Employee Question - What would you do?

[ITO]

If its the first offense. I'd ignore it. If it's happened few times then talk about getting to work on time. Send me home without pay? LOL, I'll stop off at another EC and have another job before I get home.

With all due respect if you had chronic problems of showing up on time, your employer would probably rather you be working for his competitors anyway.

Once or twice, who cares.
More than a few, talk about it.
Chronic, Go home or find someone else to put up with your crap.

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

With all due respect if you had chronic problems of showing up on time, your employer would probably rather you be working for his competitors anyway.

I'm gonna have to agree - my experience has been that generally... GENERALLY, anyone I known with a chronic lateness problem, also had other problems as well, usually centered around the inability to prioritize, or take serious matters seriously.

Once or twice, who cares.
More than a few, talk about it.
Chronic, Go home or find someone else to put up with your crap.

I've had great success docking the employee the full 1/2 hour or hour. Nothing says "take this seriously" like a smaller paycheck. Money talks, you know what walks. For some people "a good stern talking-to" doesn't cut the mustard.

 

[cowboyjwc]

cowboy - all our guys get paid lunches everyday...they also get guaranteed 40 w/ ot for everything above...

Wasn't insinuating that you treat your guys badly and a paid lunch is rare, heck I work for the city and don't get paid for lunch.

My point was simply that when they show up late or not at all that is really a sign of disrespect and you should deal with that accordingly. I have fired guys for being late two days in a row because I am usually counting on them, but do your job, and I never asked anyone to do anything I wouldn't, and I will take care of you too.

 

[stickboy1375]

I guess sometimes it is nice to work for a smaller shop, because if i'm not late to work my boss is, but not a big deal for either of us, we both work late most nights and more than make up our tardiness... :grin:

We both have kids and a family, sometimes getting out the door in the morning is more work than putting in an 8 hr day...

 

[cowboyjwc]

I guess sometimes it is nice to work for a smaller shop, because if i'm not late to work my boss is, but not a big deal for either of us, we both work late most nights and more than make up our tardiness... :grin:

We both have kids and a family, sometimes getting out the door in the morning is more work than putting in an 8 hr day...

Now that I will agree with.

 

[JohnE]

As far as being late every day, I had someone tell me once that "if you can be late every day, you can be on time too." It was my boss at the building deptartment. It wasn't about me, we were talking about employees in general, but it rings true.

 

[stickboy1375]

As far as being late every day, I had someone tell me once that "if you can be late every day, you can be on time too." It was my boss at the building deptartment. It wasn't about me, we were talking about employees in general, but it rings true.

It would be a different story if I left the job on time everyday....:grin:

 

[peter]

My advice to employees

My advice to employees

Often, the hardest part of the job is getting there.
Given a starting time of, say, 7:00, the employees usually start gathering around the job trailer or whatever about 6:45 and shoot the bull. Trying to depend on a set travel time is risky. I aim to arrive about 1/2 hour earlier -- in this case about 6:15. Then I sit in my car and work on my latest Sudoku puzzle until 6:45.
This extra 30 minutes allows for such mishaps as a traffic accident or a fire you need to gawk at or a flat tire blowout or whatever. Even, God forbid, sleeping over.
I follow this tactic and one day, the freeway was shut down and I had to wait for the crowded off ramp and take city streets to get to the job. I missed my puzzle but still started on time.
~Peter

 

[celtic]

It's been said, the hardest part of the workday is the commute from the bedroom to the bathroom.

 

[JohnE]

It would be a different story if I left the job on time everyday....:grin:

Agreed. Your situation seems to suit both of you well. I also bet that if you were scheduled to show up early for one particular job that you would be on time. :smile:

 

[sguinn]

little background.....service oriented company, this incident occurs prior to a 4 hr project, not a long term project..

have to be at a customers facility at 7am....they are approx 45 min from our shop. tell the mechanic and apprentice to be at the shop at 6am...both live within 10min of shop (and yes, travel is paid)

mechanic is there for 6am...no apprentice...6:15 mechanic calls apprenice, no answer..mechanic leaves...at 6:30, the apprentice calls back, he overslept...

now, what would you do?

work can get done without apprentice....

