My husband and I co own a small business.
The industry is personal services. Without getting too specific, think hair or tattooing.
Recently he got notice from one of the employees that she is quitting. She’s been with us for 6 years, but just finished her apprenticeship less than 2 years ago. Before her apprenticeship, she was working more of scheduling, cleaning, and selling products.
She gave us like 4 months notice, and that gives us time to at least start training someone else. But here’s the thing. She is already scheduled for a class pertaining to the industry that we’re paying for. It costs about $2k and the class takes place roughly two months before she leaves.
My husband asked if I think we should still pay for it, I said no because it’s an investment in an employee who will work for us. If we pay for it now, we’re investing in somebody else’s employee. He’s made up his mind he’s still going to pay for it because he doesn’t want bad blood, but I’m still annoyed. That’s money we can use for the business. Since him and I had a baby, I’ve really stepped back from working there, so I feel like he should have a final say.
But I’m still curious what other business owners think, what would you do?
I’d probably pay for it since she gave a lot more than necessary notice. I think it would be very likely that that generous notice might change rock the boat.
This is a learning experience.
In the future when you pay for training for an employee that’s not company specific you should set up a contract where the training is free if they work for $x months otherwise they pay back a prorated amount based on the number of months they worked.
Keep in mind we should be training that benefits both the employee and the employer. I’ve had customers try to get me to discount my rates or not get paid for training some obscure product that I think is a fucking joke and the certification has no value to me. That shit don’t fly with me.