Sucktember – What to Do With Staff When the Schedule is Slow

September can be slow in the dental field. In fact, many practice owners refer to it as “Suck-tember.” In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss the September slowdown in her practice. Should a practice owner send employees home? Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss how and when she decides to send employees home. As practice owners, it is important to have a slow-time game plan to ensure that the practice bounces back quickly. 

Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting: 

Sucktember Task List – Making a Sucky Month Profitable

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Transcript

As Dr. Kubin and I talked about what to discuss today, the topic of schedule and

0:07

low productivity and cancellations was just on the top of both of our minds.

0:13

And as we begin to dialogue, we realized that the content we were discussing was

0:19

exactly relevant from our September episode of 2022. So, we're going to give

0:25

that an encore performance today. And I cannot wait for you guys to hear this episode. But before I hit the play

0:32

button on that, I do want to remind you that the subscription is live and it is

0:39

packed full of content this month. It has got phone training for your team. It

0:45

has September downtime task list. It's got how to audit phone calls. It is

0:53

phenomenal. And it is $49.99. Go and subscribe today. We're putting a

0:59

link in the show notes below. Just do yourself a favor, click it, and

1:04

purchase this month's content. Enjoy today's encore episode.

1:10

All right. So, I get to pick your brain on a subject today that's been coming up

1:15

quite a bit. I would say over the last couple of months, but specifically over the last couple of weeks, which is just

1:22

a lot of patient cancellations, schedule kind of falling apart. Um, some of the

1:28

feedback I've been hearing from my clients is that they'll have a really full schedule and then it seems like

1:33

sickness, especially since school has started back, they've been getting a lot of people calling in saying that they're

1:40

sick or they've got a sick kid or something like that. And so, they're kind of left with this barren schedule

1:47

and are trying to figure out what to do, not only with the schedule, but also what do I do with my staff when the

1:53

schedule falls apart like this? So, I wanted to kind of see have do you feel like you've seen some schedule changes

1:59

over the last month or so? Um, yes. And I think I agree with the

2:04

sick kids. Um, actually, it's it's been less than I would have thought, I guess. And it's,

2:10

you know, once for especially in Pedo land once school starts back. And here for us in Texas, it uh at least where I

2:15

am, it was pretty much by August 15th back in. So, yeah, we saw a big slump

2:21

um for sure. and but we expect September and that time to be slow. Um so is the

2:26

schedule following apart more than that? Um it really depends on the day. We've had some days that were decently busy

2:33

and others maybe not so much. Um so yeah, I don't really know how to answer

2:39

the question. Does it stand out as abnormally slow to you? Um yeah, maybe maybe not. Um I guess I'd

2:46

have to think about it a little bit more. actually pulled the schedule up in front of me. But I also feel like a lot of people, myself included, thought the

2:52

summer was especially busy. Yeah. And busier than we anticipated, which

2:58

was really needed after how slow the the spring was. And if you remember, the

3:04

spring was super slow again cuz Omicron and all of that was resurging. And so

3:09

January, February were like disasters. So, I remember thinking, gosh, this summer's so busy, but it it's busy in a

3:17

pedo office anyway. And I remember thinking, well, great. We needed to make up for the slump in the spring. So,

3:23

maybe it's some of that, too. Like, we've just come off the heels of like a super busy summer. And I don't think it's just us. Like, I've heard this from

3:29

my orthodontist friends, my oral surgeon friends, my general dental friends that people have been busy. It was it was a

3:34

good summer for most of us. So maybe just in contrast to it being a little busier summer that we all expect it to

3:41

slow down but maybe it's like seems dramatically slower. Maybe it's not dramatically. That makes sense. Like the summer was so

3:47

busy that the quietness of September has felt you felt it more just because of

3:53

how busy summer was. Yeah. No, that makes sense. So, I wanted to kind of ask your opinion on

4:00

what do you do with staff when you hit these slower seasons? Either expected I

4:07

know um a lot of my clients have laughingly said to me, well, I always call it September, you know, it just

4:13

it's just not a good it's never a good month, you know. So, they do kind of anticipate a slow September, but what

4:20

what are some of the things that you feel like you do to I mean, do you send employees home? Do you try to have extra

