Is my staff member trying to fool me?

[Mickey Boy]

I have been receiving multiple complaints from my regular customers that they have been charged for window cleaning which hasn't taken place. My staffers use Cleaner Planner to regulate their work lists. All of these complaints relate to the same staff member. He is trying to convince me that his headphones are transmitting signals which are interfering with his Cleaner Planner App and this is the reason for all these complaints. It looks like he is marking jobs as 'done' which he hasn't done. Has anyone else had this issue or do you think he's trying to pull the wool over my eyes?

 

[Part Timer]

So he's saying the headphones, not him, are marking the jobs as done. Time to get rid

 

[spruce]

I have been receiving multiple complaints from my regular customers that they have been charged for window cleaning which hasn't taken place. My staffers use Cleaner Planner to regulate their work lists. All of these complaints relate to the same staff member. He is trying to convince me that his headphones are transmitting signals which are interfering with his Cleaner Planner App and this is the reason for all these complaints. It looks like he is marking jobs as 'done' which he hasn't done. Has anyone else had this issue or do you think he's trying to pull the wool over my eyes?

As an employer, you do run the risk of employing a dishonest worker.

Does he have his own customer base? Are these customers that he has been marking as done on his route or are they random ones from all over? If they are ones on his route that day, then the evidence is that he has been ticking jobs off he hasn't done.

My suggestion would be to give him paper job lists to work from, and remove him as a CP user for a while.

You are doing this as he himself admits that it's his headphones that must be causing the problem.

This is going to be more work for you. But you have to remove all the possibilities before you take action.

There was a poster on the forums many years ago who had employees who were marking off jobs as completed when they didn't do the job. These were commercial premises. Initially he installed stickers in the corner of one of the windows that the employees had to scan when they completed the job. They just sat in the van, then one of them got out and scanned the sticker and they moved on to do the same with the next job.
He followed them around for a few days and had video evidence of them sitting in the van and messing on not working. Documented proof.

They didn't realise that part of the scanning recorded the date and time of the scan. One day they decided to run around all their route scanning the stickers and when they finished too the rest of the day off.

 

[ched999uk]

Does Cleaner Planner time stamp the invoices it creates? If so you can probably look back and see how long between invoices to see what sort of time the 'jobs' are now taking vs what they took last time. i.e. is he finishing 1 job then immediately marking the next as done.
If he is blaming his headphones then maybe he should be stopped from using them as they are interfering with his work.
I would also ask Cleaner Planer if there is any way 'headphones' ( I assume Bluetooth) can mark jobs as complete as I'm fairly sure that's impossible. Bluetooth headsets have a limited set of controls they can perform and I very much doubt Cleaner Planner has implemented any bluetooth control functions.

In my opinion if he continues using headphones that he believes are causing issues and complaints then that's got to be a written warning.

 

[Pjj]

Even if they are interfering with it he should know if he’s done a job or not surely ? Time to get rid of I think , do you have a tracker ? Can you check ware he is and what he’s doing ? If he’s missing a lot of jobs what’s he doing is he coming home early ? Or has he started building his own round and doing that instead of your work ? Try following him at a distance and see what he’s doing , but I still feel it’s time to get rid of

 

[adamangler]

I can see how he might click done by mistake. What you should do is pull up google maps on the ones that have complained and say have you cleaned this house ?

If he says i dont know hes lying you would know....

 

[Scrubsy]

I have been receiving multiple complaints from my regular customers that they have been charged for window cleaning which hasn't taken place. My staffers use Cleaner Planner to regulate their work lists. All of these complaints relate to the same staff member. He is trying to convince me that his headphones are transmitting signals which are interfering with his Cleaner Planner App and this is the reason for all these complaints. It looks like he is marking jobs as 'done' which he hasn't done. Has anyone else had this issue or do you think he's trying to pull the wool over my eyes?

@Mickey Boy is your staff member saying he hasn't done the work and it's been ticked off by mistake? I suppose it's good he's not saying he's done the work when he hasn't. If he's been good until now maybe worth the benefit of the doubt and a warning of some sort but you'll know him better than anyone. I'd also contact cleaner planner and just ask if they've any knowledge of this sort of thing happening. That can give you a bit of back up if similar happens again.

 

[Cleanco]

I use headphones all the time and this has never happened to me. How long has he been using the app as if it’s relatively new to him and he’s not good with tech albeit very simple it may just be a mistake. That said he should know the round without the planner really so should be no excuse for missing houses. I know cp are doing a major overhaul of their app this weekend and have warned to regularly update changes this coming Friday throughout the day so you don’t lose any inputted info so maybe that has so writing to do with it?

 

[Peter J]

From just reading the title my answer would be ‘yes’ but as the others have said you do need to give them the benefit of the doubt and investigate further.

