Brents IT Blog

Random thoughts by an IT GOAT

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Trivial Matters.. or so you may think

So last year we had a large project and needed to hire staff immediately.  Me being me, i cannot just hire any person, i need someone who can think on their feet.  Unfortunately, when you hire people who can think on their feet, they will let you know when they are not happy.  While i can appreciate open dialog, sometimes trivial things can get convoluted.

So lets take this case.  I hired them to run around to all our locations and help users with computer related issues.  There is an online ticketing system( built it myself ) and email alerts on their phones.  The thought being users could call or submit requests and they would respond to the issues.  While this is all fine and dandy, they have grown accustomed to recieving the extra travel expenses from their daily trips.

Now that the company is doing well again, they have decided to purchase cars that the techs can use instead of burning up their own vechicles.  This also means they can carry larger things and not worry about issues with their cars.  Lets also keep in mind that they were told at the start that we intended to provide them with a vehicle or vehicles at some point, but were unable to due to economic conditions and other departments using the existing cars.

Well with all that said, i get a call from my boss about some unrest in the department after they announced that the company had purchased three new vehicles and that our department would have access to the two vehicles again.  Apparently they had grown accustomed to the travel checks.  They say that the income generated by the travel checks was like a weekly bonus they needed.  Well i can see how some folks would come to think after a year of receiving checks, that they were due the money weekly even if it was never guaranteed.  I have seen this with other employees in other departments, most supervisors told them to bad and some employees quit. 

Since i would rather not go through the hiring process again, i have decided to investigate the going rate for my goffers and see if an adjustment is necessary. Maybe i can provide some relief, assuming my boss agrees.

What would you do?