4:26

tasks for them during this time? Talk with me a little bit about that. So, we like to try to have extra tasks,

4:31

which again is is tough because we're not producing, but then the overhead stays the same because we're having, you

4:37

know, people work, but it's kind of kind of like, you know, we did the episode on associates and if you don't give them

4:45

some juicier crumbs, they're going to walk. And so, if I tell my assistant,

4:50

"Sorry, go home every day." that I'm not going to have them when I need them for the busier time. So, it's it's

4:56

definitely put you in a bind for sure. Um, so I think one thing that's actually

5:03

worked to our advantage, which sounds terrible, but this whole like sickness, there are some employees with their sick

5:09

kids. So, it's like, okay, no, no, no, no. That person needs to be out. So, you know, we we can retain others on. Um,

5:16

but we have done some like, okay, it's clean out time. Like, let's reorganize. Let's do a deep cleaning in the office.

5:22

I'll try to use that time for more trainings if I can, like things that we've been intending to train on. Medical emergency trainings, you know,

5:28

we should be doing those. I think in Texas, you've got to show proof that you've done it at least once a year. Um,

5:34

but I think it's good because there's always, you know, especially this year, there's been such staff turnover and new people maybe getting in two or three

5:42

medical emergency trainings and really looking, you know, nice and shiny like a shiny little penny that we did we did

5:48

real good. So, just trying to make sure we're scheduling all that stuff. And I know in the summer, um, you know, we try to have an early morning staff meeting

5:55

every other week, and we didn't do that at all in the summer. Like, we don't have time for that. Um, we're trying to get out of making sure we don't hit

6:01

overtime, but now it's like, you know what? Let's put that staff meeting back on the schedule, and let's catch up on some of the things that weren't as

6:08

pressing before. Um, so I think that's all very helpful, but really, have I

6:13

sent people home? I have. And then I'm sure you'll remember this. I I think I'd

6:18

kind of um flushed it out of my memory um because it wasn't a good look for myself. I I kind of acted out and had a

6:25

little tantrum. Um but I found the notes in my bag the other day. I was like, "Ugh, well, maybe I overreacted." Um you

6:32

know what I'm talking about. Not yet. Okay. So, we were having our last leader meeting coming up and we asked people to

6:39

submit their concerns. And so, before we had the meeting, I was like, "Can we see the agenda?" And on the agenda, you're

6:47

laughing. I'm trying not to laugh because now you know what I'm talking about. Um, and so I before the meeting,

6:53

I was like, "Oh, I can answer some of these questions before we even get to the meeting." So we'd waste time in the meeting. And a couple of them were

6:59

legitimate questions like, "Oh, we've decided to do this about this. We'll address this." And we've opted, you

7:04

know, like if it was like, you know, are we going to change our paperwork? Like that wasn't on there, but let's say it was something like that. Are we going to

7:10

change our paperwork to this? No. I've thought about it already. like previously I put it on the agenda because I wanted to talk it out as a

7:17

group but I think I've already decided on my own like I don't want to do this. We had a couple of those but then we had

7:23

I guess the question was somebody was asking you know if in downtime

7:29

if we could kind of let people know sooner that we're not going to need them so that they can pick up temp jobs or do

7:35

something else. And I don't know what kind of mood I was in that day but I kind of came unglued.

7:42

I will admit it. I came unglued because I was like, "What?" Like, you know, are

7:47

you kidding me? I can't help that the schedule's going to fall apart. And I do everything we can. And then I turned it

7:53

on them. I was like, "But if y'all would call patients and confirm patients and would do more of a active proactive

7:59

thing." Um, so you know, basically I took offense in that moment thinking,

8:05

well gosh, I'm supposed to tell you two weeks in advance if I need you or not, but really

8:10

if if you guys kept the schedule full, we wouldn't have to worry about that. So what are you doing to actively make sure

8:17

that you are calling the overdue patients or calling the one that canled because of sickness? Like what are you

8:23

doing? So you're doing nothing. So this all falls on me now. This is my problem. Like, so I just had a bit of a a bit of

8:31

a tantrum there and I said, "Yes, I mean, this is the time to go get if you've been needing knee surgery, go

8:37

this is the time to do it or go get your doctor's appointments in and things like that." Like, quit asking for that time off in the summer for non-urgent things.

