At my summer job, I’m in a bit of a hard position. I run a crew of students, most of whom are my peers. I’ve even had friends placed on my crew. It’s sometimes hard to draw a line between supervisor  and the girl they went to the bar with last night. I think I’ve managed to do a decent job though. I’ve been running a crew for the last 4 summers. This is my final summer as a crew leader and I can’t say that I’m sad about it. 

This week at my summer job, I’ve had to deal with a subordinate that refuses to listen. He expects to come to work and get paid for simply showing up. He can’t even do the simplest tasks without messing them up somehow. He was given multiple chances to clean up his act this week but those were all in vain. He was talked to about being on his cell phone and sleeping on the job. Enough is enough. I don’t have the power to fire him, but I can send him home and document the reason why to my direct boss.

I’ve decided to try something new this week: If he shows up and doesn’t work, I’ll send him home. There is simply no reason that he should be paid for not working. When he refuses to work it brings down the work ethic and productivity of the rest of my team. The rest of the crew sees that he’s clearly not pulling his weight. Hopefully he shapes up Monday. I really don’t want to make an example out of him.