 

[Bell Pallisey]

Leave a fake customer list with prices in the glove box,see if it goes

 

[Yogi1872]

dont quite understand this tbh, the work load you have given him that day, that should be done so it should be getting billed, or is he just billing them so it looks like he’s done them to you, just choose a handful of his workload that day and go check 2 windows on each of them, you’ll know if its been done or not, workers tell there boss lies all the time, im pretty sure when you were employed you lied to the boss now and then too.

When i was working for someone and they came out and wanted there gutters done, instead of telling him i done the gutter i used to take the money and use it tick of houses I didn’t like doing so it looked like they were done and paid. Others used to keep the money, although what i was doing was wrong, i didn’t see it as stealing tbh as I wasn’t technically taking the money. All workers do stuff and not tell the boss,

 

[Cleanco]

dont quite understand this tbh, the work load you have given him that day, that should be done so it should be getting billed, or is he just billing them so it looks like he’s done them to you, just choose a handful of his workload that day and go check 2 windows on each of them, you’ll know if its been done or not, workers tell there boss lies all the time, im pretty sure when you were employed you lied to the boss now and then too.

When i was working for someone and they came out and wanted there gutters done, instead of telling him i done the gutter i used to take the money and use it tick of houses I didn’t like doing so it looked like they were done and paid. Others used to keep the money, although what i was doing was wrong, i didn’t see it as stealing tbh as I wasn’t technically taking the money. All workers do stuff and not tell the boss,

When I used work for someone I had loads of jobs inbetween that I kept for myself. I was open about it with my boss and his reply was as long as his work comes first and I treat his equipment as it was my own then he wasn’t bothered. Proper sound guy.

 

[Yogi1872]

When I used work for someone I had loads of jobs inbetween that I kept for myself. I was open about it with my boss and his reply was as long as his work comes first and I treat his equipment as it was my own then he wasn’t bothered. Proper sound guy.

Any new houses that got picked up just got added to his. For 2 weeks out of the 4 i was always doing a part of the run with someone else, done it for a good few years, on leaving i could have taken about 90% of the run if i chapped them, got on with the boss and still do,so taking them was never something that was thought about. If I’ve needed a bigger ladder for a job he’s always helped me out which he wouldnt do for others.

 

[Ian Sheppard]

Just come across this post. From a technical point of view the headphones and the mobile the cleaner planner app are on will have been EMC tested ( Electromagnetic compatibility) In short any electrical device has to be tested to ensure it will not interfere with another device nearby, All Spring products are tested and conform to EMC standards. So it is very unlikely that the headphones are creating the issue.

However as other have commented this might be down to missunderstanding or error when using cleaner planner. Perhaps run a training session on Cleaner planner, use paper lists in the short term. As other have suggested check time stamps on the app are all the jobs singed off in a short period.

Do a little digging and investigate, but from a technical perspective it is highly unlikely the headphones are creating interference with a phone app.

Cheers

 

[Yogi1872]

If its not his work hes meant to have done that day then it will be a genuine mistake, if that was his work schedule for that day and hes not done them but billed them all then hes at it obviously, if its not his days work and something else then its probably a mistake as hes not gaining anything from billing customers for work that hes not even got that day, theres no money benefit either as it doesnt go to his account.

 

[Orgasmic window cleaning]

If he can’t tick a list competently, get rid.

 

[dazmond]

I have been receiving multiple complaints from my regular customers that they have been charged for window cleaning which hasn't taken place. My staffers use Cleaner Planner to regulate their work lists. All of these complaints relate to the same staff member. He is trying to convince me that his headphones are transmitting signals which are interfering with his Cleaner Planner App and this is the reason for all these complaints. It looks like he is marking jobs as 'done' which he hasn't done. Has anyone else had this issue or do you think he's trying to pull the wool over my eyes?

He's lying.....its obvious that he's marking jobs done when he's not cleaned them....

I had my brother work with me once and I sacked him after 3 days!he kept missing windows out thinking the customer wouldn't notice!

The only difference here is your employee is missing whole houses..

 

[Yogi1872]

He's lying.....its obvious that he's marking jobs done when he's not cleaned them....

I had my brother work with me once and I sacked him after 3 days!he kept missing windows out thinking the customer wouldn't notice!

The only difference here is your employee is missing whole houses..

Missing a full house instead of a few windows makes it look more like a genuine mistake too.

 

[Pjj]

Missing a full house instead of a few windows makes it look more like a genuine mistake too.

But not when it’s several houses

 

[johnny bravo]

go out with him , see if he does them automatically watch how he works

 

[dazmond]

C,mon!the guy is taking the pee!to blame his headphones tells you what an idiot he must think his employer is(or a soft touch)...

He s blatantly charging customers without doing the work....

Sack him straight away!