[Pelican]

One of my mowing crew has been with me for 8 years, a good worker but he has to be supervised. For the third time this season I read him the riot act about bringing me the machine with a bent blade. We do the same accounts each week, and most of them for several years now. By this time he should know where obstacles are and either avoid them or remove them.

I pointed out to him that the blades were $10 a piece and the time required to stop and change a bent blade while on the route was very costly. Mowing in my area is extremely competitive and has a very low profit margin, if any at all. I have to watch every penny on the mowing side of things.

I never once suggested that he replace the blades, that's not legal and I didn't threaten his job, though I did make it clear I could get a guy off the street to come in and bend blades, that I expected him to be better after 8 years experience.

Today while buying a muffler for one of the machines (that's another story), this employee comes in and buys a set of blades for the machine he runs. He doesn't know I saw him and I'm feeling a bit guilty. How would you handle this?