09/04/2024
Thoughts?
My opinion is this:
You must establish from the jump if you want to be able to contact your employees after-hours. Meaning - being totally transparent about the expectations of the job, INCLUDING being able to call someone in an 'emergency' situation at 2:30am - WHEN YOU'RE HIRING THEM.
Not spring stuff on them after-the-fact. And DEFINITELY not spring it on them, expect them to do what you want them to do, and fire them when you can't get in touch with them or they refuse to show up in the middle of the night. There's no leadership in that.
They should also be COMPENSATED for their time, particularly with special (higher) compensation should they have to drag their asses outta bed at 2:30am.
I don't want to assume - though I could guess - but if Dennis is yet another 'business leader' who thinks they can just do whatever they want with those in their employ - call them all hours of the night, expect them to do things outside of the scope of their stated job, expect them to go above and beyond what they were hired for, or for longer hours than originally stated without compensation - then he's just another out of touch wannabe-leader who sucks to work for and I guarantee he creates high turnover if he's in charge.
There should be people available to handle emergencies - who are expected to handle such emergencies - who are being compensated for handling emergencies... If there is ONE guy who has control over something - and you have no established 'hey, when we need to, we will call' - then YOU FAILED...
The employee isn't the failure - your lack of leadership is the failure. Your lack of planning is the failure. And trust - I know things happen that we can't even imagine, but you should never paint yourself into a corner where your ONLY HOPE is ONE particular employee who you can't guarantee will pick up that phone.
Just my personal opinion...
And, I don't think there's a problem with this, so long as there's ways for business owners to cover themselves. Generally, it just means you need to pay and have transparency with your employees - if that's such an issue, well... again... it's not THEIR fault.
Would you want to work for Mr. Wonderful?