What would you do if this happened?

[AmateurBusinessman]

Let's say you owned a chain of retail stores, and one night you had the following experience when visiting one of the locations. You arrive to the store, and it's manager has closed it's doors and began to close up shop a half hour earlier than he's/she's supposed to. You look inside the stores glass doors, and can see him/her and begin to knock. As a result of closing the stores doors and beginning to close up shop he's/she's cost you potential sales, reputation, and employees have gone home earlier than they're supposed to. He/she sees you knocking, and doesn't react to it kindly. He/she runs up to the doors, opens them violently, curses you to get off of the property, threatens to call the police. and slams them shut and leaves the property through a side exit you can't get to and goes home after finishing up closing up shop.

How would you handle the situation? Would you fire the employee? Reprimand him/her in another way? If so, in what way? By yelling at him/her? Screaming at him/her? Cutting his hours? Pay? Doing nothing? Firing whoever hired him/her? Reprimanding the person in another way? If so, what way? Why would you do any response to any of the mentioned? If you'd do nothing to anyone? Why?

[Owen]

Let's say you owned a chain of retail stores, and one night you had the following experience when visiting one of the locations. You arrive to the store, and it's manager has closed it's doors and began to close up shop a half hour earlier than he's/she's supposed to. You look inside the stores glass doors, and can see him/her and begin to knock. As a result of closing the stores doors and beginning to close up shop he's/she's cost you potential sales, reputation, and employees have gone home earlier than they're supposed to. He/she sees you knocking, and doesn't react to it kindly. He/she runs up to the doors, opens them violently, curses you to get off of the property, threatens to call the police. and slams them shut and leaves the property through a side exit you can't get to and goes home after finishing up closing up shop.

How would you handle the situation? Would you fire the employee? Reprimand him/her in another way? If so, in what way? By yelling at him/her? Screaming at him/her? Cutting his hours? Pay? Doing nothing? Firing whoever hired him/her? Reprimanding the person in another way? If so, what way? Why would you do any response to any of the mentioned? If you'd do nothing to anyone? Why?

I'd be furious. I'd probably fire them.

[Harold Mansfield]

Easy answer. Fire them. I'd take it a step further and see if I could determine how long this has been going on, and if you've been paying them and the other workers for hours that they haven't been working. If so, I'd file fraud or theft charges on every single one of them and restaff the entire store.

Done. I don't see where or why anything other than that is even a consideration.

[AmateurBusinessman]

I forgot to mention the reason for not being noticed -- you have too many employees to hire them all yourself, and he/she doesn't recognize you as a result of it.

[tallen]

I would like to find out why this was happening, as well as for how long, before taking action. I can imagine scenarios that might possibly explain the situation (e.g., a favorite employee at the store recently died and everyone is going to the funeral). Other considerations might include the local practices in that particular community (e.g. maybe all the stores in town close up at 4:30 instead of 5:00, because they open at 8:30 instead of 9:00), how well that store has been performing (is it a top-seller or a dog? in either case I would want to understand why and what role this manager has in that performance or lack there-of), and what the available labor pool is like (how easy would it be to replace the manager or other employees?). But assuming there are no extenuating circumstances and the person is just nasty and a shirker, then yeah, that manager would be let go. In other circumstances, there may be sufficient reason to keep the manager around but with some re-training.

As for other employees at the store, there are a lot of other variables to consider.

Overall I would say that it sounds like there may be issues with the company's hiring and training practices -- depending on how big your chain of stores is (this is the small-business forum, after all), I would expect store managers to have met the higher-ups in the company as part of their indoctrination. The manager should have known who you were even if you didn't directly hire them.

[CCAdamson]

I agree with Harold. Theft of time is clearly occurring the question is are they also stealing your money? This person would be terminated immediately. If that means you have to spend some time there until the place is cleaned you so be it but they wouldn't collect (or steal) another dime from me.

[David Hunter]

Hmm... cursing to get off the property and threating to call the police on the owner of the business?? How does that work?? ha

Definitely fired.

Ah, just saw your other post about not recognizing the owner. Still, could you imagine if you were a 'real' customer?! Bad for business.

[Harold Mansfield]

I forgot to mention the reason for not being noticed -- you have too many employees to hire them all yourself, and he/she doesn't recognize you as a result of it.
Doesn't matter. Sounds like your trying hard to find some reason not to fire them for gross misconduct, and theft. Why is that?
This is a no brainer for most people. They were insubordinate, rude to what they thought was a customer, and basically have been stealing hours from you and affecting the performance and reputation of your business.

Why are you trying so hard to find a way out of firing them? They've committed multiple firing offenses. We aren't talking about just a misunderstanding. We are talking about willfully and intentionally giving a big "Screw you" to the boss, they've decided to do what they want to do.

When the employees take it upon themselves to do what they want, regardless of the orders given and the responsibilities of the job, it's time to let them go. Whose business is it? Yours, or theirs?

[Bobjob]

I dress casual, so if the store location is in a bad area and manager thought I was a vagrant, I can let that slide. If they are my employee I probably would have their phone number in my cell and would have called immediately to address what happened. As for closing early, I would address it with the manager.