Employer Advice

SandC

Well, glad it's all sorted, just sorry you have lost an employee and she behaved so badly.

When I've had interviews in the past I have always used holidays, booked a half day or whatever.

Anyway, what's done is done, just a shame she chose to fabricate a serious illness and end up bringing her colleagues into it instead of just inventing a hospital or doctor appointment or something.

Reds-on-Sea

CFC wrote: »

Somebozo, sorry to stick my beak in again - but why did she look for another job? Did that come out of the conversation? Could be useful knowledge garnered here?

I agree, sounds like a wonderful work envoronment, why would she give it up? Only reason I can think of would be for more money.

Idiophreak

SomeBozo wrote: »

But I can't (and when I mean "I" I mean me and my company) really support her through a crisis at home.

If its work, I will sort it one way or the other.

But if its outside work, I can't and won't help.

Just stumbled over this thread - the above is quite interesting. Whilst I totally agree with your homelife/worklife ethos, perhaps you could look at getting some kind of counselling service provided as an addition to your benefits package.

I can't remember what it's called now, but we've got a number somewhere we can call anonymously if we're having any kind of problems, financial, emotional etc and there are people on the line that will talk it through, get you in touch with the right people and so on. I believe we do this partly to be seen to care about our employees and partly to lessen the load on the HR dept and to keep these issues out of work hours.

Just food for thought...

mitchaa

dmg24 wrote: »

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.

What is worse?

8x1 days
4x2 days
2x4 days

8x1 days would either get you the sack or you would be called in for a meeting about it. 4x2 days would perhaps raise an eyebrow but nothing mentioned, 2x4 days would be acceptable.

I have never taken just 1 day off work, with colds and flu etc, you can take out a whole workforce if you go back into work too early.

Pulling a ''sickie'' i dont think is believable if you just do it for 1 day, most people generally take the 2.

I had the flu not that long ago and it really did take me down for the whole week, work never batted an eyelid.

In this case, i do not understand why she did not just take an A-L day as she was risking it by being seen in public

jacklink

have you any room for another employee i will work for you need a job.

But in respects of the issue i'd give her a break, its nearly Christmas and trust me people are worried sick about losing their jobs.

Idiophreak

mitchaa wrote: »

Pulling a ''sickie'' i dont think is believable if you just do it for 1 day, most people generally take the 2.

Not sure about that, I've never taken a sickie, but have had a couple of single days for a couple of reasons - 1) food poisoning and stomach bugs - can easily stop you working for a day, but not two. 2) fridays/mondays - things that come and go over the weekend. Feel bad about those, know they look worst, but when you think about it, there's > 50% chance of you being ill on friday, saturday, sunday or monday, so it would be weird if you were only ever ill midweek...

lesley1960

Is there any danger of her pinching your clients?

SomeBozo

Hello all

To respond to a few posts :

but why did she look for another job? Did that come out of the conversation? Could be useful knowledge garnered here?

She got offered a salary and perks better than her current deal with me! Can't blame her for that. I would not have matched it.

Well, glad it's all sorted, just sorry you have lost an employee and she behaved so badly.

Thanks, though this comes with package of being a employer. Lesson learnt etc.

I can't remember what it's called now, but we've got a number somewhere we can call anonymously if we're having any kind of problems, financial, emotional etc and there are people on the line that will talk it through, get you in touch with the right people and so on

Hi, be really interested in the company name for this. Can you provide it or PM me it. I want my employees to have support at home etc, but I can't and won't provide it. If I can pay someone else to, all the better. It would make my ethos easier to swallow.

Is there any danger of her pinching your clients?

Yes there is. My firm specialises in these type of areas, but at the end of the day if she wants to do this, I need to use my legal arm of the company which is expensive and can offer little results. I will watch and see.

Thanks for the replies.

Bozo

Debt_Free_Chick

SomeBozo wrote: »

Hi, be really interested in the company name for this. Can you provide it or PM me it. I want my employees to have support at home etc, but I can't and won't provide it. If I can pay someone else to, all the better. It would make my ethos easier to swallow.

It's an employee assistance programme and there are a number of providers. You provide this as a benefit to employees - like pension, private medical insurance etc ...... Yes - you pay someone else to do it as there is no way you could provide all the associated services in-house. But you get "payback" as (a) you're providing a service and (b) you have a number of "personal issues" managed for you and this should feed through into improved performance - or avoiding poor performance because the personal issue would otherwise impact on work.

There's a professional association where you can find registered providers. Google returns plenty of hits too (employee assistance).

I'm gobsmacked at her approach to the interview. Whilst it's true that there was "some explanation" for her behaviour (there always is!), to pretend there was a serious medical/mental issue is unacceptable behaviour. Could she not have booked a day's leave? Or even a single day sick? Or some other domestic emergency requiring only half a days leave? The only thing that could have been worse would have been to claim a family bereavement :eek:

The answer to all these is yes and - to be honest - someone who is prepared to go to such lengths to concoct such an elaborate excuse has surely destroyed much of your trust as an employer. You must feel very let down - but you seem to be rightly philosophical about it

About 20 years ago I was given some very good advice - never burn all your bridges with an employer/manager; you never know whether you will end up working for/with them again in the future

Savvy_Sue

We've been offered this telephone counselling thing through our insurers, might be worth checking with yours.

to pick up on an earlier point, however,

lots29 wrote: »

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 have 'normally' in that sentence, or at least not get completely anal about it, which I'm sure somebozo wouldn't. But we've heard about companies where they INSISTED on the employee phoning in person every day, even if they were in hospital. And the consensus then was that if you phone and say "I will be off for at least x days" then it's unreasonable to expect contact every day. If you say "I should be back tomorrow" then you need to phone tomorrow, of course.

Now I know in this case the employee was NOT ill, but sometimes I have phoned for DH and vice versa. If he's so ill he's not going in, he really is bad!