Talking to potential customers for my small business?

Crazy boss won't listen to employees/customers. What can I do?

• This is a big problem for my wife, working at a local bakery/coffee shop. A little background to understand the situation: The owner works a LOT of hours: from 2 AM to 3 PM every day, usually. (store hours are 7-3, I think) I think she leaves at 1 PM on Thursdays, and the business is not open weekends. So we all know right away that her brain has a hard time processing things by the middle of the week, at best. She simply won't trust anyone to manage in her absence, except perhaps her daughters on occasion. This business began as an out-of-home operation years and years ago when her daughters were younger and still living at home. They all pitched in to help with things, and once the store opened, most of them worked part-time for a while to get things going, and other employees were hired to fill the schedule. All of the daughters have grown up, moved on and started their own careers, except for the youngest who continues to work at the bakery. Now with the owner burned out mentally from overwork, but refusing to delegate management to anyone "outside the family," lots of problems crop up. She plays favorites, usually with her family, but she has singled out one girl (youngest employee there) as her favorite for whatever reason. This girl knows it and uses this position to her advantage; never working closing shift, always has Fridays off, never comes in to help when extra help is needed, etc. She is not afraid of anything and knows she can get away with everything, short of actual theft or vandalism. Customers have been complaining about wait times, errors in orders, unfriendly employees or poor customer service (usually they're worn out). The owner takes charge of most of the baking in the morning and lately the most routine things are being screwed up; bread being underdone, morning preparation taking longer and longer each week. Customers have complained to the owner in person, and she either makes excuses or blows them off instead of apologizing or addressing the problem; she just won't listen! Now the staff isn't very big, I believe only about 3 employees work full time, including my wife, and 3-4 more have part time hours for health reasons. The owner tries to keep the payroll as low as she can manage without anyone going into overtime, which puts a lot of stress on the full-time workers to get more work done in less time. So this is a skeleton crew for the place, at best, and has no depth of personnel for emergencies, rushes of customers, illness, etc. This puts a lot of stress on everyone there and put simply, they're getting burned out. This is not a new situation, and everyone there has tried talking to the owner individually and as a group to help even out the working schedule, maybe assign a daytime/afternoon manager to help ease the owner's workload and get her to leave earlier in the day to rest, recuperate. Anytime my wife tries to speak up on her own, she is at best ignored, at worst treated as a pariah and gets her hours cut back for a week or so as a punishment. And it applies to anyone not the favorite employee or a family member; you try to speak up and you are ignored, or punished. There are qualified people there who could step up as a manager, but the owner simply thinks if any mistake is made she needs to step in and do things rather than let someone possibly make an error again. This woman simply doesn't know how to run things, never did, or can't because she's working herself to death. What can be done? These aren't violations of any employee rights as far as the law goes (from what I know/looked up), nothing short of the full time workers just walking out together would get her attention, and my wife and I literally can't afford her not working right now. Getting work around here is really tough (I've been looking for over two months, myself), and she's afraid of losing her job if she tries anything to fix this. Should we talk to a lawyer? Is there anything anyone at this place can do to get this woman to take care of her employees like she should be? Help! -Frustrated Husband

• Answer:

  Your wife's boss owns the business and as such has every right, and authority, to do whatever she feels is right for her business. Employees will have a contract of employment, and adhering to the terms of this contract is the only thing that your wife's boss "should be doing" for her employees. It is a business, not a social club, nor a counselling service. If you suspect that your wife's contract of employment is being breached, then you can involve a lawyer, but frankly speaking the very concept of involving a lawyer on the grounds that your wife's boss is alleged to run her business badly, be unpleasant to people or fail to delegate is infantile nonsense. If it really is that unbearable, then find another job and then quit this one. Grow up.