NEED suggestions QUICK

mrsbowden

We have a supervisor with an ee who is calling off approx. once a week and their excuses vary to woke up late, sick, car trouble etc. This super wants to know how many unscheduled call offs (within a period of time, if there is one) can an ee have before we can take sometype of discipinary actions i.e. verbal warring. As far as I know this ee still have plenty of sick and vacation time to take.

Any info. on this AND any suggestions on how you would handle the situation?

deniseE

what does your attendance policy say???

Do you have a point at which you require a dr's excuse?

We have a practice-not policy- of placing employees that seem to be abusing leave time on "leave restriction". we dictate how many days they can arrive late, leave early (unscheduled), and call off for a set period of time (usually 3 months) and detail the discipline that will ensue if the restriction are not followed-unpaid suspension is a favorite.

This has 2 purposes...showing the ee that they can really come to work regularly...and allows them to build up sufficient leave time should something serious happen.

mrsbowden

We have devloped a new handbook but it has not yet been approved to use and it has a lot more and better policies, our current policy doesn't state alot about absenteeism, it just says....

"two successive days without notifying the upervisor, or excessive absenteeism independent of cause....which may cause for immediate termination"

Which the ee does call in that isn't the problem it is that they do it tooooo often. I just dont know were the fair cut off line would be to say okay this is excess and time for verbal warring?

sohappytobe

Do you have an absentee policy? If so, what does it read? Make it read what you want it to read and distibute to staff indicating implementation date. If you don't have a policy, write one and be explicit regarding scheduled days off and unscheduled days off and then discipline and document and discipline and document.

Tina

mrsbowden

I understand a good attendance policy should state how many absences and with in what period of time will call for disciplinary action, but at this time we do not have this time frame establised only what I quoted above. Anymore Help on what to do? FYI we have a progressive dicipline policy in place begining with a verbal warning.

eddice

We have an attendance chart. Based on how many "incidents" and how many total hours are involved will determine the level of corrective action. Abuse of sick time, etc. ceased quickly when we put this into place and haven't had a problem since. If you are interested in seeing the program I can fax you the info.

mrsbowden

Could you please fax that to me...at 304-357-4832 Thanks a Bunch!

WO

Eddice: Could you also fax me a copy of your new attendance policy/chart.

509-493-1297

thanks

Jones

Would you please fax it to me at (512) 231-8796.
Thank you so much!

E Wart

Eddice, I would love to see your policy/chart as well. 770-981-3345 or [email]ewarthen@newcombspring.com[/email].
Thanks,
E Wart

owenlady

I too would be very interested in the chart regarding attendance and total hours used if you wouldn't mind sharing, my fax is 859-335-4106 and email [email]carole.owen@bgfh.com[/email]

In the past our attendance policy was very similar with no defined # of times before discipline, termination, etc. We have since become very strict and at 5 occurrences we mandate an EAP visit and at 7 we terminate. Surely made a huge difference.

But when we had the old policy we dealt with it from the job performance standpoint. We hired you to perform a job and the fact you are not here is impacting your performance as well as adding to the burden for your co-workers and thus we would start with verbal counseling/coaching and move forward if the problem didn't resolve.

Just an idea.

Carole

Becky_ripley

If you could, please send me a copy of your attendance chart as well.

Fax-757-473-8902
[email]beckyw@ripheat.com[/email]

Thanks
Becky Welch

globex

pleaes fax to me also...214-353-0074.

thanks,
jerry

flaroyale

Just a thought but if the employee has plenty of vacation and sick time to use does that mean he/she is a long time employee who has accumulated this over time and is this behavior something that has started recently? Could possibly indicate an underlying problem.

I would speak to the employee and explain that vacation/sick time is a benefit and meant to be used with prior notice (except for real emergencies). Explain how her unexcused/unscheduled absences are affecting the other employees and if they continue disciplinary action will be taken.

Just my opinion for what it is worth.

FLAhr

Our policy states that all paid time must be used prior to any unpaid time. If someone is late or leaves early we force the paid time. We also round up to the nearest hour. If they were 15 min late, we charge their vac bank for 1 hour. Also, all paid vacation time is at regular straight time. I know this can be harsh, but it does almost eliminate the problem and vacation time is used. Of course you still have the abusers who, if they know they will be late they make it the full hour. Even FMLA, we force the paid time first.

mrsbowden

Since our policy is vague and states that excessive absenteeism can be disciplined/termed my director suggested that everyone has a different meaning of excessive and to encourage the supervisor to make her own definition of excessive and to implement it consistently and fairly, including tracking time.

So now I have another question,,,,all but one person in this super's dept. is exempt..I was told that by law you can't track exempt ee's time but you can have them punch IN ONLY for the sack of verifying they are there...so now she wants a time clock for all of her ee's to use just to clock IN on.

Any thoughts here?

marc

First, be careful about allowing every supervisor to independently determine what is excessive. The first wrongful discharge case will not go in your favor when the plaintiffs attorney points to a very inconsistent application of the policy. Excessive absenteeism can be open to interpretation, and you can have variance in it's application, but get together to make it reasonable.

By all means, tell your ees that the lax enforcement of the past is over and that they should expect to show up at their respective scheduled times ready to work.

Exempts can have more flexibility, but it is the nature of the job, not the ees good or bad habits. Even exempts can have valid schedules to maintain, else the absenteeism and tardiness policies will also hit them.

If you are going to track tardiness through the use of the time clock, be ready to put the infrastructure in place to do so. Again, consistent treatment is important. Make sure everyone involved understands what is going to happen with this, and then follow through to make it happen.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-09-03 AT 11:26AM (CST)[/font][p]First, you certainly can track exempt employees' time. There are multiple reasons to do that and the tracking itself does nothing to affect the exemption status. Reasons to track it include: To properly capture FMLA time, whether intermittent or regular; for the coding of time worked by project or activity; for the audit against leave taken during a pay period, to be sure they are charged appropriately for taken leave; for the payment of bonuses dependent on how many extra hours were worked during a pay period. So, track it. If you want to track it for discipline, fine. Just be sure you do not DOCK pay. For those of you who fear some auditor will ask you why you track it, reverse it and ask them if they have some compelling reason that you should NOT. They will not have one, as long as you are not docking their pay or paying them by the hour worked.

Secondly, you do not have to have a written policy that addresses any and every little thing. You can discipline this guy in the absence of any policy. Your company can pull him in, write him up, tell him future incidents can lead to termination. And you do not have to tell a fish how many times he can snap at the hook without having his butt pulled into the boat. Tell him to stop his foolishness, report to work at an assigned time, do his job and cease the child's play. Write him up two times, three at the most, then terminate him. Handbooks and written policies, although very wise and useful, are not required. The absence of specific written policies does not paralyze the company.