Hiring Office Manager

Case Study for Final: Hiring an Office Manager

Ly-Pham Property Rentals is a family-owned business managing over 250 residential units in Lafayette, Indiana. The business is relatively young at four years old and is the first business owned by the Ly-Phams. In its short existence, the business has already hired and fired four different office managers, most recently Charles. Charles was an old family friend of Mr. Ly-Pham and was hired when he was unemployed and going through a difficult time in his life. Like the office managers who came before him, Charles had no experience working in an office setting, so it took him quite a while to work independently. After a month, Charles was able to work alone and things seemed to be going smoothly.

However, signs of trouble appeared after a year of his employment. Charles began giving new tenants unauthorized deals that allowed them to move in without paying a lot of money. This also put the business vulnerable to losing profits on tenants who took advantage of this deal and fled after it expired, leaving an empty unit needing to be cleaned and paying little rent. His actions were discovered about two months after they began after a careful review of his record books revealed these discrepancies. When reprimanded, Charles defended his actions by saying that everyone deserved a break now and then. He vowed to discontinue this behavior but after a few more months passed, it was revealed he was still offering specials to high-risk tenants. Mr. Ly-Pham was stunned; Charles was someone he had trusted. After Charles defended his actions again, The Ly-Phams fired him and were left wondering why they could never seem to find a good office manager.