Sick Leave Abuse: The Action of Employees in Organization

Attendance and Punctuality

From the signed contract of the employees, the attendance and punctuality involves the conformance to established work hours, break and lunch periods. The aspect of punctuality is required in different work activities and timely completion of requests for leaves. Every employee should complete the documentation of his requests and if applicable, the use of the sick leave should be use properly (Leese, 2004).

According to the labor law, the sick leave is a necessary benefit for all of the employees. If it is not offered for the employees, the leaders only allow the acceleration of health problems and illness which in turn, lowers the productivity and morale. Despite the pressure of perfecting the attendance to improve the productivity and efficiency, the employees still needs to acquire their sick leaves for their own health security (Smith, 2002). But the abuse of this right is interpreted by most of the organizations as part of losing their dollars.

Employee’s Action

The behavior of an employee such as arriving late, exceeding hours of breaks, leaving the work early, and absenteeism is not a desirable indication of being a productive employee, even though if he meet all the requirements. The basis of the employee performance is not only through the completed work, but also in evaluating the attendance. Most of the time, the human resources reviews every employee sick leave records, long-term illnesses and other circumstances beyond the control of the employee. If the human resource staff noticed a very uncommon pattern of absences or leaves, it is considered as a suspected abuse of his right. The basic solution applied here is counseling or open discussion with the concerned employee or giving leave restriction such as limitation in acquiring their privilege. Usually, the company acts strictly if the same offense happened several times and the managers or supervisors decide any appropriate discipline for this kind of behavior (Leese, 2004).

Abuse

The pattern of suspected sick leave abuse appears on the employee who fails to submit the requirements on documentation such as the request form or advance notice, absent report, or medical certification (Smith, 2002). The high number of absences, late-comings and early departure exploits the company’s essential element which is the time. During those hours, an individual can perform his duty on time being not bothered by any missing part of his work. If the person abused his right to acquire the leaves or shown the sign of tardiness and absenteeism, he tends to haste and worry over his unfinished tasks.

Reasons

It is important for the organization to identify the root problem of absenteeism or abused sick leaves. Aside from that, many organizations have implemented a sick leave incentive programs and policies to discourage the action of the employees towards their work and aiming to maintain an excellent attendance records (Smith, 2002).

Absenteeism refers to an absent for any reason, including the paid and unpaid sick leaves, emergency leave, and absence without official leave but not the vacation leave. There are many related reasons for the employee’s uncontrollable absences. Employees have a broad choice of reasons but not all of them are entitled to accommodate them all because the manager might get notice, the pattern of his employees’ absences. Employees might be reason the following: illness, injury or family leave. The company might also enforce the leave for their employees because of their poor work ethics, undesirable or inflexible work shifts or schedule conflicts. And the ultimate reason that may appear is the employees’ feelings such as alienation or unimportance, low morale due to other cancelled legal leaves, lack of systematic attendance, and conflicts in different relationships in workplace (Regan, Hester and Gaul, 2005).

Recommendations

It is advisable to control the use of leave (Hunt, 2005). A manager needs to place a right judgment towards the employee before placing him on the controlled leave. If during the allotted time given and he did not improve his routine therefore, the manager should start the action in accordance to the corporate guidelines. If the counseling did not work, it is better to give the employee a memorandum of agreement. The human resource or the supervisor should monitor any progress and provide warnings, punishment, salary deductions, or forced leave if ever there is no improvement on his attitude in managing his time.

References:

Hunt, J., 2005. Philosophy of Sacramento County on Discipline and the Supervisor as Key Person in Improving Performance. [Online] Available at: http://hra.co.sacramento.ca.us/discipline_manual.pdf. [Accessed 17 Dec 2009].

Leese, M., 2004. Staff Performance Evaluation Form Instructions and Sample Standards. [Online] Available at: http://www.wcupa.edu/hr/training/PDF/StandardsGuide.pdf. [Accessed 17 Dec 2009].

Regan, P., Hester, U. & Gaul, D., 2005. Staff Report to the MBTA Advisory Board. Absenteeism Trends at the MBTA. [Online] Available at: http://www.mbtaadvisoryboard.org/Reports/absenteeism.pdf. [Accessed 17 Dec 2009].

Smith, M., 2002. Sick Leave Abuse: A Chronic Workplace III? Public Management, Vol. 84, No. 5.