The summer heat is upon us. The economy is starting to pick up. Your employees are getting busier. Some of them may be complaining that they don't have enough time to do everything they need to do. 
   Your office personnel are like your technicians in many ways. They slow down to fit the times. If a technician wants 40 hours of pay, they slow down each call a little to ensure they get their eight hours, or close to it, every day. Your office personnel do the same thing. Remember how much work they accomplished in busier times in the past? 
   One of my clients was amazed when, in the slower times, he cut the office personnel's time by an hour per day. They got their work done in 35 hours rather than 40. He realized how much they had "slowed down" to stretch their work to fill the time.
   The only way to ensure that your external clients (the people and companies who write you checks) are taken care of is to make sure that your internal customers (those people who take care of your external clients) are taken care of. This "taking care" has to be reasonable. With that said, sometimes it is very difficult to manage employees when it gets hot or busy. Stress increases, tempers get short, and everyone "doesn't have enough time" as an excuse. 
   No one is indispensable. Recently, in a very busy time in Connecticut, one of the senior technicians' was in an automobile accident: he broke his wrist and had a concussion. He's OK, but out of work. The owner had to deal with it and find others to cover his work when everyone was extremely busy, but he did it.
   This message needs to get to all of your employees...especially those who think they can get away with things because they feel indispensable. After all it's hot. What are you going to do if you fire them? Or, it's a very busy time and the attitude may be "you can't afford to fire me." The answer is, "if you got hit by a truck tomorrow, I'd have to deal with you being gone." 
   Whether it is busy or slow, you have to have consistent discipline. Just as you can't make rules for some employees and not for others, you can't make rules for busy and slow times. Here are eight things to remember: 

   1. Have a good working environment for your employees and yourself. The best working environments are where employees know that they are all treated fairly, know what is expected of them and know what will happen if they don't follow the rules. Discipline is in place and followed; no matter who the individual is, what the time of year is, or what the economic conditions.

   2. Everyone, including your most productive employees, makes mistakes. Discuss the situation with the employee. If he or she doesn't realize that it was a mistake, point out why and find out what that person will do not to let it happen again. 

   3. "Catch your employees doing something right" and praise them publicly. If a customer calls in, put the conversation in writing and put it somewhere everyone can see it. Mention it in a meeting. Send a note home to the employee's spouse or significant other. Employees always like compliments. Catching the doing something right takes only a few seconds. 

   4. "Catch your employees doing something wrong" and discipline them immediately and in private. The worst thing that you can do is not to say something. The employee may not realize that he did something wrong. If he did and you don't say something, then he thinks that he got away with something and the bad behavior is likely to be reinforced. 

   5. Make sure that you stay upbeat. In busy times you can get grouchy, too. Your moods have a great effect on your employees' moods. If you are positive, they will be positive.

   Consistent discipline is critical at any time. It is especially critical in busy times because employees think they can get away with more than in slower time. Remember, you have to be fair; you don't always have to be nice.