My mother owns a small cleaning business and cannot seem to find good employees. I know that is something people just say now without merit, but I consider myself very sympathetic to the sentiments of this subreddit and I'm still baffled. She's been running this herself for 25 years and has been trying to hire employees for the first time since she's getting older and works 7 days a week. She offers roughly $20-$50 an hour, or $100 per job. I've personally worked this same account for her while I was in college and never has it taken me more than 2.5 hours which comes out to $40 an hour. The job is to clean doctor's and dentist offices for the next day and you can go in anytime after closing, just so long as it's done by opening. I used to clean the offices at midnight sometimes if I was studying for exams or when I was working another job, but closing is at 5pm. You can literally listen to music or watch movies as the offices are closed and there is NOBODY there, you are just cleaning by yourself. The job includes dusting, taking out trash, mopping and vacuuming. Sometimes watering plants, about twice a month, and cleaning bathrooms (2 per building). Most of her employees are hired for 3 shifts per week, so between 6 and 12 hours a week at the most. My mom provides a checklist for each job that is very straightforward, so as long as you're doing the items on the list she doesn't have any reason to micromanage or anything like that. My mom is a little bit awkward and particular about her business but that's why she has the checklist so the expectations are clear. She really does work with people and has hired people down on their luck but also people who are just regular job seekers.
They constantly call out, like twice a week or 2/3rds of their shifts, and just text her saying they won't be making it last minute because this or that. It's across the board, everybody, for almost 2 years now and she tells them in their interviews that due to the nature of these accounts (they can't just leave dentist or doctors offices dirty for obvious reasons) call outs should be emergencies only and she herself will cover. She does this without complaint for real emergencies but people call out when it's RAINING sometimes or for completely random reasons. I understand nobody is obligated to give a reason to call out but I just don't understand how she can't find employees who don't do this so often. I mean, I've called out twice in the last year (for COVID) and I get paid $15/hr, so…
I feel terrible because my mom has to do this labor 7 days a week and she just wants to be able to take a day off once in a while but she keeps hiring people and having to fire them after months of constant call outs and not completing the checklists. The only thing I can think of is she doesn't offer benefits since it's a very part time position and she's such a small business. I feel the pros of independent work, being able to bring your kids if you have to even and such a high pay per hour outweighs not providing healthcare and PTO but maybe I'm wrong?
What do you think she could be doing differently? I don't want my mom to be working these kinds of hours until she's 65 or older and I'm out of advice. I feel she's doing everything she can. It's hard to keep reminding her there are good workers out there when this is her only experience… What do you think we might be missing?