Employee

Employees may be hired and work for businesses in The Sims 2: Open for Business.

Hiring employees
Employees can be hired over the phone or computer. Sims can also be hired as employees by interacting with them directly, but they might refuse the offer unless their relationship with the hiring Sim is good. Hiring over the phone or computer provides a choice of six Sims to hire and displays their Skills, Talent Badges, and starting salary. A business can employ up to 8 Sims. A business owner can use the phone or computer to hire Sims from home. Members of the owner's household who are on the business lot can use the phone or computer to hire employees.

Sims that can be hired as employees may be either from the pool of townies (regular townies, Downtownies, Garden Club members, locals, tourists, and social group townies) or Sims that live in the neighborhood. When using the phone or computer to hire employees, Sims in any of those groups may appear in the hiring pool, and Sims in the Family bin may also appear. If a Sim being hired already has a job, hiring that Sim will force them to quit their job.

Most of the time, when the Garden Club members, locals, tourists, or social group townies appear in the hiring pool, they will not have any talent badges at all. This could be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on the player's view. They might require on-the-job experience in order to gain more advanced talent badges. On the other hand, if they do have talent badges, that will raise their required salary, even if those badges are not useful for the business.

Assigning tasks
After employees are hired, they can be called into work by using the open/closed sign. Once they arrive on the lot, they must be assigned a task.

Assigning the right employees to the right task

Breaks and sending employees home
Giving employees a break is great for when they get hungry, bored, or have to go to the restroom. An employee's mood is symbolized in the small dot above their head. Yellow and red dots indicate employees in a bad mood; these employees should be put on break or sent home, or they may quit. If their mood is still red after they've been on break for a while, the best thing to do is send them home for the day.

Raising wages and promoting employees
Raising Wages - Changing an employee's wages is easy, and is important to keep employees happy as they gain skills and badge levels. Sims with higher skills and/or talents demand a higher salary, and Sims who are underpaid may refuse to come in. If employees are too underpaid, or underpaid for too long, they'll quit. If they are "fairly paid" they will stay longer.

Promoting (Community Business Only) - Promoting an employee to Manager allows a business owner to make a profit from a business without being at the business. Only employees with 5 talent points (Bronze Badge = 1, Silver Badge = 2, Gold Badge = 3) are eligible for promotion. Promotion is done by selecting a business owner, clicking on the employee, and selecting management/promote to manager. If FreeTime is installed, a playable employee who receives a hobby chance card outcome that results in a promotion will be promoted to manager even if he or she does not have 5 talent points. Once promoted, the new manager becomes selectable. Managers can be told to Mind the Store, meaning that a business owner need not visit the business for it to function.

Firing and laying off employees
Firing - Firing an employee is necessary when that employee is not doing his or her job properly, or is failing to follow instructions about basic procedures.

Laying off Employees - Laying off employees is the same as firing, but lets them down easy and does not make them angry with the Owner. Laying off is also useful for good employees that aren't needed anymore, or employees the Owner cannot afford to keep.

Checking in
If a business has at least one manager, that business owner must check in with their businesses once a day to ensure that everything continues to run smoothly, or the business may not make a decent profit, or may even lose money. If a Sim owns more than one business with a manager, all businesses can be Checked at the same time. Checking In is done over the phone, by selecting the Business/Check in with Business or Check in with all Businesses. The Business Rank of a business determines how long it will take for a Sim to Check In - the higher the rank, the less time it will take to check in.

Playable employees
When playing a family in which one or more Sims is an employee, those Sims will work from 9am to 5pm (0900 to 1700), Monday through Friday, and will be paid a daily salary based on their hourly wages. They will receive paid vacation days, pregnancy leave, and parental leave on the same basis as Sims in regular career tracks. Like Sims in regular career tracks, they may bring other Sims home from work. While those Sims will also be employees, they may not be employed at the same business. If FreeTime is installed, they may receive work-related hobby chance cards.