Golden Approach to Dealing With Employees Who Frequently Call in Sick
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Do you have employees call in sick frequently? Are you beginning to wonder if the employees are taking advantage of your leniency? ManageBetter has created some simple considerations for managing employees who are always calling in sick.
Make a Clear Sick Day Policy
Oftentimes, employees will take advantage of the fact there is no policy in place for sick days. To best address this, create a policy that addresses the needs of your workplace. When making a policy, be fair in your expectations. Employees will inevitably get sick and need a policy they can fall back on when in need. The policy must detail clear and direct consequences for abusing the sick day policy. If no consequence is specified, employees could try to still bypass the policy.
Communicate the Sick Day Policy
Simply having a policy that is not explained to the employee will further the problem. Reflect on ways you can best explain the policy to the employees. Consider the following options:
Include the policy in the hiring process
Take time to present the policy each year
Make flyers detailing the policy
Send an email outlining the policy
Document Absences
When employees call in sick, make sure to document each time this occurs. Consider keeping a log of these days to refer to. It can be difficult to check in with this log frequently, but when performance review season comes around, refer to the absence log. Absences will be expected occasionally, but in excess, this can harm the workplace culture.
Be Ready to Intervene
If the absences begin to break the policy, be sure to take time to meet with the employee to discuss the situation. It is important to try and get to the bottom of the reason why the employee is frequently absent from the job. Having this conversation will demonstrate that you care about the employee’s best interest and are looking out for them. If the employee has no valid reason for these absences, further action might be necessary in order to reassess the employee’s commitment to the job. The employee may become defensive during this conversation, so take time to think about how to phrase this information in a way that the specific employee will respond best.
Why Choose to Address the Sick Day Policy?
When an employee frequently calls in sick, another employee may try to cover for the sick employee. Or, another employee might be left to pick up the missed work of another employee who called in sick. Either way, other employees in your organization are affected by someone misusing the sick day leave. This can cause other members of your team to feel angry, frustrated, and burnt out. In addition, your team could realize the leniency of the policy and collectively further the problem by choosing to call in sick to avoid work. All these options leave you in a dilemma trying to assess these employees’ commitment to the company. Therefore, the sick day policy needs to be clearly stated to prevent confusion and convey the company's expectations.
Conclusion
As a manager, dealing with absences requires more work on your plate to shuffle around between other employees and feel increased tension in the workplace culture. Present a clear policy on sick absences to your employees, so the expectations are provided. Then, the employee will understand what their role entails. Be prepared to talk to employees when the policy is violated, and you should have documentation ready to show them the frequent absences.
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