Practice Management Member Conversations

I am curious what others do regarding employees who overuse vacation and sickleave. We are a small E/A firm and have two employees (one a professional, the other a technician) who are constantly use vacation and sickleave as fast as they earn it. Lots of calling in sick on Mondays. Both have had to take unpaid leave because they had no sickleave time available. At the same time we know both have health issues (allergies, etc) so we don't believe they are just taking personal time. We are a small firm and these are skilled staff who contribute a lot to the firm, but the missed days are getting in the way. ------------------------------------------- Timothy Wall AIA Chief Architectural Officer Ken Herceg & Associates, Inc. South Bend IN -------------------------------------------

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Tara Imani AIA
Principal
Tara Imani Designs, LLC
Houston TX
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Hi Timothy,

The situation you've described is a tricky one.  I would consult your state's Employment office for guidance before taking any action such as termination; but it doesn't sound as if you're headed in this direction anyway.

You sound very concerned about their well-being, but feel torn between that and losing valuable time/progress on the work at hand.

To keep operations running smoothly, I recommend you sit down with each of these staff members- make sure you have another senior staff member present as a witness- and be upfront in explaining how his absence is creating a hardship on your firm.  Be very specific in describing this and document your conversation.  Write it up and have the employee sign it as a record.

Prior to having this meeting, it would be most important to ask yourself: 1) what is the purpose of this meeting? (i.e. to clear the air, to discuss the importance of attendance as clients' work needs to get done on time, or their absence led to you and others having to work long hours into the night to reach critical deadlines....or, contractors' questions went unanswered and this delayed the jobsite progress, thus the developer is upset, etc.).  In short, clearly state the problem and the resultant concerns.  2) what specifically would you like the employee to do to remedy the situation?  i.e. Can they be available to take pressing calls from clients and/or contractors even while at home recuperating?  And, in the case of the technical staffer, can they work from home, via a remote computer link to the office?  Or can they come in the following Saturday to make up the missed work?

At the very least, I would caution you to discuss all of the above ideas with a human resource professional and seek legal counsel before having any formal discussion.  The main thing, in my opinion, is to be open and forthright with them about how their absences have adversely affected the firm's operations.  As the manager, it is up to you to decide what are your parameters; if their absences are unacceptable, this needs to be clearly communicated to the employees and well-documented and kept on file in a separate HR file on that employee.

I am not a lawyer; this is just me speaking from experience.  I used to be the Human Resources Director for a home health care company.  We always sought legal counsel on matters such as this.  I strongly advise you to contact an HR consultant to help you deal with this case.

It is important to have written, clearly-defined policies and procedures on such matters as attendance; and equally important is to make sure that all employees have a copy of the company's policies and sign a receipt statement of such to be kept in their HR files.

Good luck in getting this resolved.

I look forward to reading the responses from others on this matter.

Sincerely,
Tara Imani, AIA
Houston, TX

I have worked in both small and large offices, and have been in the position of hiring manager, and I strongly believe that vacation and paid holidays are both great benefits and incentives to loyalty and dedication.  While vacation time granted is certainly a cost liability to the firm, it can also be viewed as a rather inexpensive additional benefit.  You mentioned you were a small firm - possibly look at the overall vacation package you provide to determine if it is adequate overall.  Certainly you wouldn't want to reward the practices you've discussed by increasing vacation time, but if it is time for an across-the-board adjustment maybe this would provide an avenue to 1) re-review your internal policies with employees (as someone else mentioned) and 2) address the real issues with those abusing the benefit. 

Regarding sick leave, I have not worked in an office that offered sick leave for quite some time.  Vacation & Sick Leave were all personal time off and it was up to the employee how this time was consumed.  I currently work in a small office environment (4 architects plus admin staff).  If any one of us has to miss a day due to illness, and we are on a deadline, then we make that time up either after normal hours or on weekends. 

Dealing with these issues is a challenge.

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Daniel Piper AIA
Davidson & Associates
Bethesda, MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2010 04:40
From: Tara Imani
Subject: Over use of vacation



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Tara Imani AIA
Principal
Tara Imani Designs, LLC
Houston TX
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Hi Timothy,

The situation you've described is a tricky one.  I would consult your state's Employment office for guidance before taking any action such as termination; but it doesn't sound as if you're headed in this direction anyway.

You sound very concerned about their well-being, but feel torn between that and losing valuable time/progress on the work at hand.

To keep operations running smoothly, I recommend you sit down with each of these staff members- make sure you have another senior staff member present as a witness- and be upfront in explaining how his absence is creating a hardship on your firm.  Be very specific in describing this and document your conversation.  Write it up and have the employee sign it as a record.

