entrepreneur10 Potentially Sticky Work Situations and How to Manage Them

Entrepreneur Magazine
By Chris Penttila

As an entrepreneur, you’ll run into sticky situations at work, whether it’s grumbling employees or distractions, that get in the way of productivity.

Dealing with weirdness in the office is never easy, but it’s essential to running a successful company. “Human resources problems that get ignored have a really nasty habit of not going away,” says Margaret Hart Edwards, a shareholder at employment law firm Littler Mendelson.

Never fear: The experts are here to offer their advice for handling 10 sticky HR situations that might otherwise leave you floored and fumbling.

Reasons 1 through 9 are found at Entrepreneur.com.

10. An employee is taking advantage of company money or equipment
Unfortunately, every employer will have employees who secretly take from the company. In fact, hidden employee fraud filches 7 percent of a company’s revenue every year, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. “The dollars lost to fraud can grow quickly,” says Tracy Coenen, a forensic accountant and the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Employee pilfering increases in tough times, when an employee might take home a roll of paper towels or buy unnecessary office supplies just to get a free $20 coffee card. Coenen suggests writing a clear fraud policy that educates employees about what’s unacceptable.

For larger cases of fraud, Coenen advises small-business employers to contact a fraud investigator and an employment attorney for legal advice. “The worst thing a company can do,” she says, “is ignore a fraud problem.”

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