Dear All,
One of our employees was working with us for the last 10 years and has now been suffering from heart related problem. He has been availing treatment from ESIC also for this. Everybody is aware of his condition. Due to his severe medical condition, he has not been coming in office for the last 2-3 months. His performance was also in good terms when he was fit. But till now, we have not received any written communication from his side, mentioning that he has been suffering from such disease. Also, company is running his operations without deploying any replacement for him.
Now, I have presented his attendance status to the C.O.O. and he asked me to terminate this employee.
Here, I have decided to do following things in this concern:
1. Issuing warning letter for unauthorized absence since we have not received any written communication against his absence from duty.
2. Assuming that on receipt of warning letter, he would present us some medical documents against his health issue.
3. On receipt of those documents, management may decide whether his absence from duty may be extended for certain period or to be stopped.
4. In case, he is found to be unfit, he may be asked to tender his resignation and accordingly his Full and Final settlement would be initiated.
5. On humanitarian grounds, company may provide employment to one of his family member in lieu of him.
pl suggest what best can be done in this case. This employee is the only bread earner for his family. Our other staff is getting a bit angry if I am going to issue such warning letter for his unauthorized absence. pl help on this now. Waiting for your valuable response.
From India, Delhi
23One of our employees was working with us for the last 10 years and has now been suffering from heart related problem. He has been availing treatment from ESIC also for this. Everybody is aware of his condition. Due to his severe medical condition, he has not been coming in office for the last 2-3 months. His performance was also in good terms when he was fit. But till now, we have not received any written communication from his side, mentioning that he has been suffering from such disease. Also, company is running his operations without deploying any replacement for him.
Now, I have presented his attendance status to the C.O.O. and he asked me to terminate this employee.
Here, I have decided to do following things in this concern:
1. Issuing warning letter for unauthorized absence since we have not received any written communication against his absence from duty.
2. Assuming that on receipt of warning letter, he would present us some medical documents against his health issue.
3. On receipt of those documents, management may decide whether his absence from duty may be extended for certain period or to be stopped.
4. In case, he is found to be unfit, he may be asked to tender his resignation and accordingly his Full and Final settlement would be initiated.
5. On humanitarian grounds, company may provide employment to one of his family member in lieu of him.
pl suggest what best can be done in this case. This employee is the only bread earner for his family. Our other staff is getting a bit angry if I am going to issue such warning letter for his unauthorized absence. pl help on this now. Waiting for your valuable response.
From India, Delhi
Dear Vishal,
You have written your next course of action but have not written why you did not have personal visit to his home? If not you why nobody visited his home to apprise yourself about the exact nature of his problem? Else what efforts did you make to find out why is he incommunicado?
You have said that he has been working for the last ten years. Then has he been taking your organisation for granted? Why you waited for 2-3 months? Absence of one month is sufficient to initiate further action.
Secondly, you say that his performance was also good. Then is this the way to deal with an employee whose performance was good? Yes, he is also at fault of non-communication but then if you are from HR then you could have been little more proactive and maintained the constant flow of communication.
Your last paragraph states that your other employees will get angry if you take up recourse of discipline. This is obvious. A sick employee though defaulted at not being communicative, will evoke sympathy on account of his heart ailment. This will bring down the morale amongst the staffs in general.
I don't know why these issues were not discussed when you had meeting with your COO. How come your COO did not bring out the points that I am bringing out here? Is he a trigger happy person?
Your post goes on to show that on Mouton-Blake grid <link updated to site home> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google ) , your COO is Task oriented (9,1) and not people oriented (1, 9). But then it requires maturity to understand perils or side effects of this leadership style.
Ok...
Dinesh V Divekar
From India, Bangalore
You have written your next course of action but have not written why you did not have personal visit to his home? If not you why nobody visited his home to apprise yourself about the exact nature of his problem? Else what efforts did you make to find out why is he incommunicado?
You have said that he has been working for the last ten years. Then has he been taking your organisation for granted? Why you waited for 2-3 months? Absence of one month is sufficient to initiate further action.
Secondly, you say that his performance was also good. Then is this the way to deal with an employee whose performance was good? Yes, he is also at fault of non-communication but then if you are from HR then you could have been little more proactive and maintained the constant flow of communication.
Your last paragraph states that your other employees will get angry if you take up recourse of discipline. This is obvious. A sick employee though defaulted at not being communicative, will evoke sympathy on account of his heart ailment. This will bring down the morale amongst the staffs in general.
I don't know why these issues were not discussed when you had meeting with your COO. How come your COO did not bring out the points that I am bringing out here? Is he a trigger happy person?
Your post goes on to show that on Mouton-Blake grid <link updated to site home> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google ) , your COO is Task oriented (9,1) and not people oriented (1, 9). But then it requires maturity to understand perils or side effects of this leadership style.
Ok...
Dinesh V Divekar
From India, Bangalore
I totally agree with the views of Dinesh. You cannot ignore an employee' s past to decide a future course of action with regard to his conduct, if you wnat to make your actions prudent. It is withi your knowledge and that of the comapny that the employee has put in 10 years of servcie and his performance was up to the standards when he was fit. Now your senior COO wants to be blind and wants to terminate his servcices. It is here that the HR shall paly his role as a bridge between the employer and the employee and convince the management about a more prudent approach to this problem. As HR you should visualise the consequences and should have taken precautions like visiting his home, knowing prestty well that he is heart patient and obtaining necessary documents /proof of hsi illness to avoid extremea an dinjudicious decisions being taken .
