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- [00:06]
A
We've all done it. At some point, every leader has accidentally let crazy into their company. I've been in business for over 30 years, and trust me, I've seen plenty of people doing stupid human tricks, the kind that makes you question your hiring process, your judgment, and occasionally your own sanity. Because when crazy slips through the door, it doesn't just cost you money. It costs you time, trust, and momentum. And most of us have to learn that lesson the hard way. But sometimes all you can do is let the person go, laugh it off, and hire better next time. So today, Entree Leadership's head coach, John Felkins, is reacting to stories our team collected of bad, dumb, and just plain crazy employees. And what smart leaders should do when chaos shows up. Let's get to it.
- [00:58]
B
All right, let's see what we got.
- [00:59]
C
They'd go down to Lowe's and Home Depot stuff. And I'd get to noticing, man, we're spending 5, 6, $8,000 a week at Lowe's and Home Depot. That don't make sense. They would go in there and they would buy stuff that's going to be on a receipt of stuff we would use. I mean, foam board. They'd even get nails, headlights, batteries, you name it. And what they do is they'd get it, and they would walk right out the door and right back into customer service and return it for their money back. Well, they got braver and braver, and old BJ had the crew in on it. He'd say, look, I'll give y' all a cut. So he'd go return $200 worth of stuff a day, give each guy 20, and he's making 160. And that's what he did.
- [01:46]
B
I feel bad for him, to be honest with you, because they're taking money from him, and they're doing it in a way that they're not even afraid of getting caught. I mean, it's a methodical system of bleeding this guy out of money, which just makes me mad for him. Now, clearly, he picked up on it. He realized they were stealing from him, which is good, but you got to stay on top of your dollars so that doesn't happen. And, you know, maybe he could have caught it a little bit sooner, but I'll tell you how he could have really caught it sooner, which is not hire these jokers. And he should have never hired these people in the first place. And, of course, hindsight is 20 20. So I don't want to beat you up too bad, but you can't let people Onto your team, they're going to take money from you like this. And I suspect that the foreman has been on the team for a while. So that's the place where you got off the rails was hiring that guy and letting him be responsible and giving him the account or the debit card or whatever it is at Lowe's. You got to get rid of them and shore up your processes and make sure it doesn't happen again. All right, let's watch the next one.
- [02:56]
D
So an employee asked to go to an out of state professional development conference that was industry specific and for their role. So the employee books flights, five nights at a hotel and the registration, all in all, it was around $8,000. So they're gone for a week, they come back.
- [03:11]
B
Okay, I don't know where this is going exactly, but let me say right off the bat, having the employee book their own flights, book the conference themselves, zero oversight, you already know it's going to go bad. I want to know where's leadership? Where's accountability? Where is somebody paying attention to what the crap is going on with the business? You're just letting people do this stuff with no leadership whatsoever.
- [03:36]
D
Give us a general overview of what it was. Kind of shared some things with their boss, shared some things with their team that they learned and things move on.
- [03:43]
B
The fact that she used the word boss, that probably tells us something right there. That's not a leader, it's just a boss.
- [03:48]
D
Couple weeks later, one of his co workers asks about this conference and would also like to go the following year. So this employee shares all the details. The co worker goes online to look it up for the following year and realizes that the conference just happened, but it wasn't at the same location as where this employee was. So they bring that up to their manager and the manager brings it up to us in hr. We in hr, double check. And yep, the hotel reservation is in a completely different city and state than where the actual conference was. And the flight was to a completely different city and state than where the conference was. We called the company that ran the conference and they had told us this employee had purchased registration and then had gotten it refunded. So the receipt was legit. It just got refunded and we had reimbursed him. When presented to the employee, he said it was time for him to rest and recharge and it was just as much professional development. So with all of this information, would you fire this person for doing this?
- [04:40]
B
That's not even a real question. Obviously you would fire the person for doing all this. We didn't even need all the information. But yes, with all the information, fire this person. But I'm going to go back to the first thing that I said. Their manager found out that this went on and then took it to hr. No, you don't take this to hr. If you're leading this person, you're responsible for this person on your team. You fire this person. Maybe you bring HR into the conversation so that you follow the process. But you have got to lead your own people. Don't outsource leadership to hr. That's never going to work. Not in hiring, not in corrections and reprimands. You have to lead your own people. You got to select your own people and lead your own people or this kind of crap is going to keep happening. For a lot of entrepreneurs, health care is one of the most unpredictable line items in the budget. That's why I want you to take a look at Christian healthcare ministries. CHM is not health insurance. It's a budget friendly, faith based alternative to insurance. Instead of premiums that keep climbing and coverage that keep shrinking, CHM gives you a more predictable monthly cost. With programs starting at just $115 a month. Lower monthly costs can free up capital to build margin, grow your team and reinvest in your business. And as a faith based organization, CHM aligns with Christian business owners who want their healthcare dollars handled in a way that that reflects their values. That's stewardship, not just savings. CHM even offers a groups program for small businesses that want to provide a healthcare sharing option to their teams. And right now CHM is offering new members a 50% credit toward their first month of membership. Go to chministries.orgentrez and use the promo code ENTREZ. That's chministries.orgentree and promo code Entree.
