White Lie for you staff

[ronmexico]

I dont know how many people on here have employees working under them, but im sure its quite a few.

Has anyone else covered something up for a their employees?

Here a short recap of what happened to me today.

We are moving to a warehouses on the other side of the block. Needed my warehouse guys to bring some stuff over to the new warehouse. He tells me he knows how to drive but doesn't have a licence, my response "go slow be careful you are only going 300 yards" . First 3 trips fine, trip 4 dude swipes an early 2000 ricer :bonk:. Hits the corner of the front bumper, denting the bumper and and pulling the bumper onto the front wheel :clap:. The accident was whiteness by a co worker of the cars owner. My employee calls me, I walk over and we get our stories straight. The story was he was driving the van inside the loading dock when he pulled it out just a bit to far and clipped the civic (that was parked on the sidewalk. There were more details than that but you get the idea) I told the CEO I was driving it around the block. We paid the kid 400 buck and that was that.

On a side note, I thought the civic was the ugliest thing I have ever seen, but the kid took it like a champ, he was real cool about it.

Maybe not the most honest thing to do but I think it was the right thing to do. If I didnt cover it up it would have been much worse for my staff, myself and the company, so I fell OK with it.

Am I a scumbag? Has anyone else done this?

 

[JDM713]

so basically you were just covering up the fact that the dude didn't have a license or insurance? that isn't bad, the scumbag thing would have been to run away and not tell the owner, although I'm guessing you probably would have supported the decision to do that if the owner's friend didn't witness the whole thing...

 

[DougDome]

What have we learned from this?

Everyone THINKS that they know how to drive.

But seriously, I'm sure it would have been much easier to find someone with a license in the first place to drive, that way everything would be covered under the company's insurance.

 

[Bender1]

I firmly believe that you get the best production and most dedication via a soft touch. That said, not sure what I would have done in the above situation. I can't fault you for it at all, just really not sure.

 

[ronmexico]

But seriously, I'm sure it would have been much easier to find someone with a license in the first place to drive

The problem is I line in NYC where only 40% of the population has a licence.

I ask a lot of my guys and I fell that I owe it to them to "have their back" especially if its my decision that caused the issue, so I think its the right thing. The dude still has a job, I have a job the the dude with the civc got 400 bucks, even though he was parked illegally.

 

[Bender1]

especially if its my decision that caused the issue, so I think its the right thing.

Bingo - you do this and your guys will do the same for you on the production side.

 

[DougDome]

The problem is I line in NYC where only 40% of the population has a licence.

I ask a lot of my guys and I fell that I owe it to them to "have their back" especially if its my decision that caused the issue, so I think its the right thing. The dude still has a job, I have a job the the dude with the civc got 400 bucks, even though he was parked illegally.

Yea I mean I given no other options, I think you did the best thing given your circumstances. But I think it's especially important in NYC to have all drivers licensed, driving in the city sucks.

 

[E. Tiberius]

I think the white lie you told is protecting yourself, more so than your staff. You made the decision to allow this guy to drive without a license...if the company caught wind of this, you would be the one in trouble.

Consider yourself and your company lucky that he didn't injur or kill anybody. Even if the accident was not his fault, there could potentially be some serious fall out from an unlicensed driver operating a vehicle on behalf of a company.

I agree about the comments in regards to having a 'soft touch' with your employees...but it is very situational.

If word spreads among your staff on this situation, sure there could be some who view what you did as a positive thing, and productivity, morale etc. may increase.

But there is another risk... You could have some employees use this information against you. Say you need to make some tough decisions down the line... Maybe having to let people go, or just dealing another situation like this one. Is the expectation among your staff that you will always cover stuff up for them? People do and say the most unexpected things when facing termination...imagine having to let an underperformer go in a years time and he throws this situation back at you? Sure this can be navigated through with enough tact, but it could put you in some difficult positions.

I am not trying to sound like a complete ass, so I appologize if I do. I am only sharing my opinion on a subject that I have some experience dealing with (good and bad).

Now I do not know your staff, or your industry and I am a firm beleiver in adaptive situational management...so maybe the risks I highlighted are not as...well... risky at your company.

 

[ronmexico]

I think the white lie you told is protecting yourself, more so than your staff. You made the decision to allow this guy to drive without a license...if the company caught wind of this, you would be the one in trouble.

Consider yourself and your company lucky that he didn't injur or kill anybody. Even if the accident was not his fault, there could potentially be some serious fall out from an unlicensed driver operating a vehicle on behalf of a company.

I agree about the comments in regards to having a 'soft touch' with your employees...but it is very situational.

If word spreads among your staff on this situation, sure there could be some who view what you did as a positive thing, and productivity, morale etc. may increase.

But there is another risk... You could have some employees use this information against you. Say you need to make some tough decisions down the line... Maybe having to let people go, or just dealing another situation like this one. Is the expectation among your staff that you will always cover stuff up for them? People do and say the most unexpected things when facing termination...imagine having to let an underperformer go in a years time and he throws this situation back at you? Sure this can be navigated through with enough tact, but it could put you in some difficult positions.

I am not trying to sound like a complete ass, so I appologize if I do. I am only sharing my opinion on a subject that I have some experience dealing with (good and bad).

Now I do not know your staff, or your industry and I am a firm beleiver in adaptive situational management...so maybe the risks I highlighted are not as...well... risky at your company.

I think everything you say is completely correct. Realistically, it was my decision to let this guy drive, so if push came to shove it should be my job. You raise good points about employees bringing that back if/when I have to release someone. The only people that know what actually happened is the driver, myself and the few people that read this tread. I was faced with a decision and I made the decision I thought was right (as I still stand by it) I did think about the consequences but thought the risk was worth the reward. But it is interesting to hear others thoughts. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer for this situation.

Like I said before, I am pretty strict with my guys, I expect a lot from them and I don't take shit. I demand everyone come to work on time, clean and energizer, I do not accept answers like "its not my job" or "its time for me to go home." With that being said, after about 1 year of re structuring I finally have a crew that is sold. My guys work their balls of for me , and in turn I take care of them (buy lunch, small bonuses, days off etc..) So IMO this is part of having a strong crew. With my current staff I was able to turn a production facility with a 40% order error rate into a facility with a 2 % error rate. So I felt I had to bite the bullet on this one. Yeah its was a risk, but hell whats not these days.

Thanks for the comments, I like hearing them.

 

[VWTN]

I think the white lie you told is protecting yourself, more so than your staff. You made the decision to allow this guy to drive without a license...if the company caught wind of this, you would be the one in trouble.

Consider yourself and your company lucky that he didn't injur or kill anybody. Even if the accident was not his fault, there could potentially be some serious fall out from an unlicensed driver operating a vehicle on behalf of a company.

I agree about the comments in regards to having a 'soft touch' with your employees...but it is very situational.

If word spreads among your staff on this situation, sure there could be some who view what you did as a positive thing, and productivity, morale etc. may increase.

But there is another risk... You could have some employees use this information against you. Say you need to make some tough decisions down the line... Maybe having to let people go, or just dealing another situation like this one. Is the expectation among your staff that you will always cover stuff up for them? People do and say the most unexpected things when facing termination...imagine having to let an underperformer go in a years time and he throws this situation back at you? Sure this can be navigated through with enough tact, but it could put you in some difficult positions.

I am not trying to sound like a complete ass, so I appologize if I do. I am only sharing my opinion on a subject that I have some experience dealing with (good and bad).

Now I do not know your staff, or your industry and I am a firm beleiver in adaptive situational management...so maybe the risks I highlighted are not as...well... risky at your company.

Truth in its entirety.