I(m22) am the co-owner of a business with my father. My dad first started it about 2 years ago and I later joined him a year ago and started managing it for him. My brother who we will call “J”(22) worked in the business for abit but only really started working in the business at the beginning of this year.
This year “J” and our childhood friend who we will call “A”(m22) wanted to work overseas so my father asked me to be the co-owner of the business with him seeing that my brother and our friend were leaving. (“A” and “J” were working for the business during this time as normal employees.)
But a few months later their plans fell through due to the lack of funds and the difficulty of leaving the country. But that’s okay they still have their jobs with us. And they have been working for us since they couldn’t go overseas.
Now to the point of conflict, “J” has openly said he doesn’t see me as his boss. He also has refused to do work I directly ask or tell him to do(Most of the time he does listen but sometimes he doesn’t), because he either doesn’t think it’s necessary or he is upset at me over something but the thing is it’s his job to do those things. The way he speaks to customers he doesn’t like would get him fired at any other job, which he also jokes about. Also his job isn’t difficult, he is basically a cashier/salesperson.
The main reason “J” doesn’t see me as the boss is cause I don’t work as long as him where I end at 1 he ends at 5, or the fact he works on Saturdays and I don’t. But I don’t have transport at the moment to go to work for that long or on those days because of my carpool arrangements. I still do work at home though through customer service and running of ads and admin which they don’t do. And “J” brings up the fact I don’t work that long a lot.
He acts like he doesn’t care if I fire him. “A” on the other hand works hard, we can joke more and he knows when the joke ends and when work begins. Lastly, I have spoken to “J” about him being rude in general to me and I apologised if I did anything to hurt him and he also has apologised if he has said anything means but he still challenges my authority.
The reason I think might be the bad one is, because he is moving out from our dad to his own place with “A” and his gf so if I fire him how would he pay his share? Also most of the time he is alright so it’s every now and then he is like this but I have spoken to him already about the way he is without change. Is there something I’m missing, am I the asshole for the way I’m handling it? I don’t know.
Additional info you might need: Our dad has two businesses and I do admin for both. “J” and I get on along fine for the most part but I have dealt with a lot of smart comments from him time to time as well as the occasional fat joke.
Should I fire him?