Need langauge for employee showing up on time

[infocus]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I don't have an employee policy yet, but I am seeing issues coming up on demand, such as the following:

Employee took a vacation and informed me (employer) that he had arrived yesterday afternoon and would be in today. When we opened, employee didn't show up per his normal start time. I called him, he answered, sounded groggy, and said he was doing his laundry because he didn't have any clothes and that he would be in as soon as the dryer finished.

Obviously that is not an acceptable excuse, he was in all day yesterday and had plenty of time. What language can i use in writing to communicate that this is unacceptable and that he will be reprimanded for being late (past 7 minutes?). I am looking to send a written response that is honest, fair and communicates a strict policy about showing up on time.

 

[commentator]

Another employer desperately in need of a good HR contractor! If you do not have a policy in place, you can still randomly issue either verbal warnings, letter of reprimand, or in fact, you could actually tell the employee they were fired due to not coming in on time the other morning, the classic no-call, no-show. However, it's a remarkably good idea to have some sort of established policy in place, detailing your expectations regarding attendance, notification of lateness or absence, and lots of other issues, or the performance of your employees is going to be very spotty to say the least.

 

[infocus]

Absolutely! Great response. I was thinking:

More than 7 minutes late three times means they are subject to immediate termination. Is that fair, too strict? Is there a "standard" that most businesses use? What if there is traffic or an accident, they live far away, etc?

 

[eerelations]

The kind of work you need doing is not something you can get from a forum like this. You've been told over and over and over that you need an HR Consultant to help you through these ad-hoc issues, and to provide you with tools to handle similar issues in the future. (I used to be an HR Consultant and you are just the kind of client I used to have.) Please do as you have been advised and contact cbg for recommended HR Consultants in your area.

 

[Beth3]

More than 7 minutes late three times means they are subject to immediate termination. Is that fair, too strict? Way too strict. Let's suppose you have an excellent employee with outstanding attendance who is late three times over six months because of events beyond their contol (car trouble, traffic jam due to an accident, ice storm.) Are you REALLY going to fire that employee? Of course not.

You need an experienced HR consultant who can help you put together attendance and disciplinary polices that WORK for your organization and give management the flexibility it needs to make fair and rational decisions. One size does not fit all and your needs are far too great to be addressed appropriately on a public message board. Spend a few dollars and hire a qualified HR consultant to work with your company on this. It will be well worth the money.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

More than 7 minutes late three times means they are subject to immediate termination.

Sounds a little harsh.

My employer uses a bonus program. If you miss no time at all for a year, you get $250 and two vacation days. If you miss less than eight hours in a year, you get $100 and one vacation day. The owner makes a big deal out of the presentation. We all go to a restaurant for lunch.

In my eight years, I've missed the $250 twice. Once my wife had surgery, and the other I was seven minutes late due to being in an accident on the way to work.

Although Jury Duty and Bereavement time both count as paid time off, they also count against you for perfect attendance.

Last year, over fifty percent of the employees went to lunch.

 

[eerelations]

My employer uses a bonus program. If you miss no time at all for a year, you get $250 and two vacation days.

So the average employee who just happens to have made it in to work all year is rewarded and the outstanding employee who's had a run of bad luck is penalized.

 

[infocus]

Thanks for the advice, I will do as suggested.

Thank you.

 

[Beth3]

Sounds a little harsh.

My employer uses a bonus program. If you miss no time at all for a year, you get $250 and two vacation days. If you miss less than eight hours in a year, you get $100 and one vacation day. The owner makes a big deal out of the presentation. We all go to a restaurant for lunch.

In my eight years, I've missed the $250 twice. Once my wife had surgery, and the other I was seven minutes late due to being in an accident on the way to work.

Although Jury Duty and Bereavement time both count as paid time off, they also count against you for perfect attendance.

Last year, over fifty percent of the employees went to lunch.

Attendance policies defintely are not a one size fits all option. This may work well for your organization but there's another school of thought that dicates employees should not be rewarded simply for doing the minimum of what they were hired to do - showing up to work and being on time.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

So the average employee who just happens to have made it in to work all year is rewarded and the outstanding employee who's had a run of bad luck is penalized.

This bonus program is only for attendance. An outstanding employee will see more at review time, where the average employee won't.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

Attendance policies defintely are not a one size fits all option. This may work well for your organization but there's another school of thought that dicates employees should not be rewarded simply for doing the minimum of what they were hired to do - showing up to work and being on time.

One can also argue that the last thing an employer should want is a human germ factory showing up to protect a bonus and causing multiple absences by co-workers.

 

[eerelations]

One can also argue that the last thing an employer should want is a human germ factory showing up to protect a bonus and causing multiple absences by co-workers.

In my experience (and I have a lot of experience in this area) is that employers don't generally think this far ahead. They don't care about human germ factories in their workplaces, they just want those germ factories in, and now! And if later everyone else gets sick, so be it, it's all HR's fault anyway, as usual.

 

[commentator]

In truth, this is a situation in which (attendance issues) I feel like I have seen it all. But I did actually come down on the side of the (very excellent) cook for a
popular restaurant in my area, who had the active howling influenza, complete with doctor's statement, and who was fired by his boss for refusing to come in and work. He did get approved for unemployment benefits. Used to work with a little old lady who bragged that she had never missed a day of work. Typhoid Mary, gotta love her! She later, excuse me, but we all enjoyed it, had to miss some due to health and family problems. Bonuses for no absences sort of stink, because sometimes, things really unavoidable things happen that keep you from coming in to work. It's not really a character issue as much as a luck issue.

But it sounds as though this OP is just running the classic "casual" shop, where people don't have any clear expectations spelled out for them, and the boss is trying to be everyone's buddy, until he gets really taken advantage of, and then he will get angry, and **************it's just so much nicer to have your organization organized so that people understand what you want them to do, what you consider a reasonable situation, what they need to do in terms of notificiation if they are unable to make it in to work at some point.

Badly, badly, this person needs to speak with the California Department of Labor, Employer Assistance section and get some good information about how to run a business.