[jzq20m]

I need some guidance on how to handle this ongoing situation.

Approximately seven months ago, our department hired a full-time employee. At the end of his first week, the new employee did not come to work. He did not inform the team leader nor the manager that he would be absent. The team leader was unable to reach him when he tried contacting him to find out what was happening. This happened again the second and third week; missing a day’s work and not telling anyone.

During this three week period, the team leader left the department for another job and I was designated team leader. When the employee once again failed to show up to work, I emailed our manager and asked if perhaps the employee was contacting him when he wasn’t coming to work. Our manager said no, and when the employee returned to work the following day, our manager stressed the importance attendance, and if he needed to miss a day, he must let us know in advance.

For the next few weeks, the employee’s attendance improved. And, then it started slipping (he did let us know when he was going to be out of the office).

Long story short…the employee missed approximately 23 days in a seven month period. I documented as well as informed my manager each time the employee was absent. Again, my manager spoke to the employee and informed him if the absences continued, he would be fired.

Once again, the employee’s attendance temporarily improved, and then started slipping. And, because, the employee was new, he had not accumulated enough paid sick, vacation, or personal days to cover all his absences. As a result, Human Resources is cutting his paycheck in half for the next two months to recover the district’s money.

In addition to the excessive absences, the quality of his work is inconsistent. I have collected examples of his sloppy work and shared it with my manager. I also met with the employee and used the examples to illustrate why the quality was unacceptable, my expectations, and what was needed to correct the work.

This situation is creating a lot of stress and wearing me down. I don’t trust this employee to do the job correctly. As a result, I sometimes do the task myself. I also spend way too much time checking his work to be sure it’s done correctly.

What can I do?

[LucyG]

Keep very good documentation on everything that's going on so if this employee is terminated, and he tries to sue, they will have proof of why he was let go. Beyond that, if he doesn't much care about his attendance and quality of work all you can do is work towards getting rid of him.

You need to communicate all this to your HR person, and recommend he be placed on probation or something.

[winter4me]

Is there a clear, written policy regarding no call-no show?
This seems to be not uncommon lately---I work as an RN, and one facility I work at has several people who do no-call no-show regularly, the adm. doesn't want to write them up for reasons (?)dunno---I am as-needed so not in a position to do anything myself but I end up teaming up with an aide to do cares, and feeding, and doing my own work, and the aides are Very stressed by this as they can never know if they will actually have the people there on any given day---they are losing good nurses and aides because of this....I, at least, don't have to be there if I don't choose to be, and can just do what I can do to help for the shifts I am there...the director of nursing is also stressed about this.........(and it is not the first facility I have run into this problem in...adm. seems to think staff can "just handle it", and they, and worst of all the patients suffer...as hard as everyone there works, there are things that just don't get done...and then they are reprimanded...
Do document. Document. Document. I do do that in my shift reports & wherever else seems appropriate...

[jzq20m]

Originally Posted by LucyG

Keep very good documentation on everything that's going on so if this employee is terminated, and he tries to sue, they will have proof of why he was let go. Beyond that, if he doesn't much care about his attendance and quality of work all you can do is work towards getting rid of him.

You need to communicate all this to your HR person, and recommend he be placed on probation or something.

Thank you very much for your response. I do have documentation regarding his absences. However, I need to start gathering more examples of his sloppy work.

[jzq20m]

Originally Posted by winter4me

Is there a clear, written policy regarding no call-no show?
This seems to be not uncommon lately---I work as an RN, and one facility I work at has several people who do no-call no-show regularly, the adm. doesn't want to write them up for reasons (?)dunno---I am as-needed so not in a position to do anything myself but I end up teaming up with an aide to do cares, and feeding, and doing my own work, and the aides are Very stressed by this as they can never know if they will actually have the people there on any given day---they are losing good nurses and aides because of this....I, at least, don't have to be there if I don't choose to be, and can just do what I can do to help for the shifts I am there...the director of nursing is also stressed about this.........(and it is not the first facility I have run into this problem in...adm. seems to think staff can "just handle it", and they, and worst of all the patients suffer...as hard as everyone there works, there are things that just don't get done...and then they are reprimanded...
Do document. Document. Document. I do do that in my shift reports & wherever else seems appropriate...

Unfortunately, we don't have a "no-call, no-show" policy. I also struggle with how management is letting this situation continue, especially when we have a 60-day probationary period of all new employees. It was during this probationary period, that the employee did a "no-call, no-show" three times. Aaack!

