My 17 Kids

I love my team, I really do! But I swear I am raising children!

Out of 17 employees, all but 2 are under the age of 24. The other 2 are around 26.

I've had to laugh at myself lately as I have had to get creative in getting them to listen.

The break room has been a horrific mess. There was food on the floor and on the wall. Wrappers and containers everywhere, loads and loads of cups, etc.

I asked the cleaning crew to grab every cup and put it in a trash bag in my office. They had 48 hours to collect their cups and then they went in the dumpster!

Oh, and if I caught the break room like that again, it was off limits.

Not 2 days later, did someone leave their Jack in the Box food out. I promptly threw it away, turned the break room table upside down, as well as the chairs. They went the weekend without a break room.

The break room has been clean ever since!

I have also been fighting with them on sitting down while with a customer. In the days that I was a rep, I would work open to close, 6 days a week (I was an overtime hog) without a seat. These guys complain about standing for an hour. I give them plenty of breaks, but I constantly see a chair mysteriously wind up at their POS stations.

Today, I had enough. I promptly propped open the back door, asked my technician if he needed to release some aggression, and we took all the chairs but 2 and went outside and threw them in the dumpster. The 2 we kept are for one employee that is pregnant and for a customer if needed.

Wearing their name tag is the next thing I'm battling. I'm thinking of making a name tag that has this really awful name or something that they have to wear when they forget theirs.

No wonder I don't want children...I'm frickin' raising 17 of them!