Should I feel bad about Firing my Assistant if..
 

There were no rules set in stone about work ethics (e.g. use of IM, use of Co. equipment for personal use).
We just set some rules because things were getting out of hand, and now she thinks we're taking advantage because "she's a girl". We set rules for employee and she's the only employee, so I can understand..
Now she says she doesn't feel the same working here, and she even told me "we are not friends anymore", and "I took you to meet my parents, and this is what I get".
I think she's just using all that as an excuse..
friends are friends and work is work.

We need to set things right for future growth..

:helpme

Bleh...fuck that shit. Fired immediately. Like you said, work is work, and if she's saying that kind of shit, then she already doesn't respect you as an employer. See ya babe...world needs plenty of go go dancers...

So what are you saying, that an employee can't use a personal computer to check her own email, find someplace to buy lunch, or chat with her friends?

Get a life already. All employees do these things on company computers.

Before I got into porn I was working for a workman's comp company, and I every day I use to fight the IT department - I would try to check my personal email, they would block it, and I would find a way around it.

is she not getting the work she has done in a timely fashion. If people are doing their work then shit who cares. If you see that someone is just surfing myspace and not doing shit for hours... well fuck then you have an issue.

Well I'm not sure if there's enough info to give much of an opinion, but if she's the only employee and thinks her IM time is being limited because she's a girl, I'd say she probably doesn't understand much about how jobs work. Chicks like that make it hard for the rest of us when we actually DO catch shit for being female. How old is she?

Did you fuck her ?

nope. never even did pass on her.

she's 29.

It looks like you set the wrong tone from the start and are now trying to reel it in. Thats hard to do, its like a parent that allows a child run wild and then decides at 16 they are now going to rule with a iron fist.It doesnt work. The big question is : Is she doing her job?
If she is then I wouldn't fire her. I had a owner tell me the first rule in managing people is they aren't you. So you cant expect what you would expect from yourself,if you do you're going to be disappointed.

I agree 100%.

did you fuck her or not? that can really change how you handle this.

Nope....

yes, she was doing her job but like I said we're setting up for the future so we're layingout ground rules/proceedures etc.
I don't have children but I can see how that makes sense.
She has a different work-mentality than Americans.
It would take several paragraphs to explain how she works/thinks..:Oh crap

Very hard to do what you have done.

I try to be friendly with my staff but not their friend. I am still the boss when I have to be.

THo i do allow personal IM email and calls to happen because I think you are silly to expect them to be in work mode every minute.

Tell her that you're going to fire her if she didn't follow your rule. If she feels sorry and ask for another chance then, give it to her. but if she did that thing again, then you should fire her..

Well at times we have 8 girls here and they cannot check thier personal emails and use icq for chatting with friends or finding places to buy lunch.

No one has ever quit in 7 years..why should l pay you to do this in my time on my eqipment?

Rochard set your rules and stick with them if a person cant understand work from play then dont employ them.

Would McDonalds let you sit in the kitchen playing on your blackberry NO .....

I love you, and Amy Sedaris.

Bitch can't abide by the rules, bitch gotta go. There's a little bit of 'wiggle' room, but someone shouldn't be paid to spend half their day browsing eBay and making pretty backgrounds for their Outlook email if that's not their job.

Thats my thoughts too GrouchyAdmin :thumbsup

You're changing the rules now. It's difficult for people to accept change.

I suggest you offer her an incentive for agreeing to the changes.

or a pink slip if she won't agree.

No, employee would be employee. She must know her place and her limits. Now, if she doesn't know how to obey his superiors then leave the company! :2 cents:

Can I answer you bluntly???

This is the second tread I have seen here from you, asking should you get rid of someone that is your friend?

Well, assuming that these are two separate threads about two separate people, then yo need to stop doing biz with friends...

More likely though, both threads are about the same person, and if so... You have answered your own question... :)

Changes take place all the time as a small corp grows ,the only incentive l would offer is move with the change or take your pink slip..... explained of course in a polite way

That suck man, I know the feeling. I hate loosing friends and I wish there was a way to take back the past to do things right. Best of luck to ya.

Why'd she "take you to meet her parents" then, and why did you go ?

Seriously, this is the second time you ask this kind of question. You must be in a difficult position for sure. Hopefully you will learn with experience.

We see eye to eye a lot. I'm not sure if that should scare you or not. Damn shame my job already entails more humiliation than I enjoy. We coulda had something.. :pimp

because it was her b-day. and her parents wanted to meet her boss.

i would say do a poll here and whatever the votes say, do that.

two different people. this one is the employee.

I'm trying to set shit right, as there's no organization here, everybody doing random shit with no real goals.

That's not what I'd call 'normal' working behavior; even if you're friends, going to an employees house to "meet the folks" does not have any professional connotation that I can think of.

you fucked up from the start brother.

I think she duped you. Either you're naive, in which case you should really not be tkb, or else she's not in the workplace for working, and should be sent back to more appropiate husband hunting grounds.

I disagree, I would be very surprised if the rules was changed, they where just put on paper :2 cents:
You would expect someone employeed by you would understand without having to put it in writing that in working hours you work

Sleep with her as compensation, and fire her later.

And in future, never hire a friend unless you want to lose him/her.

final outcome:
we've been pointing out the fact that rules can be bent, we needed to put them in paper (as Due pointed out). she was pouring out a lot of steam these days because of them and since its gone down, we explained things more in detail.
(My Spanish isn't at college level, so it was hard to explain things to her.)
and yes, she gets her work done in a timely manner, and is very trustworthy (a lot of people her in Mexico City aren't).

multi-million dollar sexual harassment suit coming down the pipe be my guess. $0.02 -bmb

This is actually an advice worth gold - I had to figure that out the hard way..