We’ve all had one or two in our lives…a terrible boss.

Fist-banging, red-faced people who couldn’t see the bigger picture and couldn’t hold their personal emotions at bay.

Maybe you had a terrible boss that lied to you, undermined you, or wouldn’t give you that personal time off you asked for because it didn’t fall in line with his or her goals. Some bosses treat you just like a cog in a wheel and others don’t even give you the time of day.

Remember how you felt after you were screamed at in a meeting or not congratulated on those KPIs you met?

Chances are, you’ll never forget.

But, the positive spin on these workplace experiences is that you can promise yourself you will never treat your own trash valets this way.

Be A Great Boss!

The best part about being a great boss (and having learned the hard way), is now that you own your own trash valet business, you can show your trash valets just how valuable they are to your company.

Not only will being a great boss be part of your management skillset, it will also increase productivity!

Happy employees are the most productive employees and it doesn’t mean you have to give up precious time outside of growing your business.

In fact, building your business should include time spent fostering healthy professional relationships with your employees. To promote your valet trash business, you take the time to ensure your relationships with the property managers and door-to-door residents are always in good standing. The same should be applied to your trash valets.

Basic Employee Management

To manage your trash valets, you must always treat them with respect. They are humans with personal lives just like you. You may not all adhere to the same principals in life, but you can count on the fact that they all have families they care for and bills they need to pay. They have good days and bad days just like you and deserve to be treated with decency. All humans need to feel accepted and safe before they will open up and give full effort for someone else, no matter the situation.

All humans need to feel accepted and safe before they will open up and give full effort for someone else, no matter the situation.

Acknowledging these basic human needs is the first step to being a great boss.

Management Tips…

• Be Organized!

As a boss, be consistent with scheduling, paychecks, and team meetings. No one appreciates unreliability. Your trash valets rely on you to give them the wages they worked hard for. Miss a pay period or neglect to show up to a meeting and any respect they have for you will go down the drain.

• Be Available!

If one of your trash valets approaches you with an issue, stop what you are doing and take the time to listen. Yeah, you may be in the middle of writing a report or getting ready to leave for the day, but nothing shows more couth than proving to your employee that he or she is important enough that you are available to help solve a problem or just hear what they have to say. If the conversation ends with you having to make a decision, or meet with another employee, don’t react without thinking through the entire situation clearly.

Never respond when you are upset and promise the employee you will follow up later. Also, showing yourself around the valet trash headquarters or arriving onsite regularly shows your trash valets that you are part of the team, not just the person who owns the company.

• Communicate!

There’s nothing more annoying as an employee than to have your boss hulk around the office, never saying a word until something goes wrong, reacting instead of being proactive. If you’re the quiet type, this doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to become the extrovert of the year, it just means that you need to let your trash valets know what’s going on.

Larger organizations may send out newsletters to notify employees of changes or events, but you will benefit most from holding a team meeting once a week or twice a month. This will give you the time to check in with all trash valets personally (as a group during, and one-to-one after, the meeting) and touch on the availability aspect. The most important part

If you’re the quiet type, this doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to become the extrovert of the year, it just means that you need to let your trash valets know what’s going on. Larger organizations may send out newsletters to notify employees of changes or events, but you will benefit most from holding a team meeting once a week or twice a month. This will give you the time to check in with all trash valets personally (as a group during, and one-to-one after, the meeting) and touch on the availability aspect. The most important part

The most important part about a team meeting is keeping the trash valets informed straight from the horse’s mouth (that’s you). This eliminates any grapevine communication, better known as gossip, and therefore makes all employees feel they are on the same page. This builds confidence through

This type of basic team-building instills confidence through way of respect.

Way to go!

• Encourage and Reward!

Nothing boosts respect and likeability more than being rewarded for a job well done. When you show your trash valets that you appreciate the extra mile they went for a resident or congratulate them on the positive review they got from a property manager, they will strive to continue their outstanding service and take pride in their work.

Remember, you don’t want to continue the cycle of bad management that you had to endure as an employee once. What goes around, comes around.

When an employee knows that the dedication that he or she put into their job will be noticed, they will want to continue to work for you and to do the job right. This doesn’t mean you should dole out the rewards to the point they become tiresome. A good balance will ensure that you are paying attention and will address the efforts in a reasonable time.

Encouragement is necessary, too. If you notice a trash valet is struggling with a difficult time, a few words of encouragement can go a long way. Go the extra mile and bring donuts to work one morning or cater the team meetings. These are all small things that will keep your employees happy with their place of employment.

It’s up to you to make your valet waste company a great place to work.

…To Increase Productivity

So, where does all of this great boss stuff play into the productivity aspect?

Well, when your trash valets are…

• respected
• encouraged
• rewarded
• acknowledged
• can trust & rely on you

…They will do their valet trash jobs well.

This means productivity.

Appreciating and treating every employee as an individual will nurture their desire to want to do well. If your trash valets know that you will call them out on going the extra mile on a job site, they will do it again.

If your employees know you will be able to diplomatically handle any job-related concerns they may have, they will stick around.

When employees are provided with everything they need to live their lives (i.e. enough money for food/shelter, a safe place to work, and their individuality and contributions appreciated) they will want to work for you and they will want to keep their jobs with your company. To do so, they know that they will need to be productive.

See how this comes around?

If you invest in your employees, they will invest in your company and this keeps the wheel of productivity turning.

As a bonus, you will end up outperforming those other valet trash service companies!