[blackjack50]

Originally Posted by jzq20m

I need some guidance on how to handle this ongoing situation.


Approximately seven months ago, our department hired a full-time employee. At the end of his first week, the new employee did not come to work. He did not inform the team leader nor the manager that he would be absent. The team leader was unable to reach him when he tried contacting him to find out what was happening. This happened again the second and third week; missing a day’s work and not telling anyone.


During this three week period, the team leader left the department for another job and I was designated team leader. When the employee once again failed to show up to work, I emailed our manager and asked if perhaps the employee was contacting him when he wasn’t coming to work. Our manager said no, and when the employee returned to work the following day, our manager stressed the importance attendance, and if he needed to miss a day, he must let us know in advance.


For the next few weeks, the employee’s attendance improved. And, then it started slipping (he did let us know when he was going to be out of the office).


Long story short…the employee missed approximately 23 days in a seven month period. I documented as well as informed my manager each time the employee was absent. Again, my manager spoke to the employee and informed him if the absences continued, he would be fired.


Once again, the employee’s attendance temporarily improved, and then started slipping. And, because, the employee was new, he had not accumulated enough paid sick, vacation, or personal days to cover all his absences. As a result, Human Resources is cutting his paycheck in half for the next two months to recover the district’s money.


In addition to the excessive absences, the quality of his work is inconsistent. I have collected examples of his sloppy work and shared it with my manager. I also met with the employee and used the examples to illustrate why the quality was unacceptable, my expectations, and what was needed to correct the work.


This situation is creating a lot of stress and wearing me down. I don’t trust this employee to do the job correctly. As a result, I sometimes do the task myself. I also spend way too much time checking his work to be sure it’s done correctly.


What can I do?

I am not an employer. But I have been an employee like most people. I don't have some leadership experience though. One thing a good leader cannot do is sacrifice the greater good for trying to be nice. You DO NOT have to be nice with this person. Just professional. You may need to earn this person that their job is in jeopardy if that is the case.

You can only retrain someone so much. You can find out if there is a problem, or find out if this person would be happy elsewhere. Are they just a bad worker? Poor work ethic? Is his job one of those ones where it is mind numbingly boring jobs that makes it hard to focus? Is he the only one who does this? It is hard to say. The big thing to find out is WHY he is missing. But he firm. Don't be afraid. If the guy is a sub par worker he doesn't need protection. He needs to be consistent with the quality of his work.

[jzq20m]

Originally Posted by blackjack50

I am not an employer. But I have been an employee like most people. I don't have some leadership experience though. One thing a good leader cannot do is sacrifice the greater good for trying to be nice. You DO NOT have to be nice with this person. Just professional. You may need to earn this person that their job is in jeopardy if that is the case.

You can only retrain someone so much. You can find out if there is a problem, or find out if this person would be happy elsewhere. Are they just a bad worker? Poor work ethic? Is his job one of those ones where it is mind numbingly boring jobs that makes it hard to focus? Is he the only one who does this? It is hard to say. The big thing to find out is WHY he is missing. But he firm. Don't be afraid. If the guy is a sub par worker he doesn't need protection. He needs to be consistent with the quality of his work.

Very wise words. I'm starting to think it's more a job mismatch. I was told during the hiring process that his references spoke quite highly of him.

[seesaw]

If you don't have a no-call no-show policy already, ask HR to create one. It should state that if an employee misses a day of work without calling in to let you know he's sick, or doesn't come with a doctor's note (like if he was hospitalized he probably wouldn't call you right away) that they will be fired immediately.

I do not know why this employee was not fired immediately during the probation period. If I had an employee just no show during the probation period, I would have let them go instantly.

You need to get rid of this person ASAP. The absenteeism is enough to go on, you don't need the poor work, although that could be a back up. You simply tell them, "the next time you are absent from work without approval, I will have to let you go. When you are absent even with approval, it affects the workload of everyone else. When you are constantly absent without notice, it's even worse." The next time they slip up, you warned them, and they are gone.

The longer you wait to remove someone from a position, the harder it is legally to get rid of them because you will have established a track record of allowing unacceptable behavior.

I hope this helps.

Seesaw

[hvert]

I am not sure how much control you actually have in this situation. It sounds like your manager is really slacking or knows something you don't (like the employee is covered by FMLA or ADA).

I would stop covering for this employee. Don't do work for him, don't double check his work more than you would anyone else. Let his mistakes stand so that other people start to bring this to management's attention. You are doing/have done all that you can really do by documenting this and bringing it to your manager's attention.