8:46

Um, so yes, go forth. Yeah. And then for everybody else, like, no,

8:52

no, I I cannot sit and think about this. Like, I need a little grace, too. I give y'all I think my comment was something

8:59

like every day I have to pivot cuz somebody needs to be off every day. So

9:06

now the schedule falls apart and you can't give me the grace of just going home when I have to send you home. How

9:12

many days do I have to send you home? Almost never. But how many days have you been out? Yeah. And I've got to work around that. But

9:18

God forbid one afternoon I've got to send you home early and now you want advanced notice of that. I was like,

9:24

once you start giving me advanced notice of when you are going to be out, then I will I will pay in kind. But every

9:31

single person, every stinking day, somebody is out. And I didn't get

9:37

noticed for that. My car is out. I have a migraine today. It's my period. I'm

9:43

like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Am I allowed to do that? Not show up for a week, a month? like what?

9:51

So, I was not very kind in my answer back and um I think in the end then they

9:57

were like, "Well, all they were asking was and I tuned it out cuz I'd already had my tantrum, so I couldn't go

10:03

backwards." Now, I like the words of my tantrums still hold true. Go back and listen to them again. Yes. So, I don't know. They were trying

10:09

to tell me how I had read the question all wrong, but it was too late. Like, I had to say face at that point. So, I

10:15

just was like, "Well, we've already discussed this. Let's move on.

10:21

So, you and I have not talked about my meltdown either. So, go ahead. Go ahead. But no, I think you actually bring up a

10:27

really good point, which is we are really clear. I would say several times

10:33

a year. We're very clear with your team on when are great times to schedule

10:38

vacations, to schedule doctor's appointments, surgeries, whatever. We we

10:44

bring this up quite a bit with your team. And again, you would think it would go without saying. Don't take off

10:50

on school breaks, you know, don't don't be gone during the summer, don't be gone Christmas break, all of that. But it

10:55

it's it doesn't go without saying. Like, we really do have to be very clear about it with your team. And I would say a one

11:03

key takeaway from this would be look at your trends. Is September always slower

11:09

for you? Is April always slower for you? I don't care. Whatever your months that you're typically slower are, maybe it's

11:16

always July because you do have a lot of staff members out in July and therefore the practice always produces left less.

11:24

Encourage your staff verbally like, hey, when you guys plan a vacation or when

11:29

you're planning a surgery or some kind of need to be out, these three months

11:34

are the ideal months to plan them in. Obviously, we understand if you can't plan them during that, but those are the

11:39

best months for the practice because it's helpful when you've got a slower month, when there are people that

11:45

planned a vacation during that month because you continually communicated this is a great month to take a

11:50

vacation. Then, like the um lady on your team that's had to be out with a sick

11:56

kid, we've not been mad about it at all because we are covered. We don't we actually didn't need you here. Thank you

12:03

for saving cuz she's out of PTO at this point. thank you for saving us some money and having to be home with your

12:08

kid, which sounds awful, but it's kind of just the way that it worked out and it actually worked out nicely. So, I

12:14

think if nothing else, making sure you know what your typical down months are because it does it is cyclical in nature

12:21

and then communicating with your team to take off during those times. So, then suggestions of because that's

12:27

what I'm going to be hit with is well, but my kids are in school then and so I want to take my vacation in the summer

12:33

when my kids are out of school. And my comment to that is, well, so do I. Yeah. But I don't take these gigantic long

12:39

vacations in the summer because y'all need an income. Yeah. So, if I'm not producing and getting you

12:46

a paycheck, so we take our vacations same as like, you know, we'll leave on a

12:51

Thursday after work and then I'll make sure I'm covered with an associate on a on the Friday and then I come back

12:57

Sunday night. And yeah, my family's not super happy that we couldn't take a longer break, but I need to be there.

