Originally posted by Val:
Framers, no matter who they work for, deserve better wages for their talents and skills than what M's provides, especially at the framing prices M's gets, beause the profits certainly aren't going back to the people who produce the framing!
Val,
I have long been a proponent of better wages for a skilled and experienced framer. There are a few key things that will keep an outstanding employee from jumping ship and looking for work elsewhere.
First, the employee should be told how much of a valuable asset they are to the business. I don't know anyone who isn't given a swift kick in the ego by the boss telling them that they are an important part of the business.
And, in conjunction with communicating their importance, the employee should be paid a wage commiserate with their experience and the implied importance put upon their presence in the business.
Case in point, I don't get a commission for any sales I make in the art gallery where I am employed. That was my choice because I felt I could be more productive if I didn't have to be on the floor selling when there were jobs laying in the frameshop to be finished. So I got a $2.50/hr. raise instead and that was only after 6 months of working for my present boss.
I look forward to going in to work each morning. I feel like I am an important asset to the success of the art gallery and I have the responsibility of everything that has to be done in the frameshop with the exception of the headaches of making sure bills are paid and rent and overhead is taken care of and advertising is kept paid and up to date and ................ well, you get the idea.
Second case in point, 2 weeks ago I made a sale of several thousand dollars on an original oil, it just worked out that nobody else could move this piece of art and I did. So my boss gave me a sort of bonus for the sale. It was only about 5% of the sale but it wasn't part of my responsibilities for employment to sell that piece either. She didn't have to give me anything but an "atta boy" and a pat on the back.
I have always maintained that, if you don't pay your key employees enough to keep their minds focused on YOUR work and occasionally let them know that you care about them, they will eventually become disillusioned and start looking over the fence at someone else's work and wage offerings and you will end up running a classified ad for another framer.
The arguement that the boss can't afford the raise is very flimsy when you take into account that you know exactly what you have in a good dependable employee and you have no idea what is in store for you with someone new and unproven. It has been shown again and again right here on the Grumble that it is a monumental task to find qualified framers. Ask Ellen or Edie if they had the chance to retain a qualified framer for a buck an hour raise, would they do it or just cut them loose and go to the want ads in search of somebody off the streets who may be good or may be a total dud??
The down time while searching for another framer and the possibility of having to completely train/retrain them to the ways of working in your frame shop is a tough alternative to keeping someone who you know is competent and dependable for the sake of probably a well deserved raise.
I have operated my own frameshop for most of my career and I have also spent some time recently as an employee of a Hobby Lobby store managing their frameshop. I know that what Val has said about Michaels and the added duties of their frameshop managers is also quite true of other franchises and BB's. As it stands now none of them are probably paying anything close to what a good experienced framer is worth. And the pile-on added duties are something that isn't talked about in the initial interview for employment. I know this to be true.
Finally, in my opinion, if an employee approaches their boss and asks for a raise for whatever reason, if they are worth keeping and the request isn't out of line with their experience, importance to the business, and they are experienced enough to be trusted with their duties without worry, that boss had best take stock of what he/she has now and weigh the potential loss against a buck an hour more to make that employee a happy camper. There are only 2 letters in the word "NO" and if the employee isn't worth a raise it behooves one to tell them the fact of the matter and go on from there.
Framerguy