excessive absenteeism shouldn't = a raise

Elle

I have an ee who has been here for 8 years with a poor attendance record, but it hasn't been documented until I came on board. It sounds like the ee has an emergency situation every year which requires a leave of absence. Well a several months ago his house burned down, I mean all the way to nothing and he misses an average of 1-2 days per week. He says he has to meet w/insurance agents and overlook the crew, etc.(insurance company rebuilding home) b/c he is scared that they might make a mistake.

I just found out that for every day he misses of work due to the fire, his insurance carrier writes him a check since he isn't getting paid for his time off at work (exceeded PTO).

He is an average performer and his attendance is awful. It is time to give raises and I don't feel that he should receive one. My budget for increases are so tight and I have other ee's who deserve more money (we are non-for-profit).

Does this sound like a reasonable claim, not to give him an increase b/c of average to poor performance and very bad attendance?

Not sure how to approach this since him and his direct supervisor are close.

Thanks in advance.

SDDCHR

It goes without saying that yes, this should have been document. I guess as far as the raise goes, you obviously don't give an across the board pay raise. If this is the case, then you must have some guidelines or metrics established to determine who meets the criteria for the raises. If he doesn't meet them then I would say don't give it to him. But, remember, it must be objective (which attendance can easily be proven), but the performance issue may be another area of concern. Maybe his supervisor isn't going to qualify for a raise either?

Gillian3

The last sentence is the key - how are you going to impact anything if the employee and the supervisor are close? I don't know if supervisor means three levels from the top of the chief wheel, but you do need to get support from others in order to do what you would like to do. Maybe the best thing to do is deal with the attendance issue as a disciplinary problem.

Pork

I agree deal with the attendance issue, seperately. Now, get the person on a performance enhancement issue schedule through his supervisor, neither of these two should get a raise if not performing to their utmost. Obviously, the supervisor is a lesser performer since his ee is a considered lesser performer.

PORK

ritaanz

Has this employee been spoken to about his absences? If he has not been disciplined,the time to do it is now. I would show him his attendance record and push off his review for 3 or 6 months. If during that time his attendance remains the same, follow your disciplinary procedure and terminate if necessary.

I tried to put myself in his shoes. He lost everything. My first thoughts would be taking care of family and start making plans and INCOME for the future. I do not think he has his priorities in order.

Overlook the crews? How on earth would he know if they made a mistake? You mean to tell me he spends the entire day there? Right! Insurance people generally do not require you to take days off to consult with them. It is nice that they pay him his entire pay rate for all timr lost. Ya think??