Employee Absence

Min

We have an employee (who does not qualify for FMLA- not enough hours in the facility) who is absent a lot. She has missed several days due to illness or daycare related issues. She is a payment processor in our small hospital. I was wondering if anyone could give some advice regarding discipline or possible discharge- if it comes to that. She has only been working for us for 7 1/2 months- she is scheduled M-F 8 hrs per day- and someone else is having to let her job sit so she can do the other job. The dept. manager is wondering what courses of action she can take.
HELP!!!!

Ruskanen

Do you have an attendance policy in place? If so, you should start disciplining accordingly. Were the attendance expectations given to the employee at the time of hire? Has anyone even told her they are not pleased with her attendance?

If you don't have an attendance in place, it is hard to discipline someone when you don't have any standards to hold them up to.

System

I would treat this as an employee who's not doing her job. Give her: clear, written expectations (your policy or the job's attendance requirements), a clear explanation of what she's doing wrong (with a written list of her absences), an opportunity to correct the problem, and a specific warning (in writing) that she could be fired if she doesn't.

The sooner you do this, the better. It looks suspicious to fire someone after tolerating the problem for a long time. Especially if you fire her right before she becomes eligible for FMLA leave. Good luck.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Gar

Has she been warned, written or otherwise? Absent a written policy, and assuming she's been warned and it's documented, I'd determine if she is the worst attendance problem in her supervisor's organization (discounting other's FMLA time-off, of course). If the worst, I'd terminate employment next time she's out/tardy.