Employer Advice

SomeBozo

Quite often on here, we have employees asking for advice on employer.

I am a employer and and want advice on a employee. I have met with my managers, HR person and our solicitors and we all disgaree with each other on the best way forward here. I know there are massive differing views on here, so dig in.

Background
Situation is that I own and run a consultancy firm. I employ 60 FT staff at 3 locations in the UK. I also have over 200+ consultants on my books that I bring in for their skills when I need them.

The attendance record for my company is 99.6%. Through a bit of luck, strict selection procedures and good staff, someone being off sick is a rare event.

On wednesday last week, an employee called in sick. It was not the actual employee, it was her husband. She was unable to come to the phone. Given that we could not speak to her, there was a bit of panic about handover of work and I was notified. Eventually it was sorted.

On thursday there was no contact between the employee on the employer.

On Friday a collection was made at work and they organised a flower company to deliver her a bunch of flowers. The flower company rang and said there was no answer on the door and they were left at the back door.

Alarm bells rang after this. We had no contact with the employee (via husband) and no subsequent contact. And on the delivery of flowers, no one was in, or they were in and could not answer the door.

I made the decision to call her and check how she was. No answer on home phone. She answered her mobile and she was in Asda, shopping.

Later, she called me in tears, apologising saying she was "busted". I made no comment and said I would speak upon her return to work.

Then on Friday afternoon two contractors came to the office and said how they had seen the lady in a coffee shop and they had lunch with her.

Opinons?

Bozo

lots29

Make her take it as holiday or unpaid leave and issue a warning. Write down all these facts and as she has admitted it she will be OK probably with a slap on the wrists. You need to issue a "verbal" warning but put it in "writing" and keep on her file incase she wishes to do it again or start a new "trend" in the office. As everyone in the office knows about it, the habit could spread if you don' do anything. Also in your staff handbook, you should say "You as in the employee, must call in before 10am on any day and report to line manager that you are not well enough for work". I would say if she has been good until now, then you should have a one to one, there may be some personal issues pending that made her effectively loose it for a day or so. Good luck

SomeBozo

lots29 wrote: »

Make her take it as holiday or unpaid leave and issue a warning. Write down all these facts and as she has admitted it she will be OK probably with a slap on the wrists. You need to issue a "verbal" warning but put it in "writing" and keep on her file incase she wishes to do it again or start a new "trend" in the office. As everyone in the office knows about it, the habit could spread if you don' do anything. Also in your staff handbook, you should say "You as in the employee, must call in before 10am on any day and report to line manager that you are not well enough for work". I would say if she has been good until now, then you should have a one to one, there may be some personal issues pending that made her effectively loose it for a day or so. Good luck

Thanks, we are covered in all the respects you have mentioned with policies.

I am after a fresh perspective.

Reliable employee?

Yes.

Length of Service

Nearly 4 years.

Excessive overtime, stress hours at work?

She is on a 40 hour week and does that.

Sick record?

Not counting this absence, 8 days on 2 occasions since her employment, ie excellent.

Holidays allowed/taken/not taken/cancelled at short notice by work demands?

If 28 days notice is given, we don't ever cancel it. If its less than 28 days, her manager must sign it. I am notified if leave is ever cancelled, and I can count one occasion in 6 years, not involving her.

Some outside issue influencing her?[/

Can't answer that.

Bozo

dmg24

I agree with Incisor - it needs to be dealt with immediately so as to ensure others do not become involved/ influenced, and the possibility of an underlying cause should be considered.

If she cannot give any explanation (and she has had time to think of something, even if it is not genuine), then I would be considering breach of mutual respect and trust. Even after such a length of service, it would take a lot to put any trust in someone that could so blatantly abuse her position.

If she can give an explanation, then I would again agree with Incisor, and send her home until you can consider the best course of action.

Not all illness means that someone should be housebound, however I would not be expecting an employee to be out and about until the employer was aware of what the illness was and their expected length of absence, and/ or the employee had sought advice from their GP (so as to confirm their condition if required at a later date).

SomeBozo

Thanks dmg.

What gets to me, is not the supermarket visit, or the lunch thing.

It was the fact she never in person, spoke to anyone at work!

She in called in when she was caught out!

Bozo

dmg24

SomeBozo wrote: »

Thanks dmg.

What gets to me, is not the supermarket visit, or the lunch thing.

