Help with Different Employee Groups Abusing PTO

catherinetnc

We implemented PTO this year which essentially gives everyone a set number of days a year to take as vacation or sick.

Part of the employee groups - labs, office, admin, - are thrilled and do not abuse the system.

The other part - manufacturing - seems to be abused dramatically. (common that employee went on a bender the night before - calls in sick the next day) I know that one answer is that managers must enforce the policy more rigorously - that might cut down on abuse. ( ie one unexcused/unapproved/ no call-in absence = discipline up to termination among other things)

One excuse that a manager gives is that those employees are not used to planning vacation - he says its a socioeconomic thing(we have a three day advance request for PTO that supervisor can deny if he sees that he'll be short-handed)so they call in sick rather than ask for time off. (I did not respond to this assertion.)

Beyond that, our manufacturing sector is very lean, so not alot of folks can be out without it affecting our ability to produce product. So, production managers complain that their employees were given too much PTO anyway.(they got same as everyone else).

CEO says we can't hire more folks in production. (to tell the truth - they would just abuse the policy, too)

Bottom line - PTO is not working for production. Do you all have any suggestions as to how to deal with this employee group without penalizing all the other employee groups? I am so tempted to do away with PTO just for that group but I know that might cause a morale problem. (to put it mildly)
Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks-
Catherine

SMace

You answered your own question in paragraph #3. How can the supervisors complain and get away with it when they can't even enforce a policy?

HRCalico

Hi, Catherine. I feel your pain. We don't have PTO, but there are people who will figure out how to play your system no matter what it is. (Once you make something idiot-proof, they build a better idiot.)

I agree that you need to enforce your policy. Are your supervisors tracking attendance now? It would help to have just one person handling it, so it is consistent, and most likely that is YOU.

Here's how we handle it - if employees are sick (or otherwise unable to work), they currently must call in and leave a message prior to their start time. Otherwise, I count the absence as unexcused. Two unexcused absences is a written warning, three written warnings (for any reason) in one year can result in termination. The receptionist retrieves the messages and sends me an e-mail with the absences for the day. We also record them on our Outlook public calendar so everyone is aware of who is out.

I also implemented an absence request form about a year ago. Employees are to fill them out, indicating what days they'll be gone and what type of paid leave, if any (we still have vacation/sick/incentive time separately), they would like to use. Our payroll person gets a copy, I keep the original and enter it into a spreadsheet, along with the above-mentioned e-mails.

We try to run lean, too, but remember that you give employees PTO for them to USE. I don't doubt for one second that you have abusers, but they do have a right to use it. Once they run out, then you have an attendance (or FMLA) issue.

I came across an interesting example of policy recently. A local company puts employees on a three-day leave of absence if they call in and don't have any type of PTO to use. That way, it cuts down on people just calling in with a case of the "I don't wannas". Of course, since your people have time, this wouldn't apply.

Good luck!