Letting a Great Technician Go

By Joshua Polansky, Owner, Niche Dental Studio, Voorhees, NJ

Two years after opening my lab, I let go of the best employee I ever had.

This technician—my former classmate from the UCLA Center for Esthetic Dentistry program—had worked with me since I started the business. Not only was she a very talented ceramist, but we had a similar philosophy and just a very easy relationship. 

But since the lab was so new, business was up and down and we were just making it week to week. I was having trouble paying her, so I finally told her I had to let her go. 

Quite soon—within a few months—we started getting very busy and I was working a lot of extra hours. I really regretted not keeping her; in fact, given how difficult it has been to find talented technicians over the...