Prior to having this meeting, it would be most important to ask yourself: 1) what is the purpose of this meeting? (i.e. to clear the air, to discuss the importance of attendance as clients' work needs to get done on time, or their absence led to you and others having to work long hours into the night to reach critical deadlines....or, contractors' questions went unanswered and this delayed the jobsite progress, thus the developer is upset, etc.).  In short, clearly state the problem and the resultant concerns.  2) what specifically would you like the employee to do to remedy the situation?  i.e. Can they be available to take pressing calls from clients and/or contractors even while at home recuperating?  And, in the case of the technical staffer, can they work from home, via a remote computer link to the office?  Or can they come in the following Saturday to make up the missed work?

At the very least, I would caution you to discuss all of the above ideas with a human resource professional and seek legal counsel before having any formal discussion.  The main thing, in my opinion, is to be open and forthright with them about how their absences have adversely affected the firm's operations.  As the manager, it is up to you to decide what are your parameters; if their absences are unacceptable, this needs to be clearly communicated to the employees and well-documented and kept on file in a separate HR file on that employee.

I am not a lawyer; this is just me speaking from experience.  I used to be the Human Resources Director for a home health care company.  We always sought legal counsel on matters such as this.  I strongly advise you to contact an HR consultant to help you deal with this case.

It is important to have written, clearly-defined policies and procedures on such matters as attendance; and equally important is to make sure that all employees have a copy of the company's policies and sign a receipt statement of such to be kept in their HR files.

Good luck in getting this resolved.

I look forward to reading the responses from others on this matter.

Sincerely,
Tara Imani, AIA
Houston, TX

I had an employee who didn't really tell me (directly) she had a lot of health issues, but it was pretty apparent (at the same time I had co-op students from university, and they'd talk).  The employee would use both sick leave and vacation time, then complain there was no 'vacation time to get away'.

I did two things with this employee.  First, I switched to 'time bank' rather than designating 'sick' or 'vacation time', that way, the employee was not 'obligated' to tell me the details using the time.  Second, I extended office 'operating hours' from the normal 8-5 mon-fri to be 7-6 mon-sat; that way, this particular employee could come in and 'work' (to accomplish the work which would pile up on her desk).

I found this approach let her feel like she had more control of her life; actually after a few months, we found that she had 'banked' more time because if she wasn't having a 'good' day, and decided to stay home, she could  make it up on saturday.  The one challenge we had was when she'd miss deadlines, because she choose to take off; I posed it back as a challenge to myself - to do a better job of managing office deadlines/etc. so our office wouldn't miss deadlines.

As it worked out, her own scheduling choices 'self-selected' her level of advancement within the firm; after 6 or so months of 'flex time' she submitted her resignation; in the mean while, we had been looking for her replacement, so our office functioned just fine after her departure.

Retrospectively, it seemed she wasn't so 'happy' in our environment (very 'take responsibility' for yourself and get rewards) so we learned, she learned it all worked it self out.

Good Luck

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Lisa Stacholy AIA
LKS Architects, Inc.
Dunwoody GA
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I, too, run a small architecture firm.  (20+ years) Currently there are 2 of us, but we were up to 9 a few years ago.  Firstly, I would say that you need to understand that your employees have earned their vacation time and should be able to take it at any time that they wish.  (within certain limits, see below.)  You don't want your employees to get burned out and the last thing you want is for them to accumulate their time and then hit you with a request for a long vacation.  Some firms have a "use it or lose it" policy where employees must use their vacation time within a year of earning it, or lose it.  I allow mine to accumulate their time but ask that they don't take any more than three weeks off at a time.  For many years I resisted the idea of granting a certain amount of sick time; I felt that if someone was sick, they should stay home.  Most employees did not take advantage of this.  I found that I didn't want to keep any who did, anyway.  However, I eventually changed my policies and now grant everyone 5 sick/personal days a year.  Again, I've found that most do not take advantage of this.  If someone needs more sick time, and wants it to be compensated, the time is deducted from their vacation time.  If they have no more vacation time, their pay is docked. 

Having said this, I will share some additional thoughts.  I have found that employees who quickly use their sick and vacation time are "short-timers", they don't plan on being around long enough to make accumulating time off make sense for them.  Perhaps they plan on leaving or they are questioning the stability of your firm and want to use their time before you go out of business.  Also, since the architecture business can be "feast or famine", there are times when taking a vacation wouldn't be in the best interest of the firm.  I assume that your employees need to request vacation time in advance, you have the ability to deny it if needed.  (I've never done this and I'd suggest running this by a labor atty before actually doing it.)  I'd suggest discussing this with everyone, initially at an office meeting, then individually.  I know how, especially in a small firm, employees taking time off can be inconvenient, but ultimately, they've earned it.

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Tomas Hart AIA
Principal
The Architecture Studio LLC
Glendale CO
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