What should I say when an employee is calling off? I m a pushover...?
When my employees call off sick I give a simple feel better answer and that s that. Now though I feel it is being taken advantage of, especially by my younger ones that work evening shift. If they don t show I have to go back to work, not fun. Today I went home early and one of my full timers answered the phone when a night kid was calling off. He literally told her no, there s noone here to cover you (he didn t want to stay late) and she showed up!! Obviously I m not going to flat out say no, but what are some things I can say to get them to rethink calling off when I don t think they really need to?
Coffee Drinker2019-09-04T23:13:55Z
Favorite Answer
Employees are going to call in sick, its going to happen.
What you can do is manage your business according to reality: 1. Have enough employees on the books to cover shifts
2. Have certain employees designated as "on call" so they can be asked to come in when someone else calls in sick at the last minute.
3. Pay reliable employees more money and give them more hours.
4. Write and follow an official attendance policy that results in unreliable people being terminated. Having a written policy and enforcing it equally to all employees - along with clear records of attendance, will protect you against lawsuits.
5. Realize that as a business owner you are the only one who really cares. Everyone else is just there for the paycheck. You might have a few good employees who act like they care about the success of your business, but do you really thing they'd show up and work hard if you told them you were bankrupt and couldn't pay them anymore? me neither.
As long as she is not doing something illegal there is nothing you can do. I suppose you can learn some hypnotic language patterns. But demanding things will get you fired.
You grow a pair and either start saying no or start cutting back on the hours for the ones who call out most. When they ask why, you tell them that since you can't rely on them to show up, you need to schedule people who will show up. If they stop calling out, you start returning their hours to them, if they keep calling out, you lay them off and get new employees.