EE lied, but I think manager is digging too much

aliciac

We have an employee who has been given both verbal and written warnings with regard to attendance in the past 90 days. This past weekend he requested a day off to go to a testing for becoming a fire fighter. I don't think his supervisor should have let him go, but he did. Then the employee called that afternoon to say that the testing had been extended into the next day for some reason and that he would not make it in to work until noon at the earliest the following day, again the supervisor said that was ok. He showed up at 2:00pm (we closed at 4pm that particular day) with no further explaination. The manager then called the fire cheif to ask about the testing that had taken place and was told that it did not run 2 days, but only one. So...the manager wants to terminate for the employee lying. I happen to know that this manager wouldn't have gone to such lengths if it had been a different employee. In my opinion the days off shouldn't have been granted in the first place for someone on probation for attendance issues, but that isn't the way it happened unfortunately.
Is there anything that the manager needs to be really careful about when addressing the employee about this? He can't really be reprimanded for attendance because he had permission, but can he ba called on the lie?

LindaS

Unless this EE is in some type of protected class there is nothing that would keep me from terminating him unless he, the employee, can prove that he was at the testing (some type of statement from the testing facility, for example).

Regardless of whether the supervisor granted the employee the time off, based on the information above, the time off was granted due to the employee lying about the need for the time.

Call the employee in and ask him about the situation. In absence of some type of proof regarding the testing, terminate the EE for lying.

lrobb

> I happen to
>know that this manager wouldn't have gone to
>such lengths if it had been a different
>employee.

If you are certain that the manager would not have done the same checking on any other employee I would want the manager to articulate on what basis they made a decision to treat this ee differently. Having discovered that I would then make the decision on corrective action if any.

njjel

If it is company policy to check up on ee's who request time off to attend these types of things then go ahead and terminate the ee for lying. However, if other ee's have lied and not been terminated then do not terminate this ee. If this is a first for any ee, then I would call in the ee and advise him of what you know and see what he says. If he offers no proof then terminate him. We had an ee give us a doctor's note once and that doctor was no longer in practice! We found this out because the doctor in question was also the doctor of one of our upper management members. The ee was terminated for supplying false medical verification (she had called out sick).

System

I really think your issue is not so much the absence as it is the fact the employee lied. The fact that the supervisor dug a little deeper into this situation, to me, is not really relevant. The supervisor had reason to question the stated reason for the absence and followed up on it - which verified the employee lied. Not having a history of "past practice" of verifying every requested absence is unnecessary. You have an employee with attendance problems, on warning, who continued to miss work under false pretenses. It is grounds for immediate termination. Now, that being said, if you have busted other employees lying about their absences, and did not discipline or terminate, then you have a legitimate issue of unequal treatment for similar offenses.

Dutch2

Had an ee take time off to attend his grandmothers funeral. Story in the grapevine was that he lied about this and just wanted the time off. I called his family to offer our condolences and they were very surprised to receive the call as Granny was alive and kickin'. Called him into my office as soon as he returned and asked him about this. He just got up, walked out, clocked out and keep going; we never heard from him again.

aliciac

The manager is going to call him in and ask him about the details of the testing taking 2 days, he'll offer him a chance to explain before termination but I doubt there will be much to explain.