Excuses, excuses

Poor employees can make workplace life difficult

Sell your coworkers' office supplies on eBay.

Refuse to communicate with anyone in the office, except via paper airplane.

Observe what your boss wears to work. Wear the same thing the next day. Do this every day.

These things may or may not get you fired. There are, however, tried and true methods guaranteed to earn you that infamous pink slip.

Some industries seem to have more difficulty than most retaining employees. Debbie Weisz, office manager at Montana Jobs, says industrial trades, especially construction, see the most turnover.

Todd Wallace, general manager of High Country Builders in Whitefish, says the biggest problem is employees who simply don't show up for work.

"We're actually pretty forgiving for the most part, especially if they're skilled," Wallace said. "You cut a guy a break more often than not.

"It's just when you start seeing trends, like, why is it every Monday morning you don't show up? Or, why is it every Friday afternoon you get sick and need to go home?"

Sometimes, though, people don't think their excuses through. Wallace remembers what happened with a former employee.

"He ran out of cash, so we gave him a loan before payday," he said. "It was actually at the gas station that night - the owner of the company gave him 100 bucks, and he filled his tank.

"He called the next day, and, you know, talked to a different supervisor and said he'd run out of gas.

"It's like, aren't you thinking? The owner of the company just gave you $100 at the gas station."

Maybe, Wallace added thoughtfully, he should have tried the flat tire excuse.

Most excuses he hears are generic, he said. The majority revolve around car troubles. Some people do tell the painful truth, though.

"Some people do say, 'Yeah, you're right, I drank too much last night and didn't want to come to work today,'" he said.

Bosses aren't the only people to hear excuses. Job agencies hear them, too.

"I've heard every kind of story there is, every reason why somebody couldn't come to work," Weisz said. "I mean, if there's an excuse, I've heard it."

A boss can only take so many excuses, Wallace said.

"You get past a couple of them and you say, 'OK, then, enough is enough,'" he said.

There are other employees, though, who offer no excuse at all, what Weisz calls "no call, no show." Workers assume their bosses or coworkers will know they're sick or have a good reason to miss work, so they don't bother phoning.

Missing work seems to be a more prevalent problem with the younger generation of workers, said Steve Fairchild of Workplace Inc.

"A lot of cases, with young kids these days, the easiest thing is just not to show up," he said. "It doesn't take a lot of imagination and doesn't take a lot of effort, which is right up most kids' alleys."

Some believe the real issue lies with employers who don't understand the young generation of workers. Whereas previous generations

were content to work hard for years so they could rest from their labor in retirement, younger workers want to balance their work lives with their real lives and enjoy some rest now.

"It's not negative," said Virginia Sloan, business advocate for the Department of Labor. "It's just different."

Still, the stigma against young employees remains.

Even if young workers do show up, Wallace said, many do the bare minimum required of them - or less.

"It's really funny that there's a general laziness, especially with the younger generation," he said. "It seems like the younger generation expects high pay and low work: 'Pay me a lot, and I want to work as little as possible.'

"It's almost like they believe that it's something that they just deserve, like they just deserve to get a paycheck."

To be fair, maybe those people who do show up have good reason not to perform their assigned tasks: maybe they don't know how.

"I see a lot of people that want jobs they're not qualified for," Weisz said.

She remembers one client who wanted to transition from food handling to an office job.

"They've been the deli clerk at the grocery store for three years, but that does not qualify you for anyone's front desk," she said. "You've got to have the typing skills, the data-entry skills. You have the people skills, but you don't have the clerical skills. You've got to have something that backs up the job requirements."

Too often, people simply lie about the skills they possess. According to a recent study conducted by resume writing service ResumeDoctor.com, nearly half of all resumes contain significant inaccuracies.

The study looked at over 1,000 resumes from entry-level to executive-level positions. Of those, 42.7 percent contained one or more significant inaccuracies, and 12.6 percent contained two or more inaccuracies.

"Odds are that nearly one out of two resumes misrepresent the job seeker's employment history or education," Brad Fredericks, co-founder of ResumeDoctor.com, said in a press release.

Weisz has seen this happen countless times.

"You sign those applications and authorize the employer to thoroughly check the application over. If you falsify it and say you worked here for a year and half as a manager, and your reference comes back from corporate saying your job title was customer service …

"Falsifying your application and your resume is a good way to end that relationship," Weisz continued.

When this happens, Wallace said, it's nice to have a 90-day grace period after hiring a person. Sometimes it's necessary to let them go right away.

"There are people who say, 'I'm a journeyman carpenter,' and they don't even know how to hammer a nail," he said.

There are some incredible but real reasons workers get fired. Drinking on the job - or coming to work drunk, high or hungover - is another all-too-common issue, Fairchild said.

"They come in drunk or high - or act like they are," he said.

"We have people come in here drunk as can be wanting a job," his coworker, Rachael Gifford, added.

Today's modern conveniences create still another termination-worthy problem: answering personal cell phones on company time.

"If it's work related and the company hands you a cell phone, that's fine," Weisz said. "But if it's your personal cell phone, it does not belong in the office. It belongs at home."

Using an office phone for too many personal calls or abusing Internet and e-mail privileges are also common problems.

Then there are those employees who show up against their will.

"Somebody, whether it's their wife or their mother, said hey, it's time for you to get a job," Wallace said. "Then they do it and find out they really don't like working."

These are typically the people who try to come up with a "legitimate" excuse for getting fired, often by faking an injury.

"You see them three days later in the supermarket, and they're just fine," Fairchild said. "Then they make eye contact and then suddenly, the limp is back."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.