If you work at a piccolo company and only have one employee, it’s crucial to ensure that they are not also working for a rival piccolo company. Here are five red flags to tell if they are moonlighting.
1. They have been secretive about certain piccolo mock-ups: If your employee has a new piccolo design that she’s being cagey about, it’s one of two things: She has a brilliant piccolo innovation that your competitor has offered an unthinkable sum for, or your competitor is catfishing your one employee, encouraging her to work on her “brilliant” idea even though they have no intention to buy it. They simply want her wasting the time she should be using to make piccolos for your company working on their wild goose chase, just so it hurts her productivity and your bottom line. It’s a tough industry, so be vigilant here.
2. The background on the work phone that you share is of a piccolo you don’t sell: As the owner of a small instrument business, you and your one employee have to share a work phone. If you didn’t put that picture on there, it’s clear that he did. He could have taken a photo of any piccolo in your warehouse, but instead he chose that one? Maybe yours isn’t the only piccolo distributor he comes into contact with during the week…
3. They’ve started calling piccolos “small flutes”: Yes, calling a piccolo a small flute might help it sell better in a music store, but scrupulous piccolo manufactures are honor bound to not sink to these tactics. Unfortunately, your rival piccolo company is not above that, and their cheap tricks to sex up piccolos might have rubbed off if your employee is indeed splitting time over there.
4. They accidentally tweet your company’s deal from a different piccolo company’s social media account: There’s no way those deals are simply a coincidence, especially if you’ve noticed your employee liking your competitors’ tweets. When your rival consistently posts the day before you and undersells your holiday piccolo carrying-case sale by $4, something is likely up. If your employee tries to blame a coworker, just shake your head and remind him that it’s just you two.
5. Their voicemails calling out of work have machinery and piccolo sounds in the background: It’s getting to be about twice a week now they call out, enough to be at least part-time at another piccolo company. And who schedules two dentist checkups within three months? If you hear a polisher humming away and piccolos echoing in the background on the voicemails where she claims to be “sick,” she may have committed the ultimate act of betrayal for a piccolo company with only two employees. And that cannot be forgiven.
