A person asked me over email about attendance issues and all sorts of mean, nasty things came to my mind when it was mentioned.
Oh how I loathe ye great attendance policy. My post on ROWE is the only time I’ve mentioned my despise for workplace attendance policies. There are a lot of different folds of attendance policies that I would like to address:
- They are archaic. I would say that any attendance policy that isn’t flexible enough to keep your best people at work is archaic. I would think that besides ROWE workplaces or those who are super flexible, your attendance policy is crap. If your attendance policy punishes supervisors for being flexible with work times, it is crap. I heard of one workplace where a person worked 4-10’s as pre-arranged with the supervisor and counted the fifth day as an excused absence in their attendance policy (which had a limit). That’s insanity
- Attendance policies were meant to be abused. You have hard limits on the number of absences and tardies that employees get and those crappy employees get right there on the edge of that limit all of the time. The abusers know the limits of the attendance policy.
- Attendance discharges are so easy. HR loves the attendance discharge. As long as they’ve executed each attendance discharge by the book, it is a great, nearly risk free discharge. Of course, these don’t always happen to bad employees. And “Sorry my hands are tied” is a really awful response to a manager who didn’t understand why a pre-arranged absence is now leading to termination.
- Which doesn’t mean we don’t need a policy. No, no, no. Unless you are ROWE, you definitely need guidelines in place. My ideal would be an attendance system that is much like a performance policy. Less hard limits, more understanding how attendance really makes their work suffer. Abusers are still gone under the system.
- I am the executor of bad policy. Every HR person inherits bad policy and they should petition to change bad policy as soon as possible. That being said bad policy isn’t a reason not to enforce bad policy (now illegal policies, that’s another issue altogether). You do yourself and the business you work for disfavor if you don’t fairly apply the rules of the workplace.
So there is my crusade against attendance policies. And yes, this doesn’t work for every situation I realize. But even different situations can use better attendance policies.
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I agree totally – if people are doing their jobs, doing it well and everything is fine, then who cares if they take a friday off, or come in late or leave a bit early. If an employer cannot be flexible with time-off, employees will find one that is because there are plenty of them out there that are more than willing to be flexible.
Attendance policies remind me of school and treating employees like children does not make for a good working environment. It breeds resentment and rebellion – treat your employees like children and they will act like children.
Exactly Ragan! And sorry your comment got killed by my spam zapper. I saved you
It is my true belief that it is according to the business. Some business need a more strict policy. Some business may be able to say ok you manage your time but it will be a performance issue at rating time. One way of handling attendance does not fit all organizations.
I disagree, I come in on time all the time but the employees around me come in when they feel like it, this means someone has to pick up their slack, since I’m there it gets tossed on me. I think business should treat their employees like kids. Face it these are adults they know their shifts and they abuse it by coming in late all the time or taking really long lunchs so they should be treated like children. They are suppose to be more responible then kids, so why aren’t they.
Well said Wendy, From a manager standpoint I agree, the rules need to be clear. The fairness in the workplace is a big issue. On the flip side, I do think if an employee is not abusing attendance and is an outstanding employee, that should also be accommadated. I for one am experiencing both at the same time. Because I have an employee that out performs the rest…she/he thinks it’s OK to abuse attendence and take off a day whenever. This makes it very hard to manage work loads and deadlines. It DOES matter. Attitude and dependabilty are just as important as performance. One should have the ability in management to discern the differnce if one is a good manager.
hi guys
i read ur comments. would like to ask a question hoping u wud help me. i am working in an it firm in india. the problem is that people come on on time but do not sign their attendance registers at all. n then they post a query in the HR tool asking us (HR) to do the needful. it is really bugging. we might intall the security systems like BioMetric systems in future but currently can u suggest me some ways to curb it. even i m not in favor of an attendance policy. i beleive communication across all verticals also does a fair bit. would like ur assistance in this. thnx
It is amazing how bent out of shape companies get on attendance. In a results-only workplace people are free to come and go as long as they perform well. I like this approach because it assumes that employees can do the work, can manage their own time and don’t need to be babied along the way.
Not worrying so much about attendance also allows leaders to focus on more important things like how well the company is doing. I’ve also found that leaders who don’t sweat the small stuff and give their employees the ability to make decisions on their own benefit from having happier, more productive people.