Comments on: Attendance & Punctuality http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/ HR RESPONSIBLY Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:58:06 +0000 hourly 1 By: Bartending Jobs http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-4585 Bartending Jobs Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:18:50 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-4585 I think every employee should be hired under the guise that if they are late, they are docked the time they are late and that pay is given to the employee who is forced to stay late to cover the shift. When employees are hired, they should be made aware that they are potentially going to have to stay late if their co-worker arrives late. Using this type of "peer pressure", many times the issues of punctuality and attendance resolve on their own without management intervention. I think every employee should be hired under the guise that if they are late, they are docked the time they are late and that pay is given to the employee who is forced to stay late to cover the shift. When employees are hired, they should be made aware that they are potentially going to have to stay late if their co-worker arrives late. Using this type of “peer pressure”, many times the issues of punctuality and attendance resolve on their own without management intervention.

]]> By: A Career Development Trifecta – Part I – Terminations | HRM Today http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-2457 A Career Development Trifecta – Part I – Terminations | HRM Today Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:36:05 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-2457 [...] didn’t tell them to do whatever they did to get themselves terminated.  I didn’t tell them to show up late for work.  I didn’t tell them to surf porn sites on company time.  The employee made the decision to do [...] [...] didn’t tell them to do whatever they did to get themselves terminated.  I didn’t tell them to show up late for work.  I didn’t tell them to surf porn sites on company time.  The employee made the decision to do [...]

]]> By: Employee Terminations | the employee plays an active role — hr bartender http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-2448 Employee Terminations | the employee plays an active role — hr bartender Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:34:27 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-2448 [...] didn’t tell them to do whatever they did to get themselves terminated.  I didn’t tell them to show up late for work.  I didn’t tell them to surf porn sites on company time.  The employee made the decision to do [...] [...] didn’t tell them to do whatever they did to get themselves terminated.  I didn’t tell them to show up late for work.  I didn’t tell them to surf porn sites on company time.  The employee made the decision to do [...]

]]> By: Wally Bock http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-1319 Wally Bock Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:47:53 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-1319 I think Robin hit a key point with "Of course, this becomes a matter of the manager “managing” appropriately." It's part of the manager's job, working within whatever guidelines the company provide, BUT Flexibility should attach to the position, not the person. It's not a good conduct award, the position either can be scheduled flexibly or not. If it can be, do so. In my previous life as a working manager I had a team that scheduled their own flex time. We needed to have phone coverage (pre-email) from 7 to 7 and we had a core day that ran from 10 to 4. We expected everyone to be in place for the core. That's what our customers expected. But we only needed one scheduled person and a designated emergency backup for 7 to 10 and 4 to 7. The team worked this out every week for the next week. In theory I was the designated decider, but they always got the job done. I think Robin hit a key point with “Of course, this becomes a matter of the manager “managing” appropriately.” It’s part of the manager’s job, working within whatever guidelines the company provide, BUT

Flexibility should attach to the position, not the person. It’s not a good conduct award, the position either can be scheduled flexibly or not. If it can be, do so.

In my previous life as a working manager I had a team that scheduled their own flex time. We needed to have phone coverage (pre-email) from 7 to 7 and we had a core day that ran from 10 to 4. We expected everyone to be in place for the core. That’s what our customers expected. But we only needed one scheduled person and a designated emergency backup for 7 to 10 and 4 to 7.

The team worked this out every week for the next week. In theory I was the designated decider, but they always got the job done.

]]> By: hr bartender http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-1318 hr bartender Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:25:26 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-1318 A lot of great replies to this post…thank you everyone! I’m interested to hear your thoughts on Robin’s comment. It’s definitely a challenge to explain how one position can have flexible hours and another cannot. Is it possible that flexible scheduling is a perquisite (and should be explained that way)? I’ve worked for several companies where you worked a 4-day week if you had the overnight shift (and a 5-day week if you worked the day shift). Getting the reduced workweek was a perk of working the overnight shift. A lot of great replies to this post…thank you everyone!

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on Robin’s comment. It’s definitely a challenge to explain how one position can have flexible hours and another cannot.

