Boy, I hear this all the time, especially these days when it is so, so hard to find people.

But, if you step back and think about it, does one have anything to do with the other?  Meaning, If you have a "bad apple" would you keep it because the store is out of "fresh apples"?  No, you'd never do that.  But yet it happens all the time inside of companies.

Now listen, it's not as easy as finding more apples at the store, I get it.  But what I want you to remember, is that rot spreads!

Staying on the bad fruit discussion, what happens when fruit is starting to rot?  You start getting fruit flies, and bacteria and fungus forms...we won't get into a whole science lesson.  But, the saying is true "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel."  And it's true for company culture as well.

So what do you do when you cannot afford to lose anyone?  Well, I'm going to tell you that you cannot afford to keep everyone in this scenario.  So what can you do...

Have you ever found yourself so frustrated with your employee and you find yourself wondering if it is time to let them go?  Well, most likely the answer is "of course you have".

Recently I was talking to a member of the Culture First group, and he found himself in that very situation.  He had a newer employee and he found himself frustrated with that employee because he had exceed the number of allowed absences by 2 or 3 absences.  

It's worth sharing how he got there because it is such a common story.  He said he wanted to be a flexible boss and show some compassion and understanding.  But in the same breath, he was exasperated and felt like he was being taken advantage of.  

Well, he was being taken advantage of, but he actually invited the employee to abuse the attendance policy the minute he kept the employee after he had used all of the allowed absences.

Ignoring the policies is not ideal, but it happens.  However, when you allow...