have to ask them to leave every night. also they wont make their own food? is normal

I think it´s intended, that they don´t leave as soon as you close the shop. There is an extra option to "send employees home" when you click on the open/closed sign, after all. And it would be annoying, if they left as soon as you close your business, as they might still be needed to ring up all the costumers, who still need to pay. You can also still use them to restock and clean up after the business is closed.

I am not sure, if they should be able to feed themselves on a break, but I don´t think so. If you assign them to make food, it ends up in the owner´s inventory so it can be restocked and sold. Maybe you can get them to make food that they will eat, if you influence them to serve a meal? Or you could take something out of the owners inventory and serve it.

ok thank you so much for the suggestions

Employees will eat food that's in their inventory and food that's been prepared and served. If one of your controllable Sims makes chef salad, for instance, and sets it out in the break room, employees will eat it on break.

I sometimes use that feature to have some corporate fun time for team building purposes. The business owner will sometimes call in the employees early to spend some time socializing with them and adjusting their salaries before opening shop. It makes for happier employees who are less likely to walk off the job.

What do you mean by a break room? Do you set that up yourself somehow?

Mirjam - it's a room where they have a break from their job. You can, but you don't have to make it.

I understand it's a room where they can take a break from work, but how would that function? I assume you have to build a room like that yourself and hope it functions if an employee gets a break? I do have OFB but haven't tried all the possibilities yet, so forgive me possible stupid questions.

What you do is build somewhere that your employees would enjoy relaxing in - somewhere with seating, some entertainment and somewhere to put food for them. It may be helpful to put a small kitchen in there, but you can also have the kitchen somewhere else and simply move the plate(s) of food into the break room when your Sims finish cooking each meal (the latter approach means staff can't stuff their faces and waste food). You can click on the door to this room and select "Household and Employees Only" to ensure customers and regular visitors can't bother the employees. Click on doors leading to entertainment areas you don't want the employees to use (for instance, for a living room for the host family only, you would select "Household Only"). After that, all you need to do is tell the employees to go on break, and they'll head for the break room.

The design of this room is entirely up to you, so you can have a lot of fun doing different ones that reflect the owner of the business. Without a break room, employees will try to make themselves happier using anything on the lot - useful for a small business but in some cases annoying.

Thanks, I will try this out at some point.

Why would you want employees to go home automatically as soon as you close the lot? I assign them to clean while my business owner restocks; if it's been a really busy day and the owner is running on fumes, the employee can also restock. Also, if you want an employer to have an improper relationship with the employee without being caught, being at the business with it closed is the ideal time.

Yep, what ieta said. I make it like real breakrooms: cheap fridge, cheap chairs, cheap table, one counter. I also give them something to kick back there for fun points.

I've worked in a lot of stores, and I wish I'd been able to go home when they closed. Nope, closing time is for cleaning, restocking, counting cash, and getting the store ready for tomorrow. It's no different for Sims, though they're lucky; they don't have to count the cash in the registers and go over it fifty times if it's even one penny off.

I don't want to have to have a full kitchen in every business lot, so I make use of Paladins food replicator. Takes one space, and allows Sims to spawn any food they like. Employees will use it autonomously when on their break, so all you need is a chair, the food replicator and if you want, a dishwasher.

It can be found at http://simwardrobe.com, Sims 2 -> Objects -> Food replicators



I hear ya. I also wish costumers irl would immediately stop shopping and leave when store closes. I worked at a supermarket and had one family show up a few minutes before closing time with a cart that was fully loaded and a mountain of stuff on top.

It's good that they don't go home once you close the shop, otherwise your sim would have to man the register on her\his own every time the shop is closed. There are always customers with their bags in the shop, after all.

i served food and none of my employees ate it. on the door it said household and employees only. do i need to put a tv in there too? they sure like dancing lol

i think i have finally figured out the problem. employees would rather dance around with the customers than go eat or watch tv when its busy. i finally had an employee go eat and make use of the tv in my living room.

well my employees seem to not know how to take care of themselves when theyre on break? so i only get to use them about 5 or 6 hours a day. they will watch tv for 20 minutes, or use the toilet, then get back to helping customers, and their mood bubble is still yellow or turning orange. and another thing does anyone know if i instruct an employee to make a bunch of meals if his cooking skill will go up.

I'm not sure why the employees would be taking themselves off break without permission (doubly so if they're miserable!). If an employee cooks during their time at the business (be it during a break or as part of their working duties) they will gain cooking skill and keep it. Same applies with all other skills, and all other talent badges.

i know right but it seems like they go back to talking to customers right after theyve just watched tv or something. all they will do is watch tv or go to the bathroom then go back to work. i mean its kind of a crapshoot. some days they will take a bath and watch tv if im lucky but most days they just watch tv and/or dance around with the customers then go back to work. ive only been testing it out about 6 days or so but since most of them dont stop to eat either their mood just stays yellow/orange. so when it gets yellow or orange i just send them home if they havent raised their mood

Hiring staff that you can't control doesn't work very well. You can either get OBF mods over on MATY, or you can make them controllable or put a couple of snap dragons around which will keep there needs up or use servos. If it's an outside type of business like a nursery a plant sim does well too. Otherwise you are much better off using a family to run a business.

And please don't triple post; use the edit button.

You can't expect sims in the control of the randomizer to behave sensibly. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. This is something you need to experiment with, not something we can give you a foolproof strategy for.

Six or seven hours is about as long as my owner sims can stay at a business, anyway. Why not call six or seven hours a shift, close the business, send the employee home, rest up and feed your sim, then open the business again? The employee will come back for a second shift fully restored.

Or how about not calling the employee in at all and using family to run the business when that family is active; then, when you take other sims to that business, the employee will be there doing his job and getting paid, but you're only out the wages paid during the hour or two the other family spends at the business, and you have controllable sims to run the business free of charge the whole time you're actually playing?

If something doesn't work, try something else. That's how you find how you like to play.

Sometimes you need to "unassign" them to get them to take a proper break. If, when they do return to their assignment, their mood hasn't improved, then it's time to give them a rest and send them home. Some Sims are happier working than others, it may be their personalities. Hacks to raise motives are one option, as Jo suggested. I often use Merola's Multi-painting.