interviews and Italy

Too much on my mind lately.

I'm struggling with motivating low-wage employees. Too much supervision and they push back or, worse, they turn off their brains and become zombies, passionless and sleepy, uncaring about either the customers or their problems since they have no room to be creative problem-solvers, and then complain behind my back. Too little supervision, and they act like children, watching you tube videos, shopping, generally wasting time, though they are much happier and more tuned-in when a customer calls. I have one employee who thrives either way because he's driven to do a good job no matter what job is given him. The others all seem to just want work to accommodate or, at the least, not bother them.

So obviously I've hired some folks I shouldn't have. I'm going through another round of interviews later this week, to see if I can find some more self-starter types, but I'm having trouble coming up with interview questions that will gauge this for me:

Describe a work-related goal you've recently set for yourself. What was the outcome?


Can you tell me three things you've done in the past year to improve yourself, either professionally or personally?


What is your first reaction when your manager assigns a task you think is impossible?

How would you react if I told you your interview so far was terrible?

I'm not sure if these will help or not, but I suppose asking is better than not asking. What I really want to do is just look them in the eye and say, "Look, what I need are people who are going to come in here, work hard, not bitch about stupid stuff, but put their nose to the grindstone and try. I don't need lallygaggers or time-wasters or people who want to just fade into the background, get a steady paycheck, and not try to rock the boat. I want you to rock the boat, I want you to be a leader. Can you do that? If you can't, I will know in the first month and I will let you go, so you might as well tell me the truth now." I want to scare them into knowing that this job isn't for everyone, so if you're not ready to fight and fight hard, look elsewhere. But in reality, most people would just tell me what I want to hear anyway, hence the trickery in the questions instead of the outright truth.

How would you do in this interview? Would you squirm under the pressure of those questions? What if I told you the dirty truth about what I really need, would you come clean or would you placate me? I suppose it depends on how badly you need the job.

*****

We will be leaving for Italy in two weeks, for two weeks. I would be more excited except that we just got hit with about $2000 of unexpected expenses this week. First, my brakes finally got to the point of no return, and replacing those was not cheap. Then we discovered that my former bookkeeper screwed up my withholding all last year, so we owed a lot to the federal government. When we returned from our accountant's office, our garage door refused to go up-- the rotten cherry on top. While we have enough in savings to cover all that and still pay for the trip, it makes me uncomfortable. The extra padding is gone now. That's life, though, isn't it.

I don't think it's totally sunk in yet that we're going. Every time I see a friend lately that I haven't seen in a week or two, I get asked, "Aren't you getting so excited?" and yes, I am, but I'd classify it more as nervous and anxious than excited. I'm worried I haven't planned enough, I'm worried that we won't understand something or we'll get lost or confused or taken advantage of somehow, I'm worried there will be a problem with our hotel or with getting on the trains or buses, I'm worried about flying and getting to carry on all our stuff or if they'll make us check, I'm worried about the food and getting sick and not understanding everything.

But we survived London for a year, Paris for several days, Mexico for several days. It's not like we've never been anywhere or done anything. This just feels different for some reason. We will be alone, that's why. No friends or anyone to turn to if/when in need. Last time we were like that was the first month of our marriage, the first month in London, when we knew no one and understood nothing, had no money, struggled every day just to figure out what we were doing and survive. It made us so strong as a couple, to have survived that, but I still label it as the worst month of my life. I have to remind myself that Italy will not be like that. I will not be finding apartments or buying furniture or opening bank accounts. All I need is someone to point me in the direction of the nearest museum and the nearest bar, and I'll be just fine.