I've gone back to the gym. After a 5 month hiatus from the sweaty house of pain, I have made a glorious return. I am going back because the director of a film that I will potentially be in wanted me to tone up the upper body a little. Cool. In doing our research of the local pain fare, we were informed by this particular gym that it was getting ready to go under new management after the weekend. If we bought the gym membership before the weekend was over, they could get us a specific price for three months, but after that, they couldn't guarantee what the rates were going to be. The rate was substantially less than the others in town, so we took advantage of that immediately. Here's where the story gets awesome.
I showed up to the gym in a moderately jovial mood, as I was already having a pretty good day, so I was particularly chatty and personable. Two guys were working, one the soon-to-be-previous owner, and another employee. I reminded them who I was and that I was here to renew for three months. They looked me up, renewed my membership and told me the price. I handed ye olde card of looming debt to the owner guy. He took my card, then stared at a blank spot on the counter. He looked over at his employee for a second, back to the empty space on the counter, and back to the employee. "Did he (I assume the new owner) take the %$#@ credit card machine?" It was agreed between the two of them that he had, in fact, taken the %$#@ credit card machine. The man handed me back my card and said, "Congrats, you're renewed." I didn't argue.
I tell this story because there is a moral. Always be wary (or be aware) of the jaded or disgruntled employee. This is the employee most likely to cause you the headaches as a business owner, especially online. He is the employee that will post that inappropriate Facebook post because he just doesn't care or isn't aware enough of how it could affect business. He is the one who will tweet about a client/customer, not thinking about the fact that the client/customer is a Twitter follower. We've all heard the disastrous stories from careless employees on social media. The best way to avoid this, of course, is to communicate with your employees. Be transparent about your business and how what they do affects it, in both the positive and the negative ways. Get to know them, talk to them, be interested in them. Pay attention to what employees say about your company both online and in person. Be sure to incentivize and you may not even have to worry about disgruntled employees because they will actually want to work for you. This doesn't necessarily mean throw money at them, but let them know that they are appreciated with words, publicly commend them via a company board or blog, or provide them with some small token of appreciation. Otherwise, you just never know when they may just try to stick it to the man (or woman).Also, as a customer, always look for the disgruntled employee and be nice to him. He may hook you up, like by giving you a free three month gym membership.
Have you ever had an experience with an employee who was disgruntled or jaded, good or bad, as an employer or customer? Comment about it! Remember to share, Like, Tweet or +1.
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