What Would You Do: Bad Bosses?

Living in a tight-knit community has its perks (last-minute babysitters you can count on, neighbors who will lend you the lawnmower, bars where everyone knows your name), but sometimes wanting to be neighborly can pose as many challenges as living somewhere without personal ties.

What Would You Do is a place to discuss difficult neighborhood issues–problems you run into around your neck of the woods, when it’s okay to step in, and how to do it most effectively without sacrificing the relationships you’ve built over the years. If you have a topic you’d like addressed in the series, let us know (we’ll keep you anonymous, we promise!) at editor@ditmasparkcorner.com.

Try this one on for size: Let’s say there’s a place in the neighborhood you really love. Maybe you’ve been a regular for years; maybe you only started going recently, but you enjoy the vibe, love the products and services the place provides, and even think you’ve got a nice rapport with the employees.

But then, all of the sudden, things change. You notice several of the employees have been replaced very quickly. Other patrons, or maybe even past or current employees you run into on the street, start telling you about the owner’s sketchy practices.

They allege that he lets people go without reason, has a few employees who work for lower wages pull 13 or 14 hour shifts on a near-daily basis, and has been known to go weeks without paying staff. He’s even supposedly hired workers with the promise of green card sponsorship–but he never delivers.

What do you do? Do you keep enjoying the place like you used to? Do you see supporting a local business as the most important thing–even if the owner might be shady? Do you quit going entirely, and advise others to do the same? Or is there an even more effective way to make your voice heard?

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Photo by Gage Skidmore