It was the fact she never in person, spoke to anyone at work!

She in called in when she was caught out!

Bozo

Yep, and you have to question how long she would have stayed off without contact had she not been caught out.

The difficulty with (in the absence of extenuating circumstances) letting the incident go, or even a final warning, is that it sets a precedent for everybody else. There is nothing to stop every other employee a taking three day jolly and saying 'well she did it'.

I think I would be much more lenient had it been one day, the great majority of us have pulled a sickie in our careers. Three days is calculated though, to do that there must be either a genuine reason for her absence or a complete lack of respect for the company and her colleagues.

dmg24

Incisor wrote: »

Given what you say, my guess is that the office movers and shakers for flowers probably have an inkling. That is just a hypothesis. But, it is not casual absenteeism, there has to be a very good reason in her mind. There has to be a drama outside work.

I would be thinking along the lines: "if you don't tell us, we can't help and if you just go ahead and take time, then that doesn't help the business. So can we just be straight and help each other?" You need to be immune to being shocked by things like husband being in court convicted of sex offences and all of the other possibilities to carry it through, but I think you would be perfectly OK with that.

I'm thinking that the husband has some part in this also, good or bad (maybe that's just because I'm down on men at the mo!). Perhaps he has just announced he has been having an affair? Perhaps she has just announced she has been having an affair?! But then, what has stopped her ringing in, even just to say 'I really can't explain but I won't be back until ...', and whatever it was, she was well enough to have lunch with work associates.

There is also the possibility that she will resign as soon as she returns to the office. Even if you are forgiving, will her colleagues be?

Conor_3

I'm with the "disciplinary route". You'll probably find a verbal or first written warning is sufficient but as has been said elsewhere, you need to be seen as taking action or others may feel they can get away with it and "Good old Harry won't mind".

dmg24

Incisor wrote: »

Bozo: The attendance record for my company is 99.6%.

Whatever they are doing, they are doing it right and the employees seem to understand. Automatically going down the disciplinary route may be counterproductive, in that if the other employees actually understand the situation as 'Mrs Employee has legitimate problem XYZ', the discipline may breach the trust those individuals have with the company - in short if they have issues which need time out, they may be more inclined to go covert than be open.

I know you weren't referring to my post directly, but just to clarify, I would only take disciplinary action if there were no extenuating circumstances (or I did not deem the reason given to fall into this category).

dmg24

Incisor wrote: »

Hmm. I get the picture here that there may be far more effective ways of dealing with this than the disciplinary for Bozo's outfit. It certainly is a challenge to the way things are run - it could even be the woman pitching for an argument with Bozo about something - and a just outcome has to be reached. But so far, in my mind it is not clear whether the crime is taking time off which would not have been allowed or it is not seeking authorisation for time which would have been allowed.

If the employee has no valid reason for taking the time off, then I don't see any other course of action? Remember that she did not even forward information to enable others to cover her workload.

At the moment we don't have the full facts of the situation. It is difficult for anyone to give a solid opinion without an explanation from the employee as to why they did what they did.

SomeBozo, did she not offer any explanation on the phone?

Debt_Free_Chick

SomeBozo wrote: »

Then on Friday afternoon two contractors came to the office and said how they had seen the lady in a coffee shop and they had lunch with her.

She could be having a bad time emotionally/mentally and simply needs some space.

What's your gut reaction? To get rid? or to keep?

If to get rid, then play hardball and confront her (others have given you the drill on this).

If it's to keep, then don't "pounce on her". Let her return to work then at the end of the first day ask her if she's OK. Tell her you're concerned about her and ask does she need any support... if so, what does she need?

She may just need you to cut her some slack whilst she sorts herself out - do you want to do that, in order to keep her? Sacking staff and then recruiting a replacement is not easy and not cheap, so supporting her might be a better option for your business. But only you can make that call.

All I would say is that being able to shop in Asda and/or get a coffee is not the same as being "up for" and/or capable of doing a day's work. I spend most of my days "just getting by" at work whilst going through absolute mental torture at the breakup of my previous relationship. I honestly don't know how I manage to do any work at all ...... but I'm there, in the office

Give her a break - at least until she shows you that she's swinging the lead. I guess I would be lenient, given my personal circumstances, but it just goes to show that you cannot make any assumptions based on behaviour