I'd mentioned a while back that we had a Department Supervisor who had some serious attendance issues and that some serious steps were going to be taken. Well, they were taken yesterday. The single mother of two children is now unemployed. And that sounds terrible because you only want to think of the children, and it would be if it were a bolt out of the blue. However, if someone has repeatedly sat you down and said "you need to be on time," you can't regularly show up 40 minutes late for your shift. If you're scheduled for 0900 you can't call in at 0845 and say "I read my schedule wrong, I'll be in at 1130." When management sits you down to coach you once every 2 months on serious attendance issues, you should take those 'write-ups' to heart. Being a single of mother of two doesn't give you Carte Blanche to make up your own attendance rules; rather it gives you the responsibility to make sure you are following the rules. And, it's even worse when you frequently use those two children as an excuse for your tardiness. You know?
Let's be honest here, we would all love to have a job where we can set our own hours and still get paid well. Believe me, it be great if on some nice sunny, spring morning I decided to call the store and say "hey, it's beautiful out so I've decided to go for a 20 mile ride on my bike, I'll probably be in around 1100." Well, that ain't going to happen any time soon. If I did, I too would soon be taking that long walk to the parking lot with a pink slip in my hand.
In a previous place of employment, one employee frequently showed up late -- or not at all -- because she forgot or had the days wrong or ... Well, just about anything. The director, who found little difficulty getting bossy with others, let this pass for years until it finally got so bad that she had to step in. At which point, the employee quit in anger and spent the next year bad-mouthing the boss who had let her ride forever because the employee had personal problems. Of course, the other employees had to pick up the slack and were expected to do their own work as well as that of the absentee. More work, less appreciation, was the way most of them felt about the situation. The result was that they spent a lot of time complaining about the boss, too. I think it would have been less painful in the long run for everyone had the boss done her job from the beginning, politely and reasonably but firmly, set boundaries and stuck to them. Instead the entire staff was burdened for years and the wounds still fester.
ReplyDeleteI have been in a supervisory position and had to terminate staff. It is painful and something I hated to do. But putting it off never made it easier for me and it never solved the problem.
Perhaps the woman in question will find a position that will work better for her and that she can do responsibly. For the sake of her children, one hopes so.