Source
r/jobs•
hellofellowhuman

Employee Doesn't Know Basic Grammar

I am having a disagreement with my fellow business owner on whether or not this issue requires correction, so please let me know whether or not I'm in the wrong.

I have an employee whose job it is to update our internal database. She's a $9/hr. worker. Now, I don't require perfection in all things. However, it's beginning to really annoy me that my database is being covered in basic spelling and grammatical errors.

She doesn't know how to use their/they're/there, so I am constantly correcting database notes like "There not buying X at the moment."

Should I have a talk with her, or should I leave it alone? My business partner says to leave it alone, but this is driving me insane.

If I should talk with her, how do I go about it without seeming like a jerk/embarrassing her?

Posted Mar 22, 2017, 8:11 PM UTC

525
OliviaPresteign•

This would drive me batshit.

That said, this is not a customer-facing database, and the notes are mainly for your own use. For someone you're paying hardly above minimum wage, I would do my best to ignore it as it doesn't hinder your business in any way. If you want higher quality work, then pay more for it.

12
EdmondDantes76•

Agree 100%. You get what you pay for.

6
hellofellowhumanOP•

Yeah, the only reason that I haven't spoken to her is that I expect poor work because of this pay level. However, we've given her opportunities to do better and make more money but she hasn't exactly jumped on them.

1
281fishing•

When people say that you get a substandard worker because of the substandard pay, I don't think they're saying that paying her more will fix the problem. You would probably be better off replacing her and advertising the position differently to attract better talent.

6
hellofellowhumanOP•

Yeah, I understand, but for the most part she does alright at her job, even though she has a whole bunch of other issues. It's just this one thing that I can't work with.

Edit: Also there are people in this thread who are 100% saying that. She wouldn't hunker down and work if I gave her $20/hr.

2
hellofellowhumanOP•

I'm for the most part cool with her taking as much sick time as she wants (she's taken 15 days in 8 months), going for a million smoke breaks in a day, and spending too much time in the bathroom (she takes like 10 bathroom breaks a day), so I'm not too concerned about how much I pay her. She's not getting the $2/hour raise that I was thinking about because of that, but no hard feelings. It's just this issue is driving me nuts.

1
EdmondDantes76•

Do you think the fact that she doesn't give a shit about her job has anything to do with her terrible pay? Hmmmmmm....

7
hellofellowhumanOP•

Meh, we've given her some opportunities to make more money. She hasn't jumped on them. Her husband's unemployed and not seeking work because he gets benefits. I just don't have sympathy beyond letting her do her thing and fuck around. She buys a crazy amount of electronics too, I don't know where she gets the money for it.

2
stevezap•

If she's a bad/hopeless employee, just fire her if you can back up the excess smoke breaks and typos. It'll save you a heart attack.

I'm pretty sure bathroom breaks are ok. Ladies tend to need them more at certain times of the month.

If you were going to give her $2 raise. Why don't you just have a meeting and say "I've got budget for a raise, but I've noticed these typos everywhere. If you can fix them and stop them happening, you can have the raise in a month" The carrot tends to work better than the stick :-)

3
hellofellowhumanOP•

No one needs to take that long in the bathroom, and I already tried.

-1
atlantisgate•

Do you manage her? If so, you should definitely say something. And these conversations are best if they're direct.

"Georgina, I've noticed that there are quite a few spelling and grammar errors in our database, and it's taking time for me to go back and fix them. Often their/there/they're is misused, for example. I wanted to brainstorm a few options to fix these errors with you. Do you have any ideas?"

Then listen to see if she has any ideas. If no, come with a couple of your own (cheat sheet for commonly misused words on her desk, writing the database notes in a spellcheck program first, etc.) and make a plan. The goal should be that she walks away from that conversation A. knowing that something needs to be fixed and B. having some idea of how to fix it.

5
hellofellowhumanOP•

Thanks for the script. This seems like a good approach.

