Interactive scenario: FMLA

[Forum_Moderator]

Your company leave policy clearly states that if an employee is out for more than three days, he or she MUST contact the HR department to report the absence. An employee named Jesse was in a motorcycle accident. He called the security desk from the hospital the next day and told the operator he'd be out. On each of the next four days he placed another call to the security desk to report his absence. On the sixth day he returned to work and his boss -- who had no idea why he hadn't shown up for work because the security desk never told him -- fired Jesse because he'd violated company policy by not contacting HR.

If you were the HR director at this company, how would you handle this situation?

[RSteele]

I believe the HR director took the correct action. The policy stated that he needed to contact the HR department-not the security desk.

If she allowed him to stay, she would then be setting a precident for all other individuals in her company.

Here's the questions I would ask in the defense of the employee:

1. Is it common practice (or are there other incidents) where employees have called the security guard and left the message - and it was found acceptable?

2. How specific is the handbook/policy about HR being the absolute only acceptable recipent of the call?

3. Don't the security guards have a responsibility to relay messages? Or to tell the person that they don't take messages?

4. Doesn't the boss have a responsibility to make an inquiry (call the employee) regarding whether he's a no call/no show?

My issue is that policies are never so absolutely clear that - in situations like this, a company can hang their hat on the language.

There is an "employee acted in good faith" issue (presuming he did), that casts a cloud over the boss' actions.

Although the policy states that an employee must contact the HR department, the fact that the employee contacted the security department, (of course you would want to check with security) tells us that he attempted to contact the employer and therefore should not be terminated. If anything he should be reminded of the stipulation in the policy that an employee should notify the Human Resources department.

I guess the question I have is: Why didn't the employee's supervisor or HR attempt to contact the employee?

1. Make sure the employee was aware of the policy before taking any action.
2. Ask the employee why they spoke to the security person instead of HR.
3. If the employee was not a “repeat offender," and based on his response, we’d probably give the employee the benefit of the doubt. We would give him something in writing letting him know he did not properly follow company policy and what to do in the future for extended absences. And most importantly, we would not terminate him for this offense.

The employee certainly DID make a good faith effort in reporting his absence.

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Unregistered's response was very precise in that it covered all possible situations that could have taken place. The employee did after all act in good faith by calling his place of employment even though he contacted the wrong person. Since he was injured and hospitalized that could be excused; but definitely addressed in a meeting with HR. That security did not forward the message is an issue; should they have done so? And what is policy regarding this? The immediate supervisor apparently did not 'check up' on the absent employee throughout the absence and this should be addressed.
There are never clear areas in situations; all information should be processed by HR before terminating an employee for an issue, (that very well may become a legal nightmare).

The issue for me is why didn't the manager ask the employee whether the employee tried to contact anyone about being absent from work. Second, the manager should have tried to contact the employee at home. Third, the employee should of been told by the security desk that they do not take those type of calls. It seems logical that an employee notify their manager about whether they are going to be absent for an extended period of time. If the Company wants to terminate the employee, it would be a case the Company should be able to successfully defend. However, it is always costly to defend a lawsuit and a lawsuit can be avoided by merely giving the employee a chance to explain their position and then giving the employee some sort of progressive discipline such as a warning or coaching. The Company should also make all employees aware that employees are to contact their manager when they are sick and if the manager is not available the employee should be told who they should contact. All managers should be advised to investigate any matter that could result in serious discipline by asking the employee their side of the story and talking to any other witnesses before terminating an employee.

It would also be costly to hire and train a new employee. Therefore, I would recommend giving the employee some type of progressive discipline unless there are other facts that have not been stated such as the employee has previous discipline problems. The key for me is the matter was not investigated before a decision as serious as termination was made.

1. The employee did call his department. The person or people that were taking the calls should also have known that he should be calling the operator who in turn places the call out in the computer and notifies the employee's department, Human Resourses and also the employee via email.
2 . It is also very possible the employee thought he had to call his department.With large companies there are times when some things do slip through the cracks.

3. I believe that the Human Resourse department should have gone over the call out policy with the employee, put a note to file about the incident and tell the employee if it happened again he would receive further diciplinary action up to and including termination.

Originally Posted by Forum_Moderator

Your company leave policy clearly states that if an employee is out for more than three days, he or she MUST contact the HR department to report the absence. An employee named Jesse was in a motorcycle accident. He called the security desk from the hospital the next day and told the operator he'd be out. On each of the next four days he placed another call to the security desk to report his absence. On the sixth day he returned to work and his boss -- who had no idea why he hadn't shown up for work because the security desk never told him -- fired Jesse because he'd violated company policy by not contacting HR.

If you were the HR director at this company, how would you handle this situation?

I would not have fired him. Who knows what shape he was in. He thought to call the security desk 5 times and it may have been the only number he knew. I would have some conversation with the security people about gettignt he message to HR. Jesse should be given the appropriate number to call as should the security people. If security knew the number for HR they could have told Jesse where to call.