Is it possible that flexible scheduling is a perquisite (and should be explained that way)? I’ve worked for several companies where you worked a 4-day week if you had the overnight shift (and a 5-day week if you worked the day shift). Getting the reduced workweek was a perk of working the overnight shift.

]]> By: Robin S http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-1314 Robin S Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:40:55 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-1314 The piece that everyone is missing in this discussion is the perception of fairness or equal treatment between different employees in either a work group, a department or company. When a manager "allows" Sally to have a flexible start time/end time, while Billy has to be there on-the-dot from 8 to 5, it breeeds distrust and animosity. Of course, this becomes a matter of the manager "managing" appropriately, but the reality is... I have seen this backfire more than have a positive effect. We have flex hours at my organization; it has gotten so out of hand, that we have had to reset the bar and expectations. Our business hours are 8 to 5, but when 3/4 of the building is empy by 4 PM, it becomes VERY hard to manage handle customer needs. The piece that everyone is missing in this discussion is the perception of fairness or equal treatment between different employees in either a work group, a department or company. When a manager “allows” Sally to have a flexible start time/end time, while Billy has to be there on-the-dot from 8 to 5, it breeeds distrust and animosity. Of course, this becomes a matter of the manager “managing” appropriately, but the reality is… I have seen this backfire more than have a positive effect. We have flex hours at my organization; it has gotten so out of hand, that we have had to reset the bar and expectations. Our business hours are 8 to 5, but when 3/4 of the building is empy by 4 PM, it becomes VERY hard to manage handle customer needs.

]]> By: Wally Bock http://www.hrbartender.com/2009/employee/attendance-punctuality/comment-page-1/#comment-1287 Wally Bock Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:17:37 +0000 http://www.hrbartender.com/?p=2143#comment-1287 Let's start by taking ROWE off the table. Scheduling flexibility is part of many systems including ROWE. But ROWE itself is a system which is said (but not proven) to work in one part of a large corporation. If we leave ROWE out of it we can look at the workplaces we toil in. There are some where having people all show up at the same time simply makes no sense. Change the policy. There are others where groups need to be able to work at the same time, but not in the same location. And there are others where having everyone show up at the same time and in the same place is a good idea. In those situations the reason that showing up on time matters is more about courtesy to your team and carrying your share of the load. If you're in that sort of situation you need a clear policy and reasonable enforcement. For me that means that most of your lateness will be one-offs that won't even rate comment. But if you have a pattern, then it's time to have the conversation where you remind a person of the policy and tell them that their lateness will be documented from that point on. In my experience that's enough for most reasonable people, you won't have to write a shred of documentation. Your other cases will divide into two groups. One group will have a temporary problem that needs fixing or needs an allowance made. The other group will not. If you can, you'll make accommodation for the first group. You will write paper on the second group. That second group usually will present more than lateness problems. There are usually other behavior and performance issues. They will suck up supervisor time. But they're a small portion of the team and you can treat them like the exception they are. Let’s start by taking ROWE off the table. Scheduling flexibility is part of many systems including ROWE. But ROWE itself is a system which is said (but not proven) to work in one part of a large corporation.

If we leave ROWE out of it we can look at the workplaces we toil in. There are some where having people all show up at the same time simply makes no sense. Change the policy.

There are others where groups need to be able to work at the same time, but not in the same location. And there are others where having everyone show up at the same time and in the same place is a good idea.

In those situations the reason that showing up on time matters is more about courtesy to your team and carrying your share of the load. If you’re in that sort of situation you need a clear policy and reasonable enforcement.

For me that means that most of your lateness will be one-offs that won’t even rate comment. But if you have a pattern, then it’s time to have the conversation where you remind a person of the policy and tell them that their lateness will be documented from that point on. In my experience that’s enough for most reasonable people, you won’t have to write a shred of documentation.

Your other cases will divide into two groups. One group will have a temporary problem that needs fixing or needs an allowance made. The other group will not. If you can, you’ll make accommodation for the first group. You will write paper on the second group.

That second group usually will present more than lateness problems. There are usually other behavior and performance issues. They will suck up supervisor time. But they’re a small portion of the team and you can treat them like the exception they are.

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