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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    18

    Default Excessive Unplanned Leave

    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

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    151

    Default

    I had a similar situation where an employee worked around 30 days in the 6 months, but appeared to do great work and was motivated etc. Long story short in the end we got to the point we had to let them go, then discovered they had been submitting fraudulent doctors certificates and letters from other professions. One of the doctors we ended up contacting took the case to the police and they were charged with fraud. We also discovered on their non-private social media that they were publicly saying alot of things different to what we were being told, so that could be a good place to start snooping around as well.

    I never got to find out for sure, but I had a strong feeling we were dealing with an employee suffering from some type of multiple personality condition. We never had an inkling that there was anything wrong in the discussions we had with them, however the information we found afterwards showed they were thinking and acting very differently.

    Good luck with it, remember you are not only having to deal with the employee, but also the way the employee is going to be dealt with by their team if and when they return. In our case we made the decision to let them go as their team was never going to be able to work efficiently with them despite any coaching put in place

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    18

    Default

    WOW what a situation to be in.

    It's tough to know really and you are right about having to deal with how the employee will be treated if/ when they return.

    The MD came to speak with me about it and I have chosen to take a formal approach despite the employees actual condition, it's unfortunately a classic case of the boy who cried wolf. People now don't want to know nor do they care what the real reason is all they see is the workload they have had to pick up as a result not to mention the deadlines that have slipped because of their absence.

    thanks for your comments :-)

    Gyro

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    196

    Default

    Cottoneyes is right - social media tells you heaps and there is always someone at work who will be able to tell what employee is doing from that.
    Whilst employee will obviously have zero (leave) balances, so all this leave is without pay (which of course means no leave is accruing when on LWOP - that might be a suprise for this employee), the real issue (apart from managing the work) is the impact on other employees.

    Have been thru the scenario several times. In one case employee was one of those who took her day off each month, had no leave left then had an operation and had to almost beg us to pay her. Senior mgmt thought I was mean when I said No, ie until I produced spreadsheet of all the sickies she'd taken!! Another, it turned out had a second job in the local supermarket - discovered when a co-worker did some shopping one lunch break! Amazing how dumb some people are!

    You do have to manage this as you would poor performance. Attendance, attitude etc are all issues which contribute to lack of acceptable overall performance. If you don't have a Leave Policy in place, you need one. This way you initiate a set of rules around each type of leave (calling in, excessive A/L, when medical certificates must be produced {without them, you do have a right not to grant the leave}, roll it out to all employees ensuring you have record of attendance etc (so no one can say they didn't know about it). Make it effective with the roll out and this way you may not be seen as singling out this particular employee.

    There needs to be a come to jesus meeting with the employee where you point out
    a) amount of leave taken is totally unacceptable - give him an evidence sheet with graph comparison to other staff -
    b) impact on work itself - throw some costings into the mix
    c) impact on colleagues - they have to pick up the slack due to selfishness of this employee.
    d) performance manage him to point where you expect 100% rate and it needs to be sustained or any more of what's happened previously and it could be his job --that might have some impact

    For the record, pets are family and many do grieve for loss of a pet as you would an immediate human family member. It is however not PC/L and a couple of days taken as annual leave or LWOP if no A/L available should be acceptable. Some of your examples are such poor excuses, the guy is having you on for sure.

    In the end, you could have a square peg in a round hole, someone who is just not cut out to get out of bed every day and go to work. There are however, many many out of work folk who would love the opportunity to work so if it isn't working out for your business, do something about it. Have you considered he could be running his own business from home or doing work on the side?
    Good luck
    Tiger

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia.
    Posts
    3

    Default

    You need strict and firm disciplinary action to be taken. These people are serial offenders and you have to be extremely firm. It is permissible for employees to decide to take days off here and there, but when it interferes with their ability to perform in accordance with their contractual obligations under their employment contract action needs to be taken. They simply need to be told the pattern of behavior needs to stop. If it does not then you are able to implement disciplinary measures which are fair and just and equal in weight to the impact the behavior is having on the person's ability to adequately perform, and on the business and other individuals, as well.

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