What do you call a lead brewer that refuses to scrub a floor?

[Ted Briggs]

give him this

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/leadership_traits.htm

[Erdinger2003]

He felt doing floors was beneath him.

Then he doesn't want to brew, he wants to be in charge of something. Someone else said this earlier, there are many people willing to take his place (me included). No shortness of people who are passionate about brewing.

[Selkirk]

The key for me is "refuses".

If I've asked someone to do something and it remains undone, they will soon be separated from the payroll.

That said, you can fire everyone but then you have to do everything yourself.

Cheers.

[Gunrunner]

Insubordination. Fired. I would never ask anyone to do a job that I would not do myself. If he can not do the job then he can not ask others to do it either. Get rid of him before he becomes a bigger problem.

[LuskusDelph]

My first thought is "prima donna"...

My first thought was "pompous a$$"...but "prima donna" covers it pretty well too.

Everyone is replaceable and there are probably plenty of people who would line up to take over his job.
After all, it's not really a secret anymore that making beer is fairly easy. Finding an audience for it in a glut of choice is the challenging part; It hardly matters who's sweating over the kettle.

[nateo]

Could be this individual does not understand his full job description (having those things written down untangles many confusing days!) or others in the brewery do not understand his full job description.

Definitely get that in writing. Your job, as his manager, is to manage him. That includes making expectations explicit, as well as consequences for poor performance. Don't set him up for failure by having nebulous or capricious expectations. A job description should be flexible to the business' needs, but if you keep dumping more and more water in his bucket, he'll resent you and do a bad job.

But, if you've been clear all along about what the job requires, and his work-load is what you agreed on, then discipline him.

[kai]

I keep doing that thing every time I open this thread, the one where you put your finger halfway up, open your mouth and close it again.

Ultimately, I keep coming back to one thing: What does a 'lead brewer' do? More specifically, what does this lead brewer do? Is he there on the floor making wort in the brewhouse, or is he a "swivel chair brewer", pushing mice and keyboards (nobody does pencils anymore)?

If he has to spend most of his day in a chair with a phone glued to his ear working his way through the inbox, then he likely has more important things to do and his salary probably does not justify idling away with a parts bucket or a floor.

If he is on the factory floor, then he needs to pull his finger out of his arse.

[is_wiz]

unemployed

[Greenbushguy]

Fired.

*************

You took the words right outta my mouth! hahaha

[nateo]

Everyone is replaceable and there are probably plenty of people who would line up to take over his job.

That attitude is the exact of opposite of the attitude the most successful companies have. I know I wouldn't want to work for someone who thinks that way.

[magnemelhus]

Depends...

Does he actually refuse or does he delegate? I didn't see a clear answer here, but there is definitely a difference between passing the buck and flat out defying your boss. We are having some issues with employees getting too comfortable and bucking authority on grounds of seniority/unwillingness to perform 'menial' tasks. As a lead brewer who just got done fixing/filling kegs and is about to wash the cellar floor, this attitude does not hold with me.

That said, washing the floor is not as bad as shoveling week-old spent grain... another lovely part of this job :-/

[KFBass]

As a lead brewer who just got done fixing/filling kegs and is about to wash the cellar floor

hey man we all do it. I tell my guys if you see me (as head brewer) cleaning kegs, its means they're doing a great job. Trust your guys.

[CharlosCarlies]

That attitude is the exact of opposite of the attitude the most successful companies have. I know I wouldn't want to work for someone who thinks that way.

Thank you...I'm glad someone else thinks the same way. Yes, everyone is "replaceable", but that doesn't mean it's always for the good of the company. There are some very, very talented people and I've always been of the opinion that they should be compensated well for it. On top of that, turnover is expensive.

To me it's like saying Lebron James is replaceable. While technically true, it would be a terrible way to think about running a pro basketball team.

[nateo]

On top of that, turnover is expensive.

I agree, and I don't think most managers appreciate how expensive turnover is, or how demoralizing that attitude is for employees (and expensive, in terms of reduced productivity and wasted potential).

In the last small business I was running, my senior business partners thought I was "replaceable." Everyone is "replaceable" but at what price? They've hired two full-time and two part-time people to try to replace me, and they had to hire an external accountant as well. So their payroll is three times as large now, plus the accountant's bills. They still hire me for consulting from time to time for some stuff too. I probably would've stayed with them full-time if they didn't have such a terrible attitude towards their employees.

Labor markets aren't perfect, so you may not be able to hire the people you need when you need them. It's not easy, especially for a small business with limited ability to pay for talent, to attract highly-skilled people.

[mashpaddled]

The answer here depends on a number of details. Is this lead brewer managing brewers/brewing or doing the actual brewing? Were expectations set that this kind of work is part of the job? Is the lead brewer's salary an efficient use of resources to scrub a floor? Does the lead brewer have a medical condition that would make it unreasonable to expect him to scrub the floor? Why did the lead brewer refuse to scrub the floor? There are a number of very good reasons why the lead brewer may have declined to personally scrub the floor at that time but alternatively there are just as many good reasons why it was inappropriate for the lead brewer to decline a directive from his or her superior.