13:03

And so I guess but it doesn't go over well if I say that well you're just there to make money and I'm like yeah

13:09

I'm making money so I can pay you. Yeah. Anywh who what is your comment to that then for people that are like well but

13:16

my kids are off and I want to go and like because this we had it made like it made some of the people with older kids

13:22

or no kids very bitter. We had an assistant at one point and her kids were I think prek and 2 years old and she

13:29

wanted to take her break her like 3 week long vacation to go see the grandparents in June and we were all like why can't

13:37

you go in May? Well because of school your kids's in prek. Are you kidding me

13:42

right now? So it was very um I don't know what to say. To me, that

13:47

made no sense whatsoever. And I don't want to be one to like bully people into when you can and can't take a vacation

13:53

because I strongly feel about how important vacations are, at least for my own peace of mind. Um, I don't know. I

14:00

don't know. I don't know what to say about that. So, and this would apply to the slow times as well when you're having to send

14:05

people home. We do have to make it fair across the board. Uh, so I do think it's

14:10

important to have conversations with your staff members. We talk about this a lot, keeping in touch with, you know,

14:16

their desires and their hopes and all of that, but there are going to be people that either don't have kids in the home

14:22

anymore that have some flexibility or um they've got kids that are older and they

14:29

don't mind taking them out or younger and they don't mind taking them out. So, I think getting a pulse on your team and

14:34

then if there are two or three people on your team that are like, "No, I really like to take off in the summertime. That

14:40

is my my preferred time." Then we really have to work together to make it fair to the schedule. Is that well, okay, you're

14:47

going to have to each pick three different weeks and you're going to have to space it out between June, July, and August. I can't have, you know, all

14:54

three weeks being in June or all three. So work amongst yourself. Y'all can all take, you know, your week off, but it

15:01

needs to all fall in a different month. So y'all figure that out. That's on you guys. So you can have some parameters

15:06

that aren't 100% restrictive. Um, also I would make it fair when you have to send

15:12

people home that that's done in a very orderly fashion. It's not just who you

15:17

felt like sending home in the moment, but it's like, "Oh, you were third on the list, so it's actually your turn

15:23

now." And, "Oh, now you're fourth on the list." And then keep track of that because if you don't make it through the

15:29

whole list by the end of that slow period of time, that list needs to carry forward to the next period of time. So

15:36

maybe you only made it to five out of 10 people and then when you hit your next slow period of time, you don't start back at number one. You start at number

15:43

six, the person that was didn't have to, you know, be sent home. So you got to kind of make that fair and equitable,

15:49

too. Even though logically you're like, well, I need to just keep my best, you

15:55

know, my best person at the front that's super productive. Like I don't ever want to have to send her home. Uh, yeah, I

16:01

get that to a point, but at the same time, that's going to create some bitterness on the team. Why am I always

16:06

the one that's sent home and you're never the one that's sent home? Uh, so I think you got to keep it fair to a

16:11

certain point. And we, you tell me if this is a bad idea. It's just what we've been doing. And if there is tension behind the

16:17

scenes, I don't, you know, I stick my head in the sand. I'm like, I'm not paying attention to any of that. I've got one who's kind of a busy body and so

16:24

she's the one who's going, "Well, so and so," like, it's not even her, right? She'll be the one who's saying, "Well,

16:30

Jane got to go home last time, so today I think it should be Susie." I'm like, "Mind your business. What does it have

16:36

to do with you?" Nothing. So, I'm like, "Well, I'm going to let Jane, Susie, and Amy talk about it." Let them decide

16:43

amongst themselves. It's the front desk department, but I need one front desk on. I need one RDA gone. That's what I

16:49

need. You don't need to get involved in that. You just need to tell them they need to talk amongst themselves and figure it

16:55

out. And maybe it's always Amy going home. And if the other two are going to be bitter about that, well then they

17:00

need to figure it out because they're the ones who had it. And a lot of times it's no, it's Susie and Jane are the

17:07

ones who need hours anyway and so it works out. So do you is that a

17:12

bad idea letting I don't think it's a bad idea if you have the right team. If you've got kind of a a you know a rotten person on the

17:19

team or somebody that is going to more that dominant personality that's always going to get their way then you know if

17:26

you've got that person on the team and I would say talking amongst the themselves is not going to work because that

17:31

dominant will just always win. Um but I think you've got a team that is just

17:37

naturally a little bit more fair. They tend to think about each other as well as themselves. And so I think it would

