Unscheduled Absenses & Unscheduled Presences

Lately this has become a hot topic where I work.

But let me start from way back…

I came from an office where there was no give and take from management as far as time management. Oh, they claimed we were all professional adults and that we were going to be treated as such, but then they’d make you work 60 hours one week to get a project done and if you asked for a day off the next week to have a root canal, they’d force you to take a vacation day. And if you called in sick more than 3 times in a 12 month period you were written up. That kind of mentality.

The Minion Supervisor had a little black book that he kept track of everyone’s time in and he would comment to you if you came in more than five minutes late on any given day — in fact, you were supposed to call if you were going to be more than five minutes late. That went in your permanent record if you called to say you were going to be late and you could be written up for so many late times too.

But we supposedly were professional adults who were supposed to act and be treated as such.
My current boss’ attititude is that we’re all actually professional adults and as long as we get our work done and show up at meetings, he doesn’t really care if we have to run errands in the middle of the day or if we have to leave early because we’re sick. Once, I had to leave after working two hours because I was literally throwing up in my trash can and when I asked how to put that on my time sheet, he told me to mark myself as being at work. Of course, I’ve been at work for twelve hours without complaint before too and I volunteer to take midnight install and upgrade shifts too.
Plus, I’m more likely to give 200% at this job because I know it’s give and take. At my last job, I counted the minutes quite literally. Now I come and go and some weeks I might work 38 or 39 hours and the next week I might work 50 and the next 40. It’s all good.
Recently, another boss-type person in the same department has started to nitpick the time of her employees — people who have in the past given up a lot of their own personal time to get projects done and without complaint — well, without much complaint :P. It seems that lately, people have been written up or spoken too or emailed for taking personal time for things like doctors appointments, personal crises, for coming in late, or being sick. One person who left early when her brother-in-law was rushed to the ER for a seizure was told (in an email) that in the future she should schedule her family crises around her work priorities.
There’s suddenly been a lot of hubub about it because people feel like the extra time they’ve put in isn’t being acknowledged and they aren’t being respected. Without warning there’s been a shift in the mentality of what an exempt salaried employee is. There’s that disturbing feeling that the company owns the employee and that the only time that matters is company time. People feel like they are expected to give without receiving anything in return and that isn’t fair.
Since I’d never worked in an environment that actually was give and take until I came to work for my current wonderful boss, it took me some time to get used to the mentality of fairness. Now I’m wondering now what it’s like where other people work. What’s the norm?

Is it really practical for a business to think a person will call in “sick” three or less times a year when everything from personal illness to family crises can happen on a whim?

tags: PTO, work, scheduled absense, sick leave, company loyalty

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