Gyro
03-10-2014, 11:11 AM
I have an individual who started as a temp in April this year after temping last year for a short period of time with us and things seemed to go quite well. The service to the business provided has been great and as a result the workload of the role significantly increased so in a short period of time we were able to offer permanency.
This individual is very eager and motivated to work and please everyone. The issue is they tend to have a lot of unplanned leave ie 23 days off since April. Ordinarily I would give people the benefit of the doubt initially which I have tried to but some of the leave has been for reasons that most wouldn't even consider taking time off for example received a small bite on their hand couldn't come in, a mirror broke in the bathroom so had to take the day off, bent their finger back while gardening over the weekend, no damage but Monday was a no-show, took 6 days off after their 2year old pet died. There have been several conversations about this and I tried to establish if there were bigger issues at play ie if the individual was stressed at work and not wanting to come in so the smallest issues were motivation enough to call in 'sick', this was not the case as they were very much enjoying the work, loving the opportunities presented to them and the overall work environment. There are no family/ personnel issues or anything else but I did notice an attitude on occasion that it is my right to take whatever time off I want. They have also been taken through the leave management guide several times.
It is now at the point where I have heard people in the office make comments about the amount of leave this individual has had.
The individuals attendance improved for a few of weeks, their attitude towards it improved and they promised to improve on the situation. Then just over a week ago they fell very ill (legitimately) and have been off work for 7 days now and I am unsure when they will be back. The issue is that now the illness is legitimate it is very difficult to sympathise given the history of this individual.
Is there anyone out there that has had a similar situation? I'm used to managing unplanned leave then performance managing them out of the business or seeing a dramatic improvement to the individuals behaviour and attendance then it no longer being an issue. This is a little different as I don't want to come across as the heartless Leave Management Police but I am struggling to come up with an approach that doesn't do this.
The business is suffering!!! they are now at 30 days of unplanned leave and counting in under 6 months.
Gyro
This individual is very eager and motivated to work and please everyone. The issue is they tend to have a lot of unplanned leave ie 23 days off since April. Ordinarily I would give people the benefit of the doubt initially which I have tried to but some of the leave has been for reasons that most wouldn't even consider taking time off for example received a small bite on their hand couldn't come in, a mirror broke in the bathroom so had to take the day off, bent their finger back while gardening over the weekend, no damage but Monday was a no-show, took 6 days off after their 2year old pet died. There have been several conversations about this and I tried to establish if there were bigger issues at play ie if the individual was stressed at work and not wanting to come in so the smallest issues were motivation enough to call in 'sick', this was not the case as they were very much enjoying the work, loving the opportunities presented to them and the overall work environment. There are no family/ personnel issues or anything else but I did notice an attitude on occasion that it is my right to take whatever time off I want. They have also been taken through the leave management guide several times.
It is now at the point where I have heard people in the office make comments about the amount of leave this individual has had.
The individuals attendance improved for a few of weeks, their attitude towards it improved and they promised to improve on the situation. Then just over a week ago they fell very ill (legitimately) and have been off work for 7 days now and I am unsure when they will be back. The issue is that now the illness is legitimate it is very difficult to sympathise given the history of this individual.
Is there anyone out there that has had a similar situation? I'm used to managing unplanned leave then performance managing them out of the business or seeing a dramatic improvement to the individuals behaviour and attendance then it no longer being an issue. This is a little different as I don't want to come across as the heartless Leave Management Police but I am struggling to come up with an approach that doesn't do this.
The business is suffering!!! they are now at 30 days of unplanned leave and counting in under 6 months.
Gyro