17:42

work really well on your team. And you said something that we didn't point out earlier. You can send home by

17:48

department, right? So you're like, "Okay, today I just or tomorrow the

17:53

schedule fell apart last minute. We had so many cancellations. So I need one person to stay home, one RDA." So that's

17:59

from two different departments that were sent home. And I think that's an, you know, an option on how to send multiple

18:06

people home is from different departments. Uh, so no, I don't think that's a bad idea to let him talk it out

18:12

unless you have a bully. A bully. Yeah. And I know last year we spent a lot of

18:18

time talking about um and and this wasn't my idea. I got this from a buddy of mine, but I think it worked well. And

18:24

I'm now starting to build the schedule for next year. And we did peak time. And

18:29

peak time in a pedo office is any day that's a school holiday. Um, not Labor Day, Memorial Day, but like um what's

18:36

the one that's coming up? President's Day, February, Columbus Day, we've still got we got MLK. So, in Texas, those are

18:41

some that we have. And so, if you're going to ask for that off and get granted that off, it will

18:47

cost you a PTO day because I don't make them use PTO when they're out. Um, and I

18:54

know everybody has their own system for how they handle that, but for me, it's But if you're going to take off on one

19:01

of the school holidays, the week of spring break, whatever. So, and then if you don't have enough PTO, then the

19:08

holidays that you would have gotten paid, um, you're not getting holiday pay. So, I want them to have some skin in the

19:15

game with it for that very reason of the person who didn't want her kid to miss

19:20

kindergarten. Well, the rest of us have, you know, I don't want to say is more important, but

19:27

maybe it kind of is. Or did you have to take three weeks, right? Why couldn't you do the same where you fly out on a,

19:33

you know, after work and then come back on a Sunday night? Why did you have to drag that out to the

19:38

following Tuesday? Well, it just really encourages them for those longer vacations, choose a non-

19:43

peak time because we actually applied a penalty that when they take more than

19:49

two days in a peak period of time, it cost them double PTO. Um, and again this

19:57

I mean it's a pedo practice like we live and breathe by those school holidays and so we had a lot of conversation before

20:04

we rolled out that PTO plan about how important it is to schedule you know

20:09

accordingly. You've your practice has a lot of Mondays off and so it is very

20:15

feasible for them to leave Thursday after work and still have a nice long

20:21

you know weekend somewhere. But we did tell them that if they took more than two days, first of all, during a peak

20:28

time, each of those days they would have to use PTO. If they'd already consumed their PTO, they lose their whatever the

20:34

next holiday is, they would not be paid for that. But if they took three days, for example, then that would actually

20:40

cost them one and two, the two regular PTO days, and then that third day would cost them two PTO days.

20:46

So they're losing four PTO days to be out three days if they decide to take that time in the summer. Um, and we hemmed in hot over

20:53

that. But I think one thing that that I I still am struggling to understand. I don't think I will ever understand it,

21:00

but we had an employee that it was over Christmas break, something like that. And to me, I guess because that's what

21:07

we do. We're just so used to trying to strategize and minimize and maximize and

21:13

whatever. So, it's like, you know, I do try to look at which airline can I take

21:18

with this and what can I, you know, to minimize the time that I'm going to be out and, you know, my my one associate,

21:25

he was taking vacations where he would take the, you know, the 6 a.m. flight and then he'd fly back at the whatever

21:30

so that he wouldn't miss work. And so, I think for as as a practice owner, we

21:36

that's how we think and then we take for granted that that's how everybody thinks. Uh, no, that's what we discovered

21:42

heavily. It was one who was like, "Well, that's when the flight was." Well, did you look at other flights? Did you look

21:48

at other dates that could be, "Well, no, I think I just looked at." And so, we

21:54

were like, "Are you kidding me?" Like, there was zero strategy in this. And we

22:00

we we asked multiple times in multiple ways to see like was there really a true

22:05

reason that she's not willing to share because we were just mind blown that how could you not be more strategic about

22:11

this? It's like it's your own paycheck, too. Yeah. And you're always living paycheck to paycheck. Why would you not fly out like

22:18

we're done on Friday by 2. Why would you not pick the 5:00 Friday? It cost the same as the 11:00 Friday.