3
5y64r1t3•

Everyone here keeps saying the same thing I'm gonna say. She seems like a terrible employee. The grammar stuff is one thing, personally that would be enough IMO to justify replacing her, but the other stuff you detailed in the comments takes it over the edge to the point where you seem like a massive pushover. I wouldn't worry at all about seeming like a jerk or embarrassing her when she's been taking advantage of you for how long? She's found that she can get away with being a piss poor employee so of course she's not going to put any effort into her work. You should be offended to be perfectly honest.

My spelling and grammar are flawless (when I actually care) and I can't find a decent job to save my life, literally. I'm sure you can find someone like me to replace her.

4
hotcofffee•

It's disheartening to me that someone like this is employed and I am not haha

I almost agree with your business partner... but I also understand that it is driving you crazy.

If you do approach her about it, I would give her the benefit of the doubt (assume this is just an honest mistake and not that she actually has poor spelling/grammar). Politely mention it to her. I would say it like this, "hey I've noticed some grammar errors on the database, could you make sure to double check the notes that you input?" I would say this to her the next time you notice a mistake and show her exactly what the mistake is.

3
hellofellowhumanOP•

Well, she's paid very poorly, and she could be paid a lot more if she actually got her shit together and put 2 hours straight of work in without taking constant cigarette breaks, going to the bathroom for an hour out of the day, saying condescending shit every once in a while (haven't touched on that yet - I'm cool to her, what gives?), or flat out refusing to follow the directives that would lead to a bit more pay.

Based on your paragraph, you'd be a much better employee, but you don't want to start out where she did. Even though she was on the path to a much better paying career.

1
5y64r1t3•

What do you mean they wouldn't "want to start out where she did"? Do you understand how many of us there are out here that are beyond overqualified for entry level positions and can't even get those? We've been so beaten down that we will take practically anything. $9/hr is a bit low where I live, well it's below minimum wage, but the cost of living is very high here. I'm a very bright, talented person and I can't find even a minimum wage job most of the time let alone anything higher than that. Please give someone else this job, this woman is completely ungrateful. Please give someone else the chance so many of us desperately need.

7
EdmondDantes76•

Two things:

  1. Of course you can have a talk with this person and a simple explanation of the errors doesn't have to be condescending.

  2. Pay your workers a living wage. Entry level or not, nobody can survive on this shameful wage.

3
hellofellowhumanOP•

I would've been cool paying her more, but she hasn't jumped on the opportunities. She's content. It's the only reason that I haven't spoken to her in the past.

1
nickarmadillo•

As others have said, you get what you pay for.

You chose to offer terrible pay, so you are going to get a terrible employee who does things like take an excessive amount of smoke breaks and misspell things. This person makes the same wage as a McDonalds burger flipper, so you can't really expect much. If you are looking for higher-quality work, find somebody qualified and offer a better wage.

2
hellofellowhumanOP•

Or, you know, I could get her to do this one thing better because otherwise everyone is content.

-1
nickarmadillo•

But from what you said, the spelling isn't the only problem. You mentioned constant cigarette breaks, hour-long bathroom breaks, general bad attitude, and a refusal follow the directives.

It sounds as if you have a problem employee and the solution is likely finding somebody who doesn't do all of those things, which you will likely have to pay more.

1
rabiesawareness•

This thread is hard to wrap my head around.

OP, you keep saying that other than the grammar issue, she's basically fine and everyone is content with her work. But then you take a lot of time to detail her flaws to us. They are not really related to the original question, but they clearly upset you. You're even irked by how she spends her money. You've got a running tally of her trips to the bathroom. So when I read all this, I get the sense you hate working with this person and everything she does rubs you the wrong way. Which makes me think the issue is bigger than the grammar even though you keep saying it's not. I don't know what you do with that.

And it doesn't really answer your question, does it? One cheap workaround might be to tell her to use "customer" instead of "they're." I don't know, percentage-wise, how many errors that would fix, though.

2
hellofellowhumanOP•

I only list her flaws in response to people telling me to pay her more. I would pay her more if she didn't have these major flaws. She does her job adequately for what I pay her. That's why I'm content.

That might be a cheap workaround.

1
KernLittle•

How much work does she actually do? Can you just fire her and have someone else pick up the slack for a couple bucks more an hour?

1