Workshop damage / losses from the lads

[Regy53]

I have a question

In the past month or two we seem to have gone through a lot of damages and these are generally good lads

1 turbo nozel lance, tracked over £60
1 quick hitch lever bar, was told it was put in cab of machine, sent to customer no bar, found in another digger cab two weeks later, whites special lock thing £190.00
1 x 12v battery charger / conditioner connected to 24v £80.00
1 x 12v battery charger driven over £80.00
1 x hydraulic hose caught when lifting something (wrapped chain over hose? ) £120.00
1 x door glass fitted to a bent door without checking £220.00 (not really their fault tbh but maybe could have been checked)
1 x chipper fuel tank and ignition electronics as dropped of forklift when building, they built 50+ before never a problem £90.00

ignoring the door glass thats £620.00, we also ordered some parts we didnt need and wont use again, rocker cover gasket for a dumper, then they got the part but nipped up the old and proceeded to hand me the new gasket....

I am fairly laid back and i know in environments like this stuff happens but is a little mad. I have two workshop guys so i was thinking today to say we will all go thirds on anything broken... So if one breaks something we all pay . No idea if i can enforce this though i just want to show how much money has been lost through stupidity.

what do you guys do with your lads?

 

[JD450A]

what do you guys do with your lads?

I can manage £620 worth of damage in a month myself so don't think your doing badly tbh that said I'm not helped by CBL sometimes.... £190 for one window in a TB015

 

[Shovelhands]

I doubt you can make them pay for breakages, unless it’s written into their contract maybe?

I’d generally settle for people just owning up to things and actually being sorry! Admitting when you’ve made a mistake seems to be the hardest thing for some people

Rather than charging for the breakages and unnecessary expenditure, maybe you could create some sort of system where by you put a small amount in a pot each week if there’s none of the above. Then at the end of the year you split the pot between the lads equally as a bonus. I know it will potentially cost you money, but it might feel better than the unnecessary and frustrating spending that you’ve listed. Of course deciding which things are pure accidents and just unlucky failures, and what is careless negligence, is going to be the hard part! But ultimately it will be your call, if something has gone wrong then they should be encouraged to come to you straight away to discuss the situation, it will be down to you what you put in the jar at the end of the week. But as it’s split equally, then they guys, you would hope, will look out for each other and take a bit more care, as it’s their combined bonus at stake?

 

[Monkeybusiness]

It’s a real bug-bear of mine - kit getting lost/broken/mistreated costs loads of time and loads of money. By rights you should make people pay for any damage they cause, but it can lead to bad feeling and you can ultimately lose decent lads if you are too hard.
Get a whiteboard and put a figure at the top that is the total you will spend on the staff at Christmas (meal/bonus payments etc). Every time you have to pay out for a cock-up knock the amount off your total figure - put the name of the culprit alongside the deduction. It may help focus the minds?

 

[craig]

It’s a real bug-bear of mine - kit getting lost/broken/mistreated costs loads of time and loads of money. By rights you should make people pay for any damage they cause, but it can lead to bad feeling and you can ultimately lose decent lads if you are too hard.
Get a whiteboard and put a figure at the top that is the total you will spend on the staff at Christmas (meal/bonus payments etc). Every time you have to pay out for a cock-up knock the amount off your total figure - put the name of the culprit alongside the deduction. It may help focus the minds?

And if it goes into negative figures they pay.

 

[Monkeybusiness]

And if it goes into negative figures they pay.

If it goes into negative figures it’s their turn in the barrel...

 

[Shovelhands]

The trouble is we all have accidents, and things do get broken, it’s not always someone’s fault. So it could get nasty if every little thing is picked up on.
Personally, aside from the “it wasn't me” line, when I know it was! I find the excuses are sometimes just ridiculous! Like they think you are stupid and won’t put a moments thought into what actually happened! Just own up and tell the truth ffs, I dunno about the rest of you but I’d respect that kind of honesty!

 

[GazCro]

It's why i stay self employed and working by myself apart from the odd fella i can trust giving a hand now and again. As an employer you have to have a different attitude and tolerance to many things. It's up to you to decide how much you can stand breakages wise. Ultimately its a difficult subject to approach which could backfire on other areas.

