Richard's lost his third good employee this year
Feb 04, 2026Richard runs a trades business on the Gold Coast. Good revenue. Strong pipeline. The kind of reputation that means work comes to him.
He's also lost three solid employees in eleven months. The good ones. The ones he actually needed.
He blames the labour market. Kids today. Nobody wants to work. Nobody's reliable.
His wife sees something different. She won't say it anymore because the last time she did, they didn't speak for two days.
Here's what happens: Richard hires someone capable. They start well. Then Richard starts checking. Correcting. Hovering. Questioning decisions he hired them to make.
Within weeks, the new person feels watched. Within months, they feel suffocated. The good ones leave for competitors who trust them. The average ones stay because they don't have options.
Richard wonders why he "can't find good people." He's finding them. Then driving them out.
Richard's father was a hard man. Nothing was ever right. The fence post wasn't straight enough. The lawn wasn't clean enough. You could work all Saturday and get told what you missed.
Richard swore he'd never be like his father. He runs his business exactly like his father ran that household.
That's subconscious programming. It doesn't care what you swore. It runs the pattern anyway. Richard manages his team the way he was managed as a boy — and genuinely cannot see it.
His HR consultant suggested "better onboarding processes." That's like putting a fresh coat of paint on a house with cracked foundations. The next good employee will leave too. And the one after that.
Until someone shows Richard what's actually driving the behaviour, nothing changes. And almost nobody knows to look there.
Perry Mardon
