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I work with my mom
Hi all I am brand new, and need help badly. I am a 40 year old woman, who hired her own mother in a retail store. I have only five employees, and it's a relaxed environment, because we all formed freindships, and are close. My mom retired, and wanted a part time job. She kept saying well my daughter will hire me. I didn't have the nerve to tell her it wouldn't work out at the time, and hired her. I knew she was hard to get along with, and that she'd make waves at work with everyone else and msyelf. Everyone, of course, has complaints about coworkers from time to time, but my mom takes it to exhausting limits. We had a call off, one of the guys volunteered to work it, and he did some of the required work, and some things he generally does on his usual shift. My mom wandered into work a shift later, and was extremely aggitated he did not complete the list for that specific shift. I started to explain that he had checked with me, and that he did things that were normally ignored by everyone else. This aggitated her even more and she told me not to defend him. She then granted herself 3 hours of overtime to fill up all the items that needed stocked, in a tirade the entire time upsetting the clerk on duty, and giving me and all the customers an earful when we entered the store. I let it go, and so did the assistant manager she was trashing into the ground. I decided to have a store meeting, and presented everyone with a handbook that discussed everything you could possibly imagine for a professional work place. One item in particular made her irate. I said there was a chain of command, that the owner was first in line, I am second, and my assistant is third, and that he had the right to write up or fire anyone who did not adhere to the rules set forth in the new handbook. She wanted to discuss this, and things got heated cause she refuses to allow me or my assistant to show any authority over her. She has run all over me since day one, and I decided it was time to put my foot down. I know it will come down to letting her go, because she will not let this go until she gets exactly what she wants, for me to fire the assistant. Not to repeat myself, but she feels her age and experience allows her to make her own decisions not concurrent with mine or the owners. It's about what she feels is best for the business. (and normally that goes right along with how to screw over the assistant for her own personal satisfaction) To make matters worse, this assistant is my second best friend, whom I've known for four years. I really need to quit hiring people I know! Anyway, she tells me to raise the price of certain items, and I said I'll look into it, and she does it anyway. I never give her an answer of what I decide, and she takes it upon herself to implement what she says. She takes silence as a form of agreement, and she does not realize that I don't want to hurt her feelings and tell her her figures on gross margin are incorrect. Because she is my mother, she expects full loyalty, and no matter who is right, I am to take her side on every matter. I can't do that, it's not my job to tell her she's right. It's my job to try to fix the situation, not make her happy. Any advice would be appreciated. I almost walked out and quit last night, due to her tirade at the store meeting. I fear I won't have any kind of relationship with my mother if we continue to work together... and I can't tell her this cause she has already said well I am not quitting! Like I said she will not quit, she will stay until she gets her own way, and makes the assistant quit with her temper tantrums.
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