Getting good help and the Golden Rule in R.D.

While starting a business and owning a condo in R.D., my wife and I are plagued by the same characteristic that makes the country so attractive. While the carefree attitude is conducive to guests relaxing on vacation, it makes for unreliable employees.

We want to share our profits with our employees and reward them for conscientiousness and reliability. We don't want to have to maintain a master/slave relationship. We don't want to have to nag daily to see that something gets done.

Does anybody with experience in this area have any suggestions? You may send them personally to us or post them on the messageboard.

Thanks from Greg and Connie

The way that I saw my father handle this situation always was paying "por ajuste" (performance-based pay or amount of output). Just like in the case of some salespeople that get compensated on a commission-only basis.

For example, if he was building a house nobody got a weekly "salary" but a payment that was proportional to what the crew got accomplished that week.

Interestingly enough, the workers were very pleased with this system because they always made more money than on a salary basis.

Of course, they worked their fannies non-stop.

Just remember that you need to be fair and don't go to the other end of the scale and become a tightwad when the output/performance call for better pay.

F.W.I.W. - Dominicans that reside in the United States (or Puerto Rico) have an outstanding reputation as dedicated and reliable workers. Maybe is the water :-)

Best regards,

Julio César Vásquez

This is good practice anywhere. Even here, people don't like to work harder than anyone else, yet still get paid the same. I don't. I work very hard and think my salary should reflect this.

There are many good employees in the D.R. I owned a store there and there were many people I would not have hesitated to employ. They worked hard and the jobs they already had.