By CED Editor Stephen D. Bruce, PHR
In yesterday’s Daily, we heard Paul Falcone’s advice on just what to say when employees say “It’s off the record.” Today, it’s what to say for excessive absenteeism and FMLA abuse, plus an introduction to an extraordinary 10-minutes-at-a-time training program.
Falcone, a prolific writer on HR topics and a popular speaker, is Vice President, Employee Relations, at Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles. He is the author of the best-selling 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees: A Manager’s Guide to Performance, Conduct, and Discipline Challenges and 101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems: A Guide to Progressive Discipline and Termination.
Falcone’s remarks came at the recent Society for Human Resource Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.
4. Excessive Absenteeism and “Patterning”
[Go here for situations #1 to #3.]
“Sarah, now that we’ve discussed the number or quantity of incidents, we’ve got to discuss the quality, so to speak. Yes, I look at the number of unscheduled absences. But I also look to see when they’re occurring on the calendar.
“In your case, two of the three incidents either happened on a Friday or a Monday, and that’s a separate problem in and of itself.”
“The way we look at it, any time an employee takes more than 50% of his or her time off around weekends and holidays, then we may have a “pattern” problem on our hands.
“In your case, with two of the three incidents happening around the weekend, that represents 66% of your incidents occurring on either end of your regularly scheduled time off. That’s an additional problem and is considered a separate infraction, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Yes, three occurrences of unscheduled absence won’t trigger anything formal at our company in terms of a disciplinary response. And two of three incidents occurring on Mondays or Fridays may be pure coincidence. But I need you to become very sensitive to this issue as well.
“In short, I need you to fix both areas. Can I count on you to do that?”
5. Intermittent FMLA Abuse
“We respect your need for intermittent time off, but we’ll ask you to meet us half way …
“Your medical certification authorizes you to have off as follows …
“However, it doesn’t authorize you to come in late, fail to get your supervisor’s permission, or take additional time off beyond …
“So if you need additional time off beyond the scope of your current med cert, you’ll need to see your doctor and provide us with appropriate documentation.
“Likewise, please understand that intermittent FMLA abuse is subject to corrective action, so we’ll want to keep the lines of communication open at all times.”
In his experience, says Falcone, about 3 to 5 percent of employees cause problems with FMLA, and that’s just a cost of doing business. “Manage the 95 percent,” he says, and sooner or later the abuse will catch up to the others.
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6. Summary Offense: Time Card Fraud
“Cindy, timecard fraud literally steals time from the company. The old adage “time is money” is relevant and real in this case: Time is a proxy for money, and stealing time is the same thing as stealing money.
“We don’t provide progressive discipline to employees who engage in theft of any sort, and I’m afraid we’ll have to terminate your employment . . .”
“The best advice I could give you under the circumstances would be to learn from this experience. Most companies handle this matter the same way that we do, and you have to be very careful about and conscious of the record that you’re creating at any given time. Again, I’m very sorry that this happened …”
Time card fraud, excessive absence, FMLA intermittent leave abuse—just some of what, a dozen things your managers and supervisors need training on?
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