Welcome back to another edition of HR Basecamp Roundup! This week, we tackle some interesting and common issues that come up in workplaces more often than you think. If you haven’t joined our HR Basecamp Facebook group yet, be sure to join so you can participate in these discussions in real time!
Podcasts and Resources in this Roundup (it’s a packed one):
- Members Only! CEDR Two Minute Trainer: Workplace Investigations
- Complimentary Employee Concern Form
- How Your Company’s Core Values Support Your Business
- Why Progressive Corrective Coaching Is Better Than Progressive Discipline
Two team members went out to lunch last week, and I thought I smelled alcohol on their breath when they returned. I asked them about it, and they both laughed and said they celebrated “Galentine’s Day” with a glass of wine but were planning to brush their teeth before clocking back in. I was furious and sent them home. Was that the right thing to do? I cannot believe employees were so casually drinking during the day.
The legal side of things: You can absolutely send someone home if they’ve told you that they’ve been drinking. Even if they hadn’t admitted to drinking, state laws will generally allow you to send them to get an alcohol and drug test if you have reasonable suspicion that they are under the influence.
Your employees likely thought it was not a big deal to have a single drink with their lunch, but as an owner or business manager, you always have to be cognizant of the risks involved. No matter their position, any mistake in a healthcare practice can have significant consequences for patients and the practice. And while the employees did fess up immediately, you can’t assume they are being honest about how much they drank.
Now for the human approach: The human approach here comes down to how you want to handle this moving forward. If you have a good employee handbook, it should include a clear statement that alcohol consumption during the workday is not permitted. It should also give parameters for requiring someone to submit to testing if you have reason to believe they have been drinking.
Based on those policies, as well as the employees’ own admissions that they drank during lunch, you could choose to terminate the employees immediately. It was a bad judgment call on their part. They may have lost your trust in them going forward, leaving you to question what they’re doing anytime they go out for lunch again.
On the other hand, if they are otherwise good employees you could have a conversation with them about why drinking during the workday is never acceptable. You understand their desire to have some fun on a “holiday,” but doing that puts the practice at great risk so it is not something you can tolerate ever again.
There is major tension in the office right now. Multiple employees have mentioned that another employee is rude to them and to patients. I haven’t witnessed this myself, but I am not regularly around this employee. How do I ask the employee to adjust their professional communication without throwing all the other employees under the bus?
The legal side of things: As frustrating as workplace conflict can be, employees aren’t required to get along. But that doesn’t mean legal concerns go out the window. The risk of an employment law violation can increase depending on the unique details of the conflict.
For example, suppose the employee is being curt and unhelpful to a specific and obvious subset of employees and patients based on their sex, religion, or appearance. In that case, there may be a discrimination issue that you need to address.
Suppose you discover that this conflict is at all related to a protected class (race, sex, religion, disability, etc.) or there is any indication of violence. In that case, the level of potential legal liability increases, and you’ll need to conduct a full investigation.
Now for the human approach: It helps that employees have already come to you to formalize their concerns verbally, but “rude” is subjective. Your next thought should be, ‘How are they being rude? I need examples.’ To that end, you need to provide the employees who have brought the issues to you with an Employee Concern Reporting Form. Having them write down their concerns creates a record, and you’re more likely to get objective information about what is happening from your employees.
How do you not throw the other employees under the bus? What you don’t do is pull the offending employee in and say, ‘Several of your fellow employees have reported that you are being unprofessional in communicating with them and patients.’ Instead, you might consider saying something like, “I am concerned because patients have expressed you are not communicating professionally, and after monitoring you personally, I feel like your communication with your fellow employees is coming off as curt and somewhat rude.” Please note that to have this conversation well, you need to read our Progressive Corrective Coaching Guide, which explains how to include examples of what they are doing and how to ask for them to improve.
Let’s be honest about how the offending employee will react when you talk to them. The first thing they will do is get upset and start being even more rude to their fellow employees for saying something. This is why you may want to bend the facts about how you learned about the complaints just a bit so that you take on the brunt of the anger and upset while also taking firm control of the situation.
How do you begin a conversation about an awkward topic like this? For starters, have the conversation in private. You can let them know you’re concerned about their interactions with others, but you don’t need to tell them every detail of the complaints you’ve received. In a perfect world, the employee acknowledges their negative attitude and how it impacts their interactions at work. Of course, that’s not always the case. If you observe no improvement, you may need to have a sterner conversation with the employee that builds upon your original discussions with them.
As always, make sure you document this interaction. If you continue getting complaints from employees or it escalates into actually getting complaints from patients, having a record of your attempt to get them to improve will help protect your business if you decide to terminate. The note feature in the HR Vault is a great way to note the details of your conversations and to upload those complaint documents to save for a later date if needed.
I’m struggling with a front desk employee’s attendance. They are great at their job when they’re here, but since they were hired two months ago they have been late or called out multiple times due to their child being sick. I want to be sensitive to this because I know how difficult it can be to manage, but I also need to have a full staff.
The legal side of things: The primary legal concern regarding attendance issues is whether there could be any legal protection surrounding the reason for the employee’s absences. Many states now have laws that provide a legal right to time off, and sometimes paid time off, for caring for a sick family member or some other protected reason.
If you live in one of the states with protected leave laws, there’s a chance SOME of an employee’s absences could be legally protected, even if they called out at the last minute. Before taking any action, you should review your information about the reason for the employee’s absences. Then you need a policy that complies with any of the laws that may or may not exist in your state and to show that you communicated that policy to the employee. (This is why employee handbooks exist.)
Suppose you haven’t had your employee handbook prepared by employment law and HR experts within the last couple of years. In that case, you should definitely proceed with caution and consult with an expert before you take an adverse action like writing them up. All of CEDR’s members have both an employee handbook and access to our team of experts to help you knock something like this out in no time at all.
Now for the human approach: Attendance issues can be tricky in general, but this is especially true with new employees. It’s hard to judge whether they’re just having a stretch of bad luck or if this will be an ongoing pattern.
The callouts may be linked to the same illness lingering for the child or family member, especially this time of year. In this case, you can sit with the employee and let them know you understand how difficult it can be to manage sick kids. However, there are expectations for attendance that employees need to meet to be able to provide services to your patients, and the employee must meet the obligations within the job description you provide for all positions. One is to be on time, at work, and ready to go at the designated start time.
The coaching meeting is a good time to discuss backup childcare options and review your attendance policy together. You can treat this as a verbal or written warning or use the same Employee Interaction Log we mentioned above to document this conversation.
Flexibility and understanding can go a long way toward maintaining a good relationship with your employees. However, as you said, you still have a business to run, and you need a full staff to do so. If the attendance issues continue and the leave time is not protected by law, you can proceed with progressive corrective coaching or termination.
