A reader writes:
I handle a crew of 5. Considered one of my workers, Helen, does some variation of a week-long juice cleanse or different liquid weight-reduction plan about as soon as per 12 months, and has for the 4 years she has been on my crew. Throughout that week every time, she arrives late or leaves early for 3 to 4 days attributable to headache, dizziness, or typically feeling crummy.
Helen is a extremely dependable worker the remainder of the 12 months and infrequently will get sick. It’s not a really busy time of 12 months, and he or she finishes all required duties in that week throughout her cleanse. Because of this, I’ve by no means raised the problem, figuring “her physique, her selection” so long as she will get the work achieved and/or notifies me that she shall be utilizing sick depart and wishes somebody to assist out on a venture.
This month, nonetheless, she wrangled one other particular person on my crew (Pearl) to hitch the cleanse, too. Within the final 4 days, one or each of them have arrived late or left early each day attributable to some variant of feeling crummy. Pearl is much less dependable and environment friendly than Helen, inflicting a slight backlog of duties this week. They’re making an attempt to persuade somebody on the following crew over that she ought to take part.
I fear about subsequent 12 months having a number of workers feeling poorly, on the identical time, and deliberately. This appears totally different to me than when a nasty chilly hits a number of individuals within the workplace over the course of two weeks—that is deliberate and synchronized.
I don’t need to develop into the sick-leave police. However I additionally really feel like these staff usually are not coming to work ready to do their jobs, for a number of days in a row. Is there an inexpensive technique to method this?
I reply this query over at Inc. right this moment, the place I’m revisiting letters which have been buried within the archives right here from years in the past (and generally updating/increasing my solutions to them). You can learn it right here.