- [06:35]
E
One of my workers, fabricator, comes into the office and he says to me, boss, I'm not an early riser, can I come in later?
- [06:42]
B
I tell you, every time I heard the word boss, it just gives me a red flag. People have got the wrong mindset about how to lead a team and how to be a part of a team. So culturally there's something going on there. It's a red flag almost every time. I know we joke about it, that's fine, but if that's what they regularly call you, that's a red flag.
- [07:02]
E
And I said to him, I don't care as long as you get the work done, as long as you don't need me. As a babysitter, you can come in anytime you want. He says, well, I'm better off if you said hours. So I said, okay, how about 10 to 5, you want to work later? He goes, no, that's good enough. So I tell him 10 to 5 the next day he shows up at 11, right before 11, and he punches in at 11, leaves at 5, and he does this for the week. A week later he gets his paycheck and he comes storming into my office cursing me out and because I screwed him out of an hour every day. And I'm like, you worked 11 to 5, not 10 to 5. He goes, it doesn't matter what I work. You promised me 10 to 5 and that's what I need to live on or I can't survive. And I said, well, then come in at 10. I can't pay you for an hour that you're not here. So of course he stormed out of my office, I fired him and he went in to tell everyone else what a thief I was.
- [07:45]
B
So good call firing him again, that feels pretty obvious. But there's a couple things here. Like I said, the use of the phrase boss, that's not the end of the world, but it's a little bit of a tell, it's a little bit of a tip that the culture isn't what it should be. And then this weird question or statement of like, I do better with set hours. You got to act like an adult to be treated like an adult. And here's the thing, he also has a time clock in the business. I understand some situations you have to have that, but basically he's saying he doesn't want to be a babysitter, but he's putting the babysitting on the time clock to make sure people actually get there on time. We don't have a time clock anywhere in this building. Because if you're going to treat people like adults, they got to act like adults. You got to expect that of them and then hold them accountable to that. So, yeah, good call firing this guy. But get ahead of it next time and start asking like, why do you, why do you need set hours? Why can't you just get your work done? That's a more gracious way of leading somebody. But this guy was this team member, this employee is really what he is, was planning on screwing this guy out of money from the get go. That's why he asked the question that he did. That's why he set it up the way he did. So good call firing him. But you Got some stuff you got to fix. It's more foundational than just that one team member.
- [09:04]
F
This job was working in a call center where all of us newbies were assigned to particular teams. And this woman happened to be assigned to the same team as me, which is the only reason why I think I know what happened. Roughly a week went by, and it was just enough for all of us newbies to start getting to know other people, even on other teams. One day we walked into the office and noticed that this woman didn't show up for work. And in fact, a few of her personal belongings were no longer at her cubicle. When one day goes by, no one thinks too much about it. But I did think it was weird that someone would not show up for work right after getting hired. Two more days go.
- [09:32]
B
Yes, that's weird. He's right about that. Somebody gets hired, they should be showing up to work on a regular basis. Let's just have a quick sanity check. Yeah, that's weird.
- [09:41]
F
More days go by and she still doesn't show up. And so now we start asking our boss questions. Those of us on his team just asked him, where's Ashley? And he finally told us what happened. When we had all finished orientation, this woman started hitting it off with a guy on another team. And he was super friendly, so of course he talked about his life and his marriage and things like that. Apparently, this lady thought it was appropriate and that she had a chance when she invited this guy and his wife to have a little fun with her. Yep, it's exactly what it sounds like. And this dude couldn't believe that she brought it up and wasn't having any of it, so he reported her and she's out. I don't get what was going through her mind to make her think that that was actually a possibility.
- [10:15]
B
I don't know what was going through her mind either, to think that was a possibility. And kudos that he reported it and she's out. That was the right way to handle it, obviously. But again, I gotta ask. I gotta go back. How did she get on the team to begin with? How did she get through the hiring process? What's the hiring process look like? Do you have core values? Do you hire for character at all? Or do you just simply look at the resume and say, yeah, like, she's done this job before and. And it's, you know, that's good enough. No, you gotta hire for character. And then if you need to train people to do the job, but you let somebody like this on your team, you're just asking for trouble. Like, I'm embarrassed even just listening to that. That's the kind of stuff John Deloney has on his show. That sounds crazy. I don't know what the right word is, but it is something. And I know some of them are kind of funny. And until it's your business and your team members are employees. So we want to hear what's your worst employee story? You got one worse than this? Well, we'd love for you to share it with us in the comments, but my advice to you is you might want to change the names before you do that.
- [11:25]
A
Here's the thing. Tolerating crazy in your business doesn't just create awkward moments. It destroys your culture and it frustrates your best people. And once that trust starts to slip, it's hard to get it back. So slow down and don't just hire the first person who applies. If you want to understand the full cost of a bad hire, we've got a whole video breaking that down and we'll link it in the description. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share and subscribe for more real world leadership content. I'm your host, Dave Ramsey, and this is Entrez Leadership.