Should I let them both go...

LegacyUser

In the shop I work at, we have one girl who is a horrible slacker. she only works one day so it won't be a huge burden on us if she goes BUT no one new we hire would likely take her place for just one day.

On the other hand, we have another guy working there who is maybe 10% better at his job but is always asking for time off and just asked to be moved down from 5 days to 2.... so I'm thinking it's best to get rid of both of them and just hire someone for 3 days but at work I'm being the pinned as the bad guy for thinking so. I'm a supervisor andthat's my 2 cents...if they don't go then the rest of us have to do 6 days, alternating each week.

LegacyUser

If he goes from working 5 days a week to 2 days a week he is looking to sign on for the days he is not working. He may not know that the department of social welfare will question him why he is now working 2 days a week rather than 5 days a week.
He will need to get a letter from his employer stating that he is been put on a 2 day week due to the downturn in the business.
Also he will only get 3 days dole payment and they will take into consideration if he works on a Sunday.
I would get legal advice before you do or say anything to him about changing his hours or telling him that you are letting him go. If you do not do this he may have a legal case if you tell him to get lost or that he can't work 2 days a week.

tatli_lokma

Does this guy (the one on 5 days wanting 2) have a contract? and if so does his contract state that his working hours/days are 5 days per week? If so, and he cannot (or will not) work as per his contract, you would be within your rights to make him stick to the contract. there is no obligation on you to change his contract. So then it would be up to him to either work his contracted hours or leave. If he leaves, that's the problem solved.

But be very careful about it getting out that you would prefer to be rid of the two of them and get someone else in for 3 days. If he hears of this, he could play it out as constructive dismissal.

And you say you are unlikely to get anyone for 1 day per week, but I would disagree. There are a lot of people out there who would benefit from only working 1 or 2 days per week. And remember, if you take someone on and they are on low wages, the companies PRSI contribution would also be lower. So it might be cheaper to have this guy work 2 days and a new person work 1 day, rather than one new person working 3 days.

Another thing you could try is to ask the guy why he wants to work less hours and if he mentions SW tell him that you will not be prepared to give him a letter saying you have reduced his hours, as there are hours there for him, but it is his choice to not to take them. It would be considered fraud if you were to give him a letter saying his hours were reduced and then hire someone to cover those hours. Maybe if he knew that he would reconsider his request.

Nody

You're the Supervisor; it's your job to Supervise including performance. Before you let anyone go why not try to turn things around? Have a one on one with the person, advise them on the areas to improve in, what you expect the improvement to be over what time frame etc.

For the second guy the answer would simply then be no; if he don't like it he can resign and you'll hire a new person instead who wants to work.