Disclaimer: if any of our former babysitters are reading this, you were one of the good ones!  I’m writing about the other lousy ones we had.

BUSOE (Babysitter’s Unhealthy Sense Of Entitlement) is a little known but vicious disease found in babysitters.  Symptoms include overt smiling, showing up, and an ongoing confidence that we live in a sitter-centric universe where all things – especially our currencies – are perpetually owed to sitters.

There is of course a parallel affliction in small business. It’s called EUSOE (Employee’s Unhealthy Sense Of Entitlement).  Symptoms of EUSOE are similar to BUSOE, and include showing up, clocking in, and strutting around with an ongoing knowledge that they are owed money in exchange for time clocked in.

I hope this comparison of two similar conditions helps you to understand, and better mitigate, this scourge within your business if it exists.

BABYSITTERS ON PAYROLL or PAROLE?

Have you ever hired a babysitter to watch your kids?  If so, you know that in a very real way, babysitters are employees.  They come, they get paid, they leave.  And sometimes they even work!

But just like an employer who hires employees, some have been great, some awful, and everything in between. The problem is that the bad ones make you grit your teeth and wonder why exactly you’re funding their college education.  

At times I’ve thought to myself, ”I don’t care if they go to Harvard.  They’re going to end up losers if they continue this way.”  But since my wife and I place a high premium on our relationship and time spent together, babysitters are indispensable.

SET AN EXPECTATION

In a way, our troubles with the bad ones were OUR FAULT.  Let me give you a case in point.

One night, Colleen and I returned home from a date a few minutes after midnight.  Babysitter X, who was with us for the first time, had long since put the children in bed.  As “X” sat upon our couch with her feet propped up on the table, she was showing off her knack for multi-tasking; that is, watching TV and text messaging all at once.  

“Oh, hiiiii,” she sang as we entered the room.  

“X” was seemingly unfazed by (or unaware of) our dismay as we looked upon our living room.  All around her lay shards of multiple toddler terrorist bombs:  overturned dinner plates, empty juice boxes on the carpet, toys everywhere, mommy shoes hijacked from our bedroom closet, books with pages torn out . . . you get the picture, and I won’t even comment on the kitchen.  

The real kicker is that the house was clean before we left.  

“They were so greeaaat!” X chimes with a smile.

“Greeeeeaat,” I reply, looking around at the 2 hour clean up job that lies ahead.  

Why was this OUR FAULT?  Because we didn’t set an expectation for X.  Imagine if we had given the simple instruction:  ”Hey X, the only messes we expect you to clean are the ones made on your watch.”  

What happened instead?  We didn’t set an expectation, and all hell broke loose.  As mad as we may get at X’s unwillingness to clean, lack of decency, or just plain slovenliness, we didn’t give her a clear picture of what would make us happily pay her $12/hr.

So.  How clear on your employees as to what’s really expected?  Furthermore, how can they move into further areas of responsibility, authority, and pay?  What are you willing to risk to groom them?

This is just the beginning of the argument, but hopefully you’re starting to see the light . . . . at the end of the day, you’re going to need to build a culture of performance-based compensation.  Dealing with USOE / EUSOE is step one, and it usually involves a “grabbing of the bull by the horns”.  Translation:  you’ve got three things to do:  

1. assume nothing, 
2. be clear, and 
3. expect that your people want to do a great job