Hi everyone! Obviously I'm new here... I have to say this is the first time I have felt the need to look outside of my work environment for advice regarding HR and a particularly difficult employee. If I have posted in the wrong area, I apologize.
This employee has been having health problems for the past couple months (I won't be too specific here for obvious reasons). Employee has been to the doctor for multiple tests, all of which have come back negative. As such, employee has no idea what is going on from a medical standpoint. Employee has begun to go home early or call off on the basis of "not feeling well." This has occurred three times in the past three weeks. This employee has had no prior attendance issues.
Obviously I have a few concerns here. I will try to list them all, so bear with me.
I am concerned for this employee's health. Obviously this is a problem if this employee never called off before, but is now missing work. I am sympathetic toward this employee. However, I have a business to run.
I am also concerned for my other employees, myself, and my company. I have several responsibilities in my current position and am unable to fulfill these responsibilities if I am going to be covering shifts for this employee.
In addition, I am very intolerant of recurring absences/lateness and have written up other employees for this, usually at the third absence in one month. I think this is reasonable. I am concerned that allowing this employee to miss work will result in others attempting to abuse this. However, I feel that I must be fair and treat all employees the same.
Today, this employee asked to go home. I said employee could go home and that I would figure out how to cover the remainder of the shift. I also asked for a doctor's excuse. I (and my boss) figure if any employee is sick enough to go home, he/she is sick enough to go to the doctor. Upon asking for a doctor's excuse, this employee became irate and yelled at me that the doctor does not know what is wrong. Employee stormed off, stating that he/she would not be leaving work. Halfway down the hall, this employee starting making remarks, to which I responded that this employee should go home, but that I would not be tolerating the attitude (attitude has been a consistent problem in this case). I said I was going to give out a write up for the attitude; people with bad attitudes cannot work for me. Fortunately I had three witnesses to this. I had each of them write up a witness statement without coaching and separately; each statement corroborates with mine.
The employee went home and told the spouse about what had happened. At this point, I am not sure if the employee lied or if the spouse misunderstood what had happened. The spouse called the corporate office on me and stated that I threated to write up for going home sick. Corporate told the spouse that they were not our employee, and that corporate could not discuss any of this with the spouse. Spouse put the employee on the phone. Employee said that they may have gotten an attitude with me and that was what I threatened to write up about. In addition, employee admitted to an apology and hug to me before leaving. At that point, corporate called me to let me know what was going on and was clearly upset over the entire conversation with the spouse and the employee.
I'm not too worried about what happened with corporate, as this is a right-to-work state. In addition, I am able to write up any employee for anything I want. However, it is my opinion that write ups must be solid to hold up in unemployment hearings. I do not like to write up employees for things that will be useless in court. In short, I hate wasting my time.
What are my options with this employee? How should I confront this employee about the call to corporate (obviously I cannot discipline for this. If I do, I will be insubordinate to my boss and I also think the employee has the right to complain if they want to)? Will any further write ups be seen as retaliation and, if so, how do I protect myself from this? What should I do about this medical issue? Can I be liable if this employee gets injured due to this medical issue at work? Finally, what is the best way to approach this employee in order to handle this situation in its entirety?
Keep in mind this employee is an extremely difficult employee and is incapable of having an adult conversation without acting childish (i.e. tries to get the last word by walking out the door and smarting off, yelling, storming off, refusing to sign write ups, crying, creating public displays when asked to come to my office, etc).
|
This is an easy solution. You are having a problem with the employee not being there. Let me also clarify, this is not a medical issue. This is an attendance issue.
Would you let another employee of yours miss that many days?
I have had problems like this before. Basically, it puts an undue hardship on your current employees, they have to do more, and carry the weight more often. What do you have in your employee handbook on leave/sick leave? Follow those rules you already have set up.
Just track the undue hardship, in my case I could prove that the current employees had to do more work that what they would normally had to do. It was also making our customers wait longer to get helped.
Modification count: 2
|
