Need Advice!

LindaS

Our company has an unwritten practice of granting vacation in advance of an employee's anniversary date for significant reasons, and if it's within 2 weeks of the anniversary date. To ensure consistency, the plant manager, the director of manufacturing and myself have the authority to grant these days.

One of our employees went to his supervisor last Wednesday and requested Friday as vacation. Based on the information provided by the employee, the request was granted. On Thursday the same employee called the plant manager and requested Thursday as a vacation. The plant manager inquired as to the availability of vacation to which he responded that he had "lots available". This request was also granted.

After giving the vacation requests to the person who tracks the vacation, it was discovered that this employee did NOT have any vacation available until today. The decision was made at that point that the requests were granted due to false information provided by the employee. Attempts were made to contact the employee but he did not return any of the calls.

Yesterday I held a meeting with the employee and his defense was that the supervisor and the plant manager should have known that he was requesting the vacation in advance and that it's not his responsibility to tell them. When I inquired as to why he needed those days in advance his response was "personal business".

I'm now left with two choices, do I grant him the vacation time even though he was dishonest? If I assign him attendance points he will have 13 our of 14 allowable points which puts him really closed to termination. Should I just let it go?

deniseE

I would encourage you to put your "unwritten" policy in writing, and include an exception for unusual circumstances (this will leave you case-by-case flexibility).

If you grant him the time off as vacation, you'll need to be prepared to do it for other EE's as well. I would follow your discipline policy to the letter--that way you have plenty of backup when the employee needs to be terminated.

rad

You know, this reminds me of a previous post where an employee was overpaid and said nothing. I agree with the previous post...stick with your policy or be prepared to make exceptions for everyone. The employee should know better, I can't imagine supervisors know the vacation availability for everybody they supervise. My supervisor trusts that when I request a day off I have the time available.

One point that confuses me a little though- you say he does not have vacation available until today. Does that mean that if he had asked today instead of last week there would not have been a problem?

ritaanz

Pay him. You have an "unwritten policy". What's your definition of significant? He asked for Thursday and Friday. His anniversary is today, Tuesday. For all you know, he thought that his hire date was the 20th not the 25th.

I would pay him his vacation. I do not see any precedent being established. In addition, when you get your unwritten to written, I would include a statement indicating that vacation days should be scheduled one week or 3 days or whatever, in advance.

ray a

I agree with Ritaanz, pay him. You said you already will grant vacation prior to it being earned for special cases, implying you have done previously for other ee's. The error seems to be it was never made clear that this request was to grant the "unwritten" exception to the policy. Our supervisors/managers/directors are required to keep attendance records on their direct reports tracking each ee's paid time off. I hold them responsible for knowing if an ee has time available and to call me if there is a question or conflict.