I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
I inherited two employees years ago. As it turned out, one had just hung on because she burned up her coworker every 5 years. I gave the problem employee the option of quitting on her own terms, or being fired. She quit in a huff and she hasn’t been able to find an office than can put up with her since. She tried bad mouthing the company to everyone and sunder but, really, she had made so many people in the very small industry where my company sits hate her that her words didn’t held water.