I would tell the apprentice to go back to sleep, the world has continued without him. Maybe the loss of a days pay might motivate him/her to either get to bed earlier,buy an alarm clock or quit drinking. If the apprentice was a good worker, etc., and this wasn't a habit I wouldn't hold it against him because everyone drops the ball on occasion. But if this was a repeating pattern I would tell them to go thataway--------------->

 

[cowboyjwc]

I would tell the apprentice to go back to sleep, the world has continued without him. Maybe the loss of a days pay might motivate him/her to either get to bed earlier,buy an alarm clock or quit drinking. If the apprentice was a good worker, etc., and this wasn't a habit I wouldn't hold it against him because everyone drops the ball on occasion. But if this was a repeating pattern I would tell them to go thataway--------------->

Hilte by me. Be careful what you wish for. I used to be a pretty good drinker and it was not uncommon for me to go out 3 or 4 nights a week and shut down the town. One day my boss warned me that I had better not come to work hung over again or there would be ramifications. A week later I showed up and he asked "what did I tell you about coming to work hung over?" I said "I'm not hung over." He said "well you sure look it."
I said that it wasn't possible to be hung over as I hadn't been to bed yet.

But I was on time!

 

[ITO]

I had a guy that drank a lot, but he only drank on his time and he did good work so I kept my mouth shut. He got hurt on the job one day and the GC insisted on a drug and alcohol test. This guy drank so much that even at 12pm the day after he still had alcohol in is blood. My insurance would not cover the accident and the GC demanded he be removed from the job.

The rules have changed...

He still works for me BTW. I should fire him, but he does not miss work, is never late, and does good work. It's a huge risk, but he has worked the company for many years and I just cant bring my self to do it.

 

[nakulak]

we had a similar problem a while back, but I let the guy go. I just could not allow my company's welfare, or my own, to be put at risk because of someone else's choice, lifestyle, disease, or whatever you want to call it. (the fact that we were working next to bunkers filled with munitions made it a little easier on my mind too lol). he passed random drug screening. it sucks to lose a good mechanic, but when you consider the worst case scenario, I don't see any choice. there's enough risk in this business of people getting killed, being impaired is just asking for it. Its really hard to get people to help themselves, too, especially when they deny that they have a problem. Its 2007 and it seems like there would be more solutions to these kinds of issues than there are.

 

[Rewire]

I don't care if you are an electric god you walk into my shop impaired and you walk out with your final check.Letting someone stay around just because they work well is why people get killed in construction ,most alkies work harder simply because they know if they don't they will be canned for their other behavior.Drug tests are mandatory if you are hurt at work and workmans comp will not pay if you are found to be under the influence and I do not want to be known as the contractor who has the drunks working for him.

 

[ITO]

He is only drunk on his time, and as far as I can tell not impaired while on the clock.

I have a number of other guys who show up every morning reeking of the night before, it's a hard call sometimes. What people do off the clock is not my business, but I also know it can effect it, but am still very uncomfortable sticking my nose in other folks private life.

 

[sguinn]

He is only drunk on his time, and as far as I can tell not impaired while on the clock.

By the way ITO I like the Mr. Hat & Clogs avatar.

 

[nakulak]

last year we were doing several projects that were DOT/DOE zero tolerance. at any time any foreman for the client can ask that an employee or sub be tested on the spot if they so desire. any amount of alchohol or drugs found is grounds for dismissal (any amount that can be detected as low as .01%). You have to figure, if you can smell it on their breath, it must be there ? Ever since, we have incorporated "zero tolerance" into our company guidelines. We figured it was better than taking chances. I had my days roughnecking, and drinking my lunches, but those days are long gone and when you consider the risks, its probably for the better. (although we still are known to knock off early once in a blue moon ; )

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

No, you cannot demand that any employee be tested on the spot for any reason or no reason at all. Not under any state's DOT/ DOE or any municipal or government policy. It would be totally unconstitutional. You have to institute an approved awareness and treatment program, completely random drug/alcohol testing only. The only way a test can be "demanded on the spot" is if there is an accident.

 

[nakulak]

actually, they have a protocol for on the spot testing, based on training of their foreman. a near miss, or an accident results in immediate required testing for all involved, but based on drug awareness training and in place protocols, they can demand on the spot testing if they observe behaviour that meets their criteria.