Too sick to work . . .

HRCalico

but not too sick to race. I hired an EE in February. Seems to be a decent worker. Called in sick 8/1 - 8/18 (by the rules - he called every day as in the handbook) and made it in to work today. I checked online and discovered he's placed in the top ten in the local stock car races on 7/23, 8/6, and 8/13 (I don't have results for 7/30 yet).

I'm guessing it was a habitual saying - most mornings, he'd conclude his call-in message with "I'll call you later" and never did - now I don't think he really meant it. During that time, I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times - once on 8/6 when I called him, he brought in a dr's note on 8/13 after I'd left for the day (oh for pete's sake EVERYBODY knows my schedule), and identified daily that he'd be in to work the next day all this week (i.e. Friday, said he'd be in Monday. Monday, said he'd be in Tuesday. Tuesday, said he'd be in Wednesday. He finally made it on Thursday.)

Our newly crafted handbook reads that an absence is excused if an employee calls in prior to their start time and their supervisor accepts the reason. (Oh, and his supervisor is out on disability right now)

I actually do believe he is ill. According to him, he has been going to the doc and getting blood tests and they can't find what's wrong. (Symptoms include extreme fatigue, et al) I also believe he's tearing things up on the weekend and needing all week to recover and do it again.

Showing up for work is absolutely required for this job. We're way behind, and I can't find enough people to hire! (I'll just about vote for the president who says he WON'T create any more jobs to compete with my openings . . . )

I'm thinking that if his attendance starts to waver again, we'll have a come-to-Jesus meeting with three potential outcomes:
1) Have him request a Leave of Absence with specified return date,
2) Tell him if he doesn't show up to work, we'll have to term him, or
3) Just term him.

The questions then become - do we have to grant the LOA? What if he isn't better by the specified date? He isn't remotely eligible for FMLA. I know our attendance policy isn't the greatest but I don't want to go to a no-fault because as a small company in a small town, we consider it a benefit that we allow employees time off for family activities. Does that sound contradictory to my whole post? Well, two and half weeks out sick and four races don't jive in my mind.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-20-04 AT 02:25PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Unless you have a policy and practice of granting leave of absence upon request, I would not go anywhere near your no. 1. He's been out 'sick' somewhere between 13 & 17 days and has been employed 6 months??? What's wrong with this picture? Oh, I forgot, you're a small employer in a small community and want to be good to your employees.

Let's face it; you have no viable sick leave policy. What you are calling a sick leave policy only requires that somebody call in. That's no policy. That cripples your company. I imagine everyone in town wants to work there. If I were sitting in your chair I would call him in with a supervisory witness and tell him the jig is up. I would tell him I know that he called in on the same days he is shown to have won stock car races on a number of occasions. I would tell him the next time he calls in, it will not be approved. If he decides to stay out anyway, he will be terminated because of poor attendance, pure and simple. Period. Then he'll be free to run practice laps and turn wrenches 24/7.

POPEYE

But Don, all of these racing dates are on Friday and probably after working hours. If it is like the usual local small tracks, a race would only last 30-45 minutes, not like it was a full 8 hour work day. Cut the guy a little slack.......

Just being a smart---. Don is correct. It sounds like you need to institute an attendance policy that has teeth and stick to it.

KP68

Do you have a short term disability plan that would begin after say, five consecutive missed days? That is how ours works...once an employee is out more than five days, we send the papers and if they are not returned so we can file a claim and determine if the employee is truly 'disabled', the employee may be disciplined for unauthorized absences.

Just a thought.

HRCalico

Thanks, KP, but we don't enroll in disability until after 1 year. I am working on updating our attendance policy, though, to try and head this off the next time.

I'm pleased to say that said employee has been at work faithfully since my post.

This has been more of a concern than it might seem because I've been struggling to fill open positions with good people. When I say "struggling", I mean few to no applicants, and the ones I do get typically have a horrible work history and don't interview well.

In answering a question about initiative, an applicant mentioned just drilling a new hole instead of talking to Quality. I believe at that exact moment, the hair on the back of my quality manager's neck stood on end, and he was several offices away.