22:26

Yeah. Why? Why? It just I just I just picked the flight.

22:32

So I and I can't wrap my brain around that because I can't just pick a flight. Like there's a rhyme and a reason and a

22:37

10 different things that you're trying to coordinate. And I think again as practice owners that's what we do. So to have just the very in my mind just a

22:44

very simple this is what I picked without any strategy or thought I was just like wow.

22:50

Yeah. Whoa. Like I just can't think I I I still can't think that people can't think like that. It's just mindboggling.

22:58

Anywh who I was like which is why again telling them when are good times to take off? It seems like

23:04

well that is such a basic surely I shouldn't have to say that but it's the same exact thing we we have to say it

23:11

like we have to be clear on that. Yes. Which is just again beyond my scope of comprehension but um anyway it was

23:18

like okay well maybe having some penalties in place will make you think.

23:23

Maybe you will think twice. And that like in the end we ended up penalizing her a bonus and a this and

23:28

that. And I was like dude that kind of sucks. Like you could have made an extra $900

23:34

by by picking up a flight 4 hours later, but your lack of planning cost you $900.

23:40

I'm just like, go away. Go away now. Get on the flight and get out of here because you are on my last nerve right

23:46

now. I I can't. Yeah. No, I mean it's just it's one of

23:52

those things that I don't think staff members well and even like on the when you were having to send people home and

23:57

the comment, you know, well, can we get advanced notice when we're going to possibly be sent home? It seems so

24:03

simple to a lot of team members like, oh well, if we look ahead at next Tuesday

24:09

and see that it looks like a slow schedule, can't you just tell me now that there's some there may be somebody

24:15

meant home, you know, need to go home and I'm on the chopping block cuz it's my turn. like, can't I just get some advanced notice? And in our our mind,

24:22

we're thinking that's a week away. If we get on the phone, if we fill the schedule, if we call an unscheduled

24:28

treatment, if we get out and market, like there's a lot that can happen in a week, so no, we can't tell you now

24:34

because then you're going to book yourself somewhere else temping and then we're going to get to Tuesday and we're

24:39

gonna think, well, we needed her. We never never not needed her. And so, I think in their mind, it's so simple and

24:46

it's really not. I would say sending people home is often a last minute like

24:52

day before type situation. Sometimes even the day of if we're turnurning through the morning and that afternoon

24:58

just keeps falling apart. Sometimes we are having to decide midday if there is

25:03

somebody that needs to go home. And I would say to your point, come up with good projects. Like if you know you're

25:10

going to have some downtime at various points throughout the year, have a good like downtime list. And I'm not talking

25:17

about daily things that need to be done during downtime. I'm talking about things that we don't normally do. Spring

25:22

cleaning type things, you know, clean out the bathroom cabinet, uh, work on

25:28

the flower beds out in front, which though this is where again I get bitter, and I've told them too because

25:33

I'm just a mean person that I will throw it back in their face, which is I'm sure not productive to anybody, but sometimes

25:39

I can't help myself. But I'm like, "No, all of you wanted this like ridiculous raise and a ridiculous hourly rate."

25:47

Well, what's going to come with that is when it's slow, you will be sent home. It's one thing when you were making a

25:52

normal pay rate and I could come up with projects, but now when you're asking for your ridiculous fees,

25:58

Yeah. which again, I'm still trying to get over that precoid price range and I'm still just really struggling with that.

26:05

Um, and and I'm hoping some of y'all are too. I hope it's not just me sitting over here bitter about it.

26:11

Everybody is. Okay. So, so that's the thing. It's like, okay. And I said it back then when we raised the rates. I was like, fine,

26:17

but y'all know, especially to my hygiene team, especially to the hygienist. I was just like, do you know what you're asking

26:24

for? Because you are asking for this higher amount. You will get sent home when it's low. So, I hope you are ready

26:30

for that. Do not make me feel bad about that. But that doesn't make any sense to have you doing a project when you're

26:36

making $85 an hour. Like that's ridiculous. So no, that's not going to happen. And I would say, especially with your

26:42

hygienist, being clear on that with them before, like if you're hiring a hygienist or if you are you've got

26:48

hygienists on your team and you're anticipating a slow whatever month, September, we're in September, so let's

26:54

say that you need to communicate with them like, "Hey, this is my commitment to you. I'm going to make sure our team

27:00

is doing everything in their power to fill your hygiene schedule. If it falls apart, I am going to ask you to take an

27:07

extended lunch or I may ask you to leave a little bit early. I want to communicate that to you now that that's not going to be I'm going to try

27:13

everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen. But when and if it does happen because you're a producer and of

27:19

course the the pay that you make is because you're a producer, we're going to have you, you know.

