Have you ever?

HRQ

A little over a month ago, a manager wrote up a supervisor for continual failure to meet dress code and refusal to attend mandatory meetings.

Yesterday she wrote up the same supervisor for lack of professionalism: not being wholly truthful when questioned and for trash talking subordinates to other subordinates. (She admitted this)

She signed the document. In her very next sentence, she ASKED FOR A RAISE. She's been with us for five months.

I have never had an employee ask for a raise immediately after being written up.

Any of you see any similarly crazy stuff?

jitrbug

I had a termination meeting with a management employee and their director (the managment ee was the one getting fired at the conclusion of an investigation). We were VERY clear that the ee's employment was being terminated that day and the reason's why. At the end of the 15 minute meeting and getting the ee to sign necessary papers, I asked if they had any further questions for me. After thinking (I think!) for a few seconds the then fired ee asked..."will I get fired for this?"

ray a

We have an engineer who likes to set his own hours regardless of business needs. He received a verbal reprimand back in the summer for unexcused tardiness. Then in his annual eval, he was hit again with a low score for reliability. Today, we gave him a written reprimand. He said, "I guess I am incorrigible". Then asked if he is tardy once more will he be fired. I think he wanted to find out just where the line was so he knew how far he can push it.

HRQ

So..... Now this employee has announced she's pregnant, is high-risk, claims she is bleeding and vomiting, has cancer, and is resigning because of her high-risk pregnancy. Not a doctor's note in sight.

I knew she'd submitted a resignation but didn't know why until she called me asking how to file her disability claim with our insurance company.

She's not eligible for FML, but we routinely approve Personal LOA's of up to 6 weeks, so I sent her my usual packet of info.

Her resignation was open ended, so I advised her supervisor to get a doc's note to confirm or deny any necessary restrictions, and get an ending date on her notice.

Maybe she'll ask for a raise again.

drehil

Wrote up an ee for not following proper call-in procedure when absent.
Termed same ee for unsatisfactory attendance a month later.
EE filled for Unemployment and was approved, but later was denied because ee failed to call in and report information. GO FIGURE!!!

NeedCoffee

Just yesterday, I had an employee call in, stating they wouldn't be at work because they were in Mexico due to a death in the family.

Problem is, we have caller ID, which clearly identified the call as coming from the EE's land line at home.

D-oh!

Needless to say, we will be having a chat upon the return from "Mexico."

rlk

We had the same thing happen. An employee sent a family member to collect his check because he was in Mexico. We require a signed note from the employee in order to release the check. We compare the signature on the note with the signature on documents the employee fills out during orientation. This signature was no where near the same so we would not release the check. The next day the employee calls from "Mexico" to ask us to release the check to his family member because he will not be able to get back from Mexico for several days. Low and behold his supervisor had seen him in WalMart the evening before. We located the employee and stongly suggested he return to work. He is no longer with us.

davids

Why wait until the employee "returns" from Mexico? A crafty attorney could argue that the employee was entrapped since you knew he/she was at home, but allowed the employee to remain absent from work. I would call or send a certified letter telling the employee that caller ID showed the call was made from home and the he/she needs to return to work immediately.

System

Entrapment isn't a defense to employee misconduct; it's a defense used by someone charged with committing a crime who claims that he was was induced by law enforcement officials to commit an illegal act that he would not have committed if not for the inducement by law enforcement. The argument isn't applicable in this kind of circumstance.

That said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to try to contact the employee prior to his or her return, though there is a benefit of having the discussion in person. Is it completely impossible that the employee was traveling to Mexico the day he or she called in due to the death in the family? If you call before the return and reach the employee or get notice that the employee signed for a certified letter, that would be an indication that the employee did not go to Mexico, but if he did, I wouldn't think you'd want to send this kind of "return to work now or else" letter to a grieving employee.

Waiting for the employee to return enables you to question the employee in person and get a better sense of whether he or she is being honest with you. It also likely enables you to approach the situation in a way that can take into account the possibility that there's a reasonable explanation (and, if there is no reasonable explanation, questioning in person doesn't potentially give the employee days to come up with a reasonable explanation, unlike sending him a letter warning him of your suspicions). In any event, I think it's very unlikely that giving the employee the benefit of the doubt at a time when he claims to have lost a family member would cause problems for you legally if you ultimately decided to take disciplinary action against the employee.