 

[Regy53]

It’s not that I want them to pay, there have been many more, Damages in the past , and I 1000 percent know damages are part of of them beast. They shouldn’t be but it is. However say £600 in a fairly quiet month takes a lot of earning. That’s a mini digger sale just to cover ultimately accidents but really some of it isn’t a accident it’s not paying attention .
I ran it with old staff on a attendance bonus he had one day off and I will remove his monthly bonus, I used my good judgement if I should or not and the intention was not to..
I just wish they could see what we see . £600 wasted buying stuff we already had.

 

[kato512]

Are the workshop lads trained and is one of them a foreman? Some of that is fairly basic stuff. The likes of tracking over stuff, have a nominal fine. More to make them think after it hurts them in the pocket than anything else.
Have a checklist/ photos of the cab if you're not there when machine leaves, easy checked afterwards.
The chipper fuel tank is there a safer/idiot proof of doing it? Sling instead of forks etc.

 

[Smiffy]

When I worked in new Zealand they had the f**k up board in the workshop
Everyone's name was on it and every time you f***ed up you got a tick next to your name
For each tick you had to by a 24pack of stubbies for the workshop fridge
Although having a workshop beer fridge might not be quite as acceptable over here

 

[Jimoz]

s**t happens would be hard to make them pay and keep them productive and happy. If they're good like you say they are just have an honest chat like you've just had here and hopefully they will understand and try to be extra diligent

 

[Jimoz]

Lol it automatically changes sh!t to turdburglar

 

[doobin]

You can't say turdburglar! If we're being all PC then that's offensive to queers.

 

[Left hooker]

I doubt you can make them pay for breakages, unless it’s written into their contract maybe?

I’d generally settle for people just owning up to things and actually being sorry! Admitting when you’ve made a mistake seems to be the hardest thing for some people

Rather than charging for the breakages and unnecessary expenditure, maybe you could create some sort of system where by you put a small amount in a pot each week if there’s none of the above. Then at the end of the year you split the pot between the lads equally as a bonus. I know it will potentially cost you money, but it might feel better than the unnecessary and frustrating spending that you’ve listed. Of course deciding which things are pure accidents and just unlucky failures, and what is careless negligence, is going to be the hard part! But ultimately it will be your call, if something has gone wrong then they should be encouraged to come to you straight away to discuss the situation, it will be down to you what you put in the jar at the end of the week. But as it’s split equally, then they guys, you would hope, will look out for each other and take a bit more care, as it’s their combined bonus at stake?

This , but pot made up from scrap money's and old batteries sold that they have a share at end of year or to go towards tab at Christmas party

 

[Quattromike]

Toolbox talk, “look guys, we,re all the same boat, be careful with the costs of parts and equipment damage and we’ll all be better off in the long run " there's no place for complacency with heavy equipment about!

 

[Richard Hunton]

I doubt you can make them pay for breakages, unless it’s written into their contract maybe?

I’d generally settle for people just owning up to things and actually being sorry! Admitting when you’ve made a mistake seems to be the hardest thing for some people

Rather than charging for the breakages and unnecessary expenditure, maybe you could create some sort of system where by you put a small amount in a pot each week if there’s none of the above. Then at the end of the year you split the pot between the lads equally as a bonus. I know it will potentially cost you money, but it might feel better than the unnecessary and frustrating spending that you’ve listed. Of course deciding which things are pure accidents and just unlucky failures, and what is careless negligence, is going to be the hard part! But ultimately it will be your call, if something has gone wrong then they should be encouraged to come to you straight away to discuss the situation, it will be down to you what you put in the jar at the end of the week. But as it’s split equally, then they guys, you would hope, will look out for each other and take a bit more care, as it’s their combined bonus at stake?

We used to do this at a firm I worked for,(roofing and Building)
Any scrap lead was weighted in and divided up between the lads, usually at Christmas or possibly twice a year depending on how things went........

On the back of the office door was a far kups list.

Name, date, far kup, cost

This was deducted from the pot before it was shared out.

Seemed to dramatically reduce the breakages and damaged caused.

 

[Quattromike]

Back in the day there was always enough meat on jobs that any small "issues" were already factored in and ends meet. Nowadays things are so tight even when everything goes right it's not easy to turn a profit. It's easy for the younger generation who hear of the shenanigans that used to go on to think it's ok nowadays to not give a crap.

 

[Jimoz]

C'mon @V8Druid you sound like you were a fair gaffer what was your method

 

[Quattromike]

C'mon @V8Druid you sound like you were a fair gaffer what was your method

Steel pipe across behind the ears