27:24

Do you think that's dangerous though? Like they may not take the job then. I think it's better for them to not take

27:29

the job than you to feel like you're handicapped to, you know, paying them true every time.

27:35

And I would say if you if your slow period is like we've got three weeks out of the year that's slow, then is it

27:41

worth having the conversation? Heck no. At that point, it's 3 weeks and you're talking about a few hours. Just pay the

27:48

hygienist and move on with it. But if you know you've got some cyclical patterns where you've got these slow

27:54

slow periods of time or you've got somebody on your team that's not super good at filling the schedule and this has always been a struggle for you, then

28:01

I do think it's better to tell the hygienist than it is to uh battle with her every time it comes up again.

28:07

Right. And and I think that's I think that's what what got me so frustrated is that we do everything we can to make

28:15

sure we're feeling it and that we're and and to not send somebody home. It doesn't happen very often. It's it's

28:23

gosh, not very often at all. And so then to be kind of be put in a

28:28

corner is how I felt about it was like, well, can we get advanced notice? Exactly like you said. And I was like, I'm about to punch you in the face. Do

28:34

not Thank goodness you typed that and sent it to me via email because if I was facing one of you live,

28:40

your face would have said it all. Who knows what would have happened. Yes. I mean, my answer was in caps. That's

28:46

how mad I was. My entire paragraph answer was in caps. I was like, I find this question offensive.

28:53

[Laughter] You didn't beat around the bush. No, I had a tantrum because I was like, are

28:58

you kidding me right now? When do you guys give me the decency of giving me advanced notice?

29:04

Never. Never. Are you know life's not fair? It's just all about give, give, give. I

29:11

would also say too though on the sending um employees home, I I would much rather

29:16

have that rotation of sending people home than to cut one person's hours. Uh

29:22

one of our great employees that we picked up that you picked up um her hours had been cut and uh had stayed cut

29:31

and she was like at some point I just realized that I've got to I've got to get back to my regular hours. I don't

29:37

think that's going to happen here. So, I don't think that's a good strategy if you are intending to retain all of your

29:42

employees. I wouldn't pick just one person on your team to cut their hours for an extended period of time because

29:49

they will eventually start looking unless that person has indicated that they do want to cut some out or they'd

29:55

like to work less and then that may be a great situation for the two of you guys. But most of the time if you cut

30:00

somebody's hours and then keep them cut, they will move on at some point. you go. So, back to the original question, which

30:07

was people's schedules falling apart. Do you have any advice for that? I I think we've talked about the staffing side. I

30:13

don't know that we gave yall any solutions, but um I think it's helpful just to know like what are other people doing with the

30:19

staff? Yeah. You know, what what are the options at that point? Of course, as much downtime things as you can that are

30:25

productive for the practice is very important. Calling patients and all of that, marketing, whatever that side of

30:32

things that needs to be done. But there are going to be times that we do just have to go, I need to send staff members home. And I think you just got to have a

30:38

strategy for it. So, what about from the patient side? Anything that you can think of? Oh, there's a lot that I can think of.

30:45

Um, I may want to do that one in a whole separate episode cuz there's there's a ton that we can do. Um, down to

30:53

categorizing patients, certain types of confirmation protocols that tend to work and don't work. So, I feel like we'd sit

31:00

here for another hour talking about that. So, I may have to pin it. Stay tuned. I stay tuned.

31:05

Right. Schedule falling apart part two. All right. Thanks for joining the conversation

31:11

today. We hope that you are comforted in knowing that you are not alone, but we

31:16

also hope that you're walking away with some really great tips and tricks to try in your practice.

31:23

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