We also implemented a new absenteeism policy which gives you eight unscheduled days a year if you miss nine your employment is terminated this is with our without a Dr.’s excuse. If the days are consecutive its one absence if there is even one day in between that is another absence, this has worked well for us and since we implemented the new attendance policy we have had a 15% improvement in attendance I realize this may not be a huge number to most of you however, we are a very small facility.

I personally feel like if you are driving around seeing if your employee is “playing hooky” you have too much time on your hands I mean really who cares its not money out of your pocket its money the employee is losing and I totally agree with the post that said that time could be spent finding a replacement for the employee that called out.

Furthermore, do you really want to encourage your employees to come in sick, how much sense does that make? Do you really like the idea of blowing your nose, diarrhea vomiting or whatever may be going on with that person. Not me. On the other hand I know what it is like to have to work sick its miserable I am the entire payroll, and H/R dept. (like I said we are small) and I had phnemonia earlier in the year I was sick for six weeks in part because I came back to work before I was totally well and had a relapse.

We do believe in our employees and we do take their word when it comes to attendance. Bottom line it is up to the employee to follow the attendance policy if they want to waste those eight days farting around thats on them.

On the listed best strategies, Managers need to be careful to be fair and consistent across the board when requesting Dr’s notes. If they miss even one, EVER they can be sued for discrimination, especially if the EE falls in any one of the protected classes…look out. Calling the employee at home is not a good determinant either. If they are sick, they could be medicated or sleeping and not hear the phone. Being contacted at home could be construed as working, and salary employees can file a grievance or Wage and labor dispute for compensation for the day.

Managers should just accept the fact that there are times when employees are going to call in and be off. Pick your battles, is it really worth the effort to catch someone in a white lie? Spend that time and effort finding a replacement for them for the day.

On a side note, let me share one of my most entertaining stories. We had an employee who after working a full two weeks and getting his first paycheck, suddenly became ill at lunchtime and had to go home. I already had plans to take the afternoon off and was going to a nearby town with some friends where there were casinos. You probably know how this ends. We were walking down the street in this small town, and I see our employee walking in my direction. I’m thinking “no, can’t be!” but it was indeed him. When he saw me, well, I’ve never actually physically watched the color drain from someone’s face before. He wouldn’t make eye contact as we passed on the street but wouldn’t that be enough for you to high tail it out of town?! No, not him. I ran into him 3 more times throughout the day, each incident becoming more and more awkward. He finally approached me, reeking of alcohol, almost in tears and apologized….then pointed out how funny the entire incident was. Yeah, hilarious. He didn’t show up for work ever again.