Absentee employee. What's the employer's obligation?
Dear e-COACH,
What is an employer's obligation and how should they handle a situation when an employee calls in and says that they have to stay home one day to care for the couple's child and that one day turn into two full weeks? Consider that the work requires the employee in the office during regular weekday hours of 9 to 5 and "making up" time after hours or weekends is not possible.
Dear Employer,
An employer's obligation is to pay an employee for the work performed and to honour any company policies and employment legislation. As far as how best to handle this situation, there appears to be a number of considerations.
- Does the organization have a policy for handling leaves of absence that covers a wide range of contemporary employee issues?
- Is an employee assistance program provided that offers child care, elder care support services?
- Does the organization have a policy for emergency medical, emotional or financial crises?
- What is the culture of the organization with respect to time off for life's catastrophes?Each employer is responsible for balancing economics with compassion and reason.
In this situation two issues arise: (1) Do we grant the time off?, and (2) Do we compensate for the time off?
Human Resource policies will provide an answer to these questions based on the culture the organization can afford to support. Then, when any situation arises, no one will be confused or surprised about the course of action.
In the absence of written policies, each situation must be assessed individually and there is a danger of making, or appearing to make, biased, unfair or discriminatory decisions. Developing policies is a valuable investment of time that enables organizations to achieve affordable, fair and consistent approaches for dealing with workforce issues.
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