Too weird - what to do?
KathiHR
91 Posts
We have an employee in a professional, exempt position similar to sales. He works out of a small office in a city several hours away from his manager. Since Sept, his performance has been down - not meeting goals, etc. In the last 2 weeks, he's missed 2 important meetings with clients, & last week, he stopped returning phone calls (manager's & clients'). He hasn't been in his office. We've had 7 complaints from clients in the last week & have no record of any productive work in the last 2 weeks. Yesterday, he missed a 3rd important meeting, so we decided to terminate, but we can't make contact with him. His manager left him a message on his cell, home, & fax that it was mandatory that he call him by 10:00 this morning.
No phone call - but he did send an e-mail this morning that said "I am in the hospital. I can't give you much more information than that right now."
I think this is weird - if he can send an e-mail, then he can certainly pick up the phone & call his manager. He's not protected under FMLA because he works from a very small location & hasn't been with us a year anyway. I'm inclined to terminate him by certified letter, either for performance issues or for job abandonment; either one works for me. I know it seems cold-hearted to terminate someone *supposedly* in the hospital one week before Christmas, but he's made no effort to let his manager know what's going on. I don't think his e-mail should change our decision to terminate with cause. What do you think?
No phone call - but he did send an e-mail this morning that said "I am in the hospital. I can't give you much more information than that right now."
I think this is weird - if he can send an e-mail, then he can certainly pick up the phone & call his manager. He's not protected under FMLA because he works from a very small location & hasn't been with us a year anyway. I'm inclined to terminate him by certified letter, either for performance issues or for job abandonment; either one works for me. I know it seems cold-hearted to terminate someone *supposedly* in the hospital one week before Christmas, but he's made no effort to let his manager know what's going on. I don't think his e-mail should change our decision to terminate with cause. What do you think?
Comments
Missing three client meetings is unacceptable. I would terminate based off of that alone.
I assume when you made the decision to terminate him there would be some effort to do it on a "face-to-face" basis. And if you're willing to go there to fire him, why not go there to find out what the problem is?
At this point you should find out what his circumstances are (a physicians statement is an excellent idea) and make your decision. Its not a good idea to reach your conclusion prior to having some information from his point of view.
Missing 3 client meeting is unacceptable as JM in Atl stated that would be grounds for termination.
Fire them for job abandonment. You can always undo a termination if suddenly you found there was a valid reason for this behavior. But it is not like this has occurred for just one day. Two weeks of it. Fire him, bet he calls after he signs for that letter.
My $0.02 worth,
DJ The Balloonman
Face-to-face termination at any location other than the place of employment may buy the ER a lawsuit for outrageous conduct. Recently, we had that misfortune where the managers drove to a family members' house where the ee was allegedly recuperating from an alleged heart attack. The managers handed the ee his employment termination notice. As you can imagine, we shelled out six figure sums for attorneys to defend the lawsuit and the jury made us pay out five-figures b/c it did not like the termination at a family members home.
scorpio
That would be enough! Unless he is the owner of the company, termination letter would be in the mail.
Time of the year should not matter. HR does have lots of responsibility with the EE, but the ultimate responsibility is to protect and preserve the ER.
>position similar to sales. He works out of a
>small office in a city several hours away from
>his manager. Since Sept, his performance has
>been down - not meeting goals, etc. In the last
>2 weeks, he's missed 2 important meetings with
>clients, & last week, he stopped returning phone
>calls (manager's & clients'). He hasn't been in
>his office. We've had 7 complaints from clients
>in the last week & have no record of any
>productive work in the last 2 weeks.
>Yesterday, he missed a 3rd important meeting, so
>we decided to terminate, but we can't make
>contact with him. His manager left him a
>message on his cell, home, & fax that it was
>mandatory that he call him by 10:00 this
>morning.
I'm also kind of curious about his manager. Prior to September was the ee a good, average, poor performer? From your post it seems the most positve action the manager took was to say "call me or else!"
We decided to terminate for job abandonment. Before we could get that letter into the mail, he sent another e-mail saying he was in alcohol treatment, couldn't use a phone, & needed to be off until the middle of Jan, with some mumbo-jumbo about federal regulations (so I know he's getting some sort of counsel.) I could kick myself for not getting that letter in the mail before I found out about the alcohol treatment. Never-the-less, our lawyer is looking it over & we intend to terminate as soon as we get our ducks in a row. Problem is, our lawyer believes his 2nd e-mail must be treated like a request for accommodation -to which the answer is "no."
ADA or not, this guy didn't make any attempt to contact us until his wife got wind that his manager was leaving him messages. As far as I'm concerned, job abandonment is not a reasonable accommodation.
And as for his manager, he's to blame for some of this. So we'll have to deal with that next. Thanks for your input.
The only salvation for you is to put an attendance policy violation response in motion showing that he clearly violated policy and one for which others have been terminated.
Good luck and please resolve in the new year to not procrastinate.
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(edit)
I've reevaluated my position. The treatment program that he's checked into may save both his life and his career. In 30 days or so, and thereafter, he may turn out to be the best investment you've ever made. We don't just throw people away when they develop problems, do we?
I've never 'been there', but, can imagine that when one hits rock bottom and makes a decision that large, to check oneself in, it takes control of everything in your world and all you have on your mind is getting help and being wrapped in the unimaginable comfort of believing there's light at tunnel's end. Maybe that's where he was mentally. Give him a chance. If it doesn't work out, then consider termination.
Isn't this precisely the kind of situation where we would make an EAP referral? Only he made his own.
You remind me of the Grinch. Your heart must've grown 3 sizes today.....
[url]http://www.recovery.org/aa/bigbook/ww/chapter_10.html[/url]
It was very enlightening for me - it talks about things that we should and shouldn't consider doing for our employees. It is kind of long, but fast reading.
1) He's only been with us for 8 months & his performance has never been good. (Unfortunately, no quota is documented.)
2) EE sent 3 e-mails from the hospital to his manager & in not one of them does he acknowledge what date he went in for treatment, how long he needs off, who's going to cover for him while he's gone, how much PTO does he have, will he get paychecks, will he have a job when he gets back, does he still have insurance, etc - all the things a responsible person would take care of. Even if he was such a mess before he went in, wouldn't the responsible thing be to ask some questions about your job situation, now that he's communicating with his manager?
3) In the e-mail where he tells his manager that he's in treatment, he also tells his manager that he does not have his permission to tell anyone else about it & tries to quote some federal HIPAA regulations. That means that as far as he knows, no one else knows he's gone & he has made no contact with HR to arrange a leave, to provide certification, etc.
4) In his position, he's dependent upon clients being referred to him for services. That's based on maintaining relationships. He's burned bridges now, so he won't get any clients referred to him if he were to come back. (They already told us they won't use him.) That means we can bring him back to his job, but he won't get any work, & then if we terminate him, we've still opened ourself up to a retaliation claim.
So as it stands, our lawyer is planning on having to defend us no matter what, & I'm looking for the least damaging way out of this mess. (And this manager is on my hit list...that's bad for him.) Sigh......