for us to cover each other and the dog walker, now I sit and work at home mother and my husband is the only one who trains and does cover ups, as well as works with some difficult dogs or dogs we didnt assign to the route yet. So I got the full time cover up and start introducing her slowly to our dogs and to the clients. It works great so far. I have some people quit on me same day without the notice and my stomach would hurt before imagining my husband running around covering 2 routes simultaneously.

Last few days reading all posts here I started to see the bigger picture where im too soft with client and dog walkers and other areas I need to improve. Im ready to loose some of the clients if its to create  better working atmosphere for dog walkers and the office.

About firing employees or breaking the contract with contractors: didnt have them lying to me yet - my husband takes the matter in his hands (he was a detective in the past) and asks some questions that helps him understand if the person lies or not. f we want the person to go, we wait till the pay day when they come in (they have all their keys and equipment with them) and tell them what happened and as well as we are sorry but we have to let them go as the client/s dont want to see them anymore and we have no other choice and if we have another route we will call them etc.