Even now you can do it by following the following steps ;
1) It si not permissible to terminate an employee when he is undergoing treatment for illness under ESI Act. You can thus convince your COO that termination is not the solution.
2) appraise him of the past record of the employee and the probbale reprisals from employees in case of his termination.
3) Thereafter suggest him to have a discussion with the employee concerned to know about his condition of health and his response to your proposal to accomodate his family member on job.
4) After putting forwatd your propsoal, the employeew ishes to continue in employment, suggest COO about alternatives like moving him to light jobs
5) If employee agrees to your proposal, the matter ends smoothly.
B.Saikumar
Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Even now you can do it by following the following steps ;
1) It si not permissible to terminate an employee when he is undergoing treatment for illness under ESI Act. You can thus convince your COO that termination is not the solution.
2) appraise him of the past record of the employee and the probbale reprisals from employees in case of his termination.
3) Thereafter suggest him to have a discussion with the employee concerned to know about his condition of health and his response to your proposal to accomodate his family member on job.
4) After putting forwatd your propsoal, the employeew ishes to continue in employment, suggest COO about alternatives like moving him to light jobs
5) If employee agrees to your proposal, the matter ends smoothly.
B.Saikumar
Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Hello Vishal,
A person who has worked for 10 years in a firm, would only mean that he did his best.
He showed his loyalty by not switching. I think we should be considerate to him.
Yes, arguably one can say how can we bend the rules for someone?
Surely not. I don't think any of us want you to do that. However there are certain special cases to be considered.
As is in the name Human Resource. We manage people (who fall sick, who do errors, who are late and most importantly, who are different from one another.)
Only if all the cases should be handled in the same way, the top management would have hired a robot instead of a human HR. I hope you are understanding what i wish to clear.
As is suggested you could have proactively atleast called up to enquire what is wrong with a person who had been regular for so long not showing up all of a sudden.
But as is said there's no use of crying over spilled milk, let's focus on what to do.
Enquire on your own what is the issue. And try to suggest the person to submit the documents either through post / courier or via someone.
Update your management about his previous records and educate them of his current misfortune.
Try to push a little (again only if you are convinced that the case is genuine which seems to be.)
About giving employment to one of the family members, is a nice suggestion but it depends on the work profile and skill fitment as well.
If that is not possible, how do you plan to take the process further?
From India, Mumbai
A person who has worked for 10 years in a firm, would only mean that he did his best.
He showed his loyalty by not switching. I think we should be considerate to him.
Yes, arguably one can say how can we bend the rules for someone?
Surely not. I don't think any of us want you to do that. However there are certain special cases to be considered.
As is in the name Human Resource. We manage people (who fall sick, who do errors, who are late and most importantly, who are different from one another.)
Only if all the cases should be handled in the same way, the top management would have hired a robot instead of a human HR. I hope you are understanding what i wish to clear.
As is suggested you could have proactively atleast called up to enquire what is wrong with a person who had been regular for so long not showing up all of a sudden.
But as is said there's no use of crying over spilled milk, let's focus on what to do.
Enquire on your own what is the issue. And try to suggest the person to submit the documents either through post / courier or via someone.
Update your management about his previous records and educate them of his current misfortune.
Try to push a little (again only if you are convinced that the case is genuine which seems to be.)
About giving employment to one of the family members, is a nice suggestion but it depends on the work profile and skill fitment as well.
If that is not possible, how do you plan to take the process further?
From India, Mumbai
Dear Vikas,
1)Send a letter to him and ask the valid reason for his absent from the duty?
2)If he send a reply, stating the reason of disease ,then you should analyse the situation.
3)If reason is serious disease ,then discuss with him to give his full and final and also provide the option of service to one family member but not less the salary which he is drawing currently.
From India, Delhi
1)Send a letter to him and ask the valid reason for his absent from the duty?
2)If he send a reply, stating the reason of disease ,then you should analyse the situation.
3)If reason is serious disease ,then discuss with him to give his full and final and also provide the option of service to one family member but not less the salary which he is drawing currently.
From India, Delhi
Dear All,
Thanks a lot for giving such valuable inputs on this issue. I would like to throw some light on this scenario. Specific leave policy is not there. Therefore, employees proceed on leave without providing anything in written for same and resume duties post 1-2 months sometime. Also, even if employee informs of the reason for availing such long period's leave, same is not reported to concerned person/department. This was the reason why details of his absence could not be given to management properly.
Now going to follow what you all have suggested to correct the situation. Thanking you again for your timely help.
From India, Delhi
Thanks a lot for giving such valuable inputs on this issue. I would like to throw some light on this scenario. Specific leave policy is not there. Therefore, employees proceed on leave without providing anything in written for same and resume duties post 1-2 months sometime. Also, even if employee informs of the reason for availing such long period's leave, same is not reported to concerned person/department. This was the reason why details of his absence could not be given to management properly.
Now going to follow what you all have suggested to correct the situation. Thanking you again for your timely help.
From India, Delhi
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WARNING LETTER FOR ABSENCE.doc