Top 10 Reasons We Get Fired! - Frequent Sick Days and Tardiness

madwife2002, BSN, RN

A huge problem in healthcare can be an employee who is constantly late to work, or calls off frequently. Sometimes this is due to genuine problems in their personal life but often it is a pattern of behavior which is difficult to manage. This problem on a floor can often lead to resentment for co-workers, especially when they have had a difficult shift and want to go home.

Number 7 in my series of Articles 'Top Ten reasons we get fired' has to be the frequent call off employee or the constantly tardy employee.

Here in Ohio, many companies have a point system for tardy workers, and call offs.

The Point System

You have a bank of points, normally around 45-each time you are late you loose up to 3 points depending on how many minutes. 5 for a call off on a normal day, 10 for a call off at the weekend and 15 for a call off on a public holiday which includes the day before and the day after. You can see how these points quickly add up!

Normally as you use up your points you start to get written warnings at 30, 20 and 10 points-HR will receive the notification of the warnings as they develop.

Once somebody has reached 0 points- they are eligible for termination.

If you do not lose any points with a calendar month then your bank increased by 2 points.

Once a year if your points were 75 or more you could cash some of the points in for an extra day off.

This is a nice, clean way of terminating an unsatisfactory employee, there is a clear structure of documentation along the way and it holds up really easily when the employee claims unfair dismissal with the unemployment agency.

Remember in a previous article we discussed the paper trail! This can be utilized or demonstrated to be a perfect paper trail. Every employee in the company, who is paid hourly, has to be dealt in the same way. Managers normally keep a paper trail for each and every employee in order for it to be a fair system.

Of course if you want to keep an employee because you as a manager feel they are valuable, the staffing situation could become dangerous if you terminated, you can negotiate with HR to give the employee back 20 points so that person is not terminated.

I once worked with an employee who was a brilliant worker but had OCD, they were unable to leave home until everything was in order, this caused her to be 7-10 minutes late every day. I tried to work with her on a weekly basis to keep good time, it was just painful to witness.

This timekeeping issue did cause a lot of concern and was a problem for her, she quickly pointed out and would try to maintain points, I did fight for her to be given 20 points back because I did not want to lose her, but as a company we were completely within our rights to terminate.

On the other side, we had an employee who would come to work at least twice a month and become ill on duty, needing for him to be sent home. This employee also struggled with tardiness and sometimes his behavior made you question his sanity. When this person pointed out, they were terminated.

Tardiness causes a great deal of resentment on a floor, especially for the employees who turn up for work on time, day after day and present themselves ready for report on time. Frustration develops when waiting to go home and a co-worker arrives a few minutes late, not ready to take report, stops to get a coffee and then lallygags with others before being ready for duty. I am sure we can all bring somebody to mind that fits this description.

This person also tends to ask a thousand questions before being satisfied.

Companies, who do not utilize the point system, will have other monitoring systems in place. They will have a clear structure of when to speak to an employee regarding tardiness and call offs. This can be looked at six monthly or yearly, they will allow so many call offs within a period of time, before talking to an employee and giving verbal warnings, then written then termination. As I stated before termination for being tardy and calling off can be a nice clear cut way of getting rid of an unsuitable employee.

My recommendation, for those of you who are genuinely unwell, visit your GP and get written documentation of your illness, this can support your cause. If you call off frequently because that is your practice-be aware you are being watched and if your practice is less than desirable-time keeping and sick days could be your downfall.

Of course FMLA is a wonderful thing, but you are only eligible to receive it after 12 months of employment within your company.

Remember the time clock can be your friend or your enemy, use it wisely! If you forget to clock in regularly you can be penalized, if you clock in early too many times a week then you can be penalized, if you clock out late more than 7-10 minutes (dependent on company policy) on a frequent basis you can be penalized. Employees do not want poor time management employees making overtime dollars at their expense.

Please note I am not talking about the times of emergency which cause you to clock out late because a patient care situation occurs and you simply cannot walk away, I am talking about the employee who on a daily basis clocks in early and out late.

Top 10 Reasons We Get Fired! - Frequent Sick Days and Tardiness

The Point System

About madwife2002, BSN, RN

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