I came to work on Tuesday morning and two of my employees were fist fighting in the parking lot.
It was easily one of the most horrifying sites to witness.
The guys were beating the tar out of each other. They were on the ground rolling around, throwing punches and kicks, and several additional employees were yelling and screaming like it was a wrestling cage match. I immediately broke up the fight and took both employees inside the building. I made them sit in the office until I could give out the daily schedules. Those guys were supposed to be helping with heat pump repairs today. I scheduled ten different heat pump tune-up services for the day and I had three employees that need to be treated like children. I talked to each one of the HVAC technicians separately. I quickly realized the fight was over a woman that one of my employees was dating. Apparently, the woman has also been dating another employee. Both guys found out about the cheating and brought the issue to work. I suspended the employees for three days without pay. I don’t care who ends up with the woman, but those guys better not come back to work with a chip on their shoulder. I’ll fire both of them and find someone else to take their place in a heartbeat. I have a stack of employee applications and there are fifty or sixty certified HVAC technicians that would love to work for this company. I don’t want to lose either one of the guys, but I won’t stand for the drama in my workshop.