A question for boarding/riding stable owners?

Hire 2 employees. One is in charge of ordering supplies, supervise and schedule things etc aka the barn manager along with all the other general day to day chores and the second employee would be a general groom.

Normally supplies and stuff would be ordered Monday to Friday so these would be the Barn Managers working days and groom would work weekends or whatever you decide is a better working schedule.

It is best to have two people at different levels doing slightly different jobs than to have two people doing the same job and over or under-lapping each other.

It would be best to have the 'barn manager' as full time doing the most hours (better to negotiate hours with them and find someone to fill in the gaps as a groom)

Obviously in this case if the 'barn manager' decides to take holiday then it would have to be agreed upon with the groom to cover that period but you will need to may need to keep an eye on to ensure everything is in order. Depending on how much you trust your employees.

You were exceedingly lucky with that employee - it's rare to find someone like that. Self started, dedicated, independent, tireless, with grit.

Employees often quit without notice. They get sick. The have emergencies.

It's better to have two so there's backup when one disappears. And it's better still to provide health care for both so there's more incentive for them to stick around.

However... then you may need a third person to supervise, schedule, check up, and so on. LOL! Employees. Neverending work for the owners!

I would do two part-time employees. 7 days a week, every week, spending HOURS at the barn is exhausting (I would know). Most people get at least one day a week off. Plus, with two people, you would have a fall-back if someone got sick/injured, or wanted a holiday.

A person who works all day, every day, every week (even if they're a hard worker) would get tired, cranky, and become unhappy. Then you would have an unhappy employee on your hands, small arguments would start, work quality would fall... it would just be bad, all around.

Who hires someone to work 7 days a week? That person will burn out and quit. The way to do this would be to ask an accountant, provided you didn't have the morals to properly compensate someone for their work.

Asking one person to care for 10 horses 7 days a week on a full time basis without a day off is asking a LOT, Luke. I've worked at places myself where I had to do something similar, and it is NO picnic in the park, believe me. Stable and farm employees are just like anyone else who works in any other industry. They need TIME OFF and personal days too. They also need vacation time, just as you do or I do. Being paid well DOESN'T make up for the loss of personal time or down time, which is something that everyone needs in order to remain physically and mentally healthy and able to work. That's another lesson that I learned the hard way during my long years in the business- first as a working student and then later as a manager in different places around the country. Having been put in situations where I could never take a day off and do my own personal things ( like wash my clothes, sleep in a little bit, etc, etc, etc.) I know from first hand experience how hard that is to deal with. Stable personnel aren't slaves, and shouldn't be treated as such.

On top of this, unless you are prepared to pay the employee overtime ( which is time and a half under federal law) then it's not legal for you to require them to work 7 days a week. I think your real question is whether or not it's smarter to hire two people and limit their work hours in order to avoid paying for their health insurance, or hire only one person and nearly work that individual to death, while reducing his or her pay so that you afford health insurance for him or her. I think that going the two person route is the smart way to go. Trying to force one person to take care of 10 horses full time 7 days a week is simply too much. What happens if your employee gets sick or gets hurt? Who's going to take care of the horses then? Or suppose the employee is female, and she becomes pregnant? Are you going to try to force her to work despite this? Please don't tell me that you're the type who would fire a woman just because she gets pregnant. That's against the law- and such an action is grounds for a lawsuit from the employee in question. With two people, one of them can fill in for the other if someone gets sick or can't work for some reason, such as a personal or family emergency. Having two or more people is also smart because it allows for vacation coverage so people can take breaks when they need to. And if you're the kind of employer who demands that workers live on site for security reasons, then you need to think about providing employee housing of some kind.

On the subject of wages and pay: Anybody you hired would need to be paid enough that they could afford the basic necessities of life, including paying rent on an apartment if this is necessary. Lots of horse industry employers pay under the table, Luke. I know, because I worked for several of them. Paying employees in cash, making them do their own taxes, etc., are all questionable practices at best, and illegal at worst.

One other note about health insurance: The main way that a lot of horse industry employers get out of having to buy health insurance for their workers is to declare the workers to be independent contractors. Under federal law,employers aren't required to provide health insurance for IC's. So you technically could hire two people and not get health coverage for them, just as long as you declare them to be independent contractors.

full time employee so then you dont have to pay 2 people