Was he special needs? That’s the only excuse I would understand.
I voted for “maybe, rare occasions,” but I think it’s more accurately “occasionally,” meaning maybe quarterly. As others have noted, every parent, even those with the most stable childcare, is going to have times when the care falls through or the kid is sick. And, as someone else noted, those without kids are also going to have times when they can’t get to work. I am lucky in that I get PTO days to use when I can’t get to work for whatever reason. I was pissed that I once had to burn a PTO day when my street was flooded and I couldn’t get to work, but at least I got paid.
His only handicap was his crazy mother.
I don’t think that’s a contradiction. I can see letting a 12 year old babysit in the afternoon, but getting that same 12 year old a sitter if I was going to be out till 2 a.m.
I voted “no”. I don’t think it is a valid excuse and should never be mentioned to the employer. If you are calling in, call in sick, call in for a personal day or whatever, don’t give excuses.
All I ask of my employees is to be at work when scheduled. If you can’t, call in as soon as you know so we can find a replacement for the shift. The only extra information I ask they give is if they think this could be a multiple day problem, let me know so we can get people on standby.
Being the manager, I don’t usually take the sick calls, someone else does (I work different hours). What I have noticed over the years that when people start in with the excuses as to why they are calling in, the rest of the employees start judging the excuse and its validity.
The no child care excuse usually blows the place up. The childless start asking if they can take off because their plant waterer can’t make it today, the Single parents start beating their chests and talking about how they are always here and have NEVER called in because of this and it just spirals into a huge whine fest for all.
If it becomes an issue, then its between management and that person, no one else should be involved. Giving excuses just invites the whole work place in on a private manner.
Thats a great answer. Why must everyone bear the burden of raising your stupid kid?
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Because the stupid kid will become one of the workers that keeps your country running once you have retired?
I voted “maybe”. It all depends.
Yesterday I was called in to work away from home for a few days. My partner is already working away from home (same job as me) for most of the week and I have the kid. However, I was on call for work and knew I may have to go in so we had a backup plan for mother in law to take the kid if necessary, she was effectively on call as well for child minding duties. So I dropped the kid off at MiL’s place and went to work.
I’d expect people to at least prepare as much as that. But if it falls through for some reason then shit happens, no problem. If it falls through regularly then you need better child minding plans.
Stop right there. Why are you telling the rest of the employees the reason for someone’s absence? It is none of their business. You should not be sharing information any employee’s health, family situation, etc with the workforce at large.
That’s not how I read it–I read it as employees talking with one another. I’m friends with my co-workers, and when one of us is out, we generally talk about why, making sure they’re okay/commiserating/whatever.
One of my life rules, forget where I heard it, is this: it’s not the quality of your excuses that matters, it’s the quantity. If someone’s babysitter falls through, I can totally see them taking the day off–and as part of that day, making sure they have different backup arrangements in place for next time. If it happens again, my eyebrow will raise. If it happens a third time, that’s pointing to an avoidable problem: by that point, they need to have put something in place to take care of the kid on such days.
That said, if someone is only missing three days a year, why would I care if it’s all for the babysitter? Quantity, not quality, of excuses.
I’m reading it as the manager is not the one taking calls from employees, so somebody calling out has to explain to whoever answers the phone what the problem is, and then the phone answerer blabs.
Where I work, the rule is you talk to somebody in management. If you need to call out, you find your own supervisor, or their manager, or if all else fails then the HR director. That person is then charged with vetting the excuse and making arrangements for coverage. It’s not a line employee’s job to figure out how to rearrange the schedule, it’s not their responsibility to decide whether an excuse is good enough, and it’s none of their business what’s going on in another employee’s life.
There’s a lot of truth to this. For that matter, my workplace (retail) is much more likely to be a stickler about people calling in “sick” having doctor’s excuses if it’s a time of year when a lot of people are calling in sick. Or a particular day when all hands are needed on deck.
Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that. When I was a people manager, you simply called in and said you were using one of your 10 personal days - no excuses/explanation needed (though people tended to blather on). No one got to decide if your reasons are valid by their standards - you’re a grownup. In fact, it was policy that a manager couldn’t ask why you were using your days. IIRC, that policy started when someone used some days after her dog passed, which her manager felt wasn’t a valid reason for missing work and tried to bully her in to coming in. She recorded one of their discussions and sent it to HR.
I think this shows a big gap between working class and middle class jobs: in a professional workplace, you’re trusted to make those sorts of decisions and you don’t have to have your excuse “vetted”. But for working class jobs it’s expected–even if it’s PTO and there’s no official policy or anything, even if your manager can’t say “no”, you have to give you reason and you’ll be clucked at if it isn’t “legitimate”.
College may have a lot to do with this. Most high schools effectively strip every expectation of human dignity from a person, so if you go straight to work, it’s pretty easy to convince you that that sort of treatment is normal, even virtuous. But in college some degree of autonomy is assumed, and you get used to it.
That was the HR direction I was given in corporate America. You don’t ask. As you said - they blather on and tell you - but you aren’t supposed to ask.
I am not so sure the divide is strictly between working class and middle class jobs. I think the divide is based more on whether it’s the sort of job where coverage is needed - and in those sorts of jobs, the manager very often can say no to a last minute request. ( which is typically what a child care issue would be). And having had those jobs ( at both the working class level and the professional level) , in my experience , it’s not so much that you need to give a “legitimate” reason so much as you might be denied the day off and the manager may reconsider if you give certain reasons for the request. For example, this is sometimes how it goes at my job:
Employee calls in - "I’m taking today off "
Manager- “Sorry, you have to come in today” (possibly with an explanation that A&B are already scheduled to be out so this employee is needed to come in.)
How it goes from here depends on the employee. He/she may just accept the denial. Or he/she may give a reason, which is in effect a request that the manager reconsider the denial , so that the employee might say " My car broke down and I need to get it towed" and the manager might respond " OK, see you tomorrow". It is not unusual for employees to skip a step and start right off with " I’m taking today off because I’m sick"
Manda JO , if I remember correctly, you’re a teacher, right? Because judging by my friends , teachers are the textbook example of professionals who have to give “legitimate” reasons for calling in the morning of the absence. According to my friends , even though they have three days per year that they can use for “personal business” and another seven that can be used only for health reasons , calling in the morning of the absence is acceptable only if you couldn’t make prior arrangements. It’s not acceptable to call in just because you “don’t feel like coming in today” , which is acceptable at lots of other jobs.
Me too, only sometimes it was a dozen kids.
Agreed. That’s been my experience. I am a professional, but I am a professional in a workplace where it is necessary that somebody in my workgroup be here between certain hours. If you are scheduling in advance, nobody knows or cares why you are taking Thursday off–you just say “I’ll be out on Thursday” and everything will be scheduled around that fact.
Here, though, if you are calling in Thursday morning then changes will have to be made to accommodate your last-minute request. Appointments/meetings might have to be rescheduled, other people have to rearrange their day, somebody else might have to work through lunch or work late to cover your absence, etc. It’s all well and good to talk about “autonomy” and “dignity,” but if you are in a situation where other people depend on you being there and/or your work getting done, then you are NOT autonomous, and it’s not treating your co-workers with dignity and respect to leave them in the lurch.
So, you’re either left explaining to your co-worker, “oh, sorry, you have to cancel your afternoon plans because I didn’t feel like coming in today,” or you explain to your supervisor, get his/her approval, and then it’s the supervisor’s job to decide what can be rescheduled and who will cover what is left.
As I said, I am not the one taking the call. It’s employees that take the call. If I do take the call, I don’t say anything, but when another employee takes it, it gets around. Our operation is 24/7 and requires minimum staffing. If someone can’t come in, they are required to call in at least 2 hours before shift change so we can call in a replacement. I have always told them to just call in, no excuses needed at the time. The ONLY extra information I ask them to provide is; if it is something serious that requires multiple days off, to say so (again, no details, just say that you will be out the rest of the week or whatever). When I get in, I usually call them and make sure they are OK and see if they need anything. (I do this because I care. I have taken people food, driven them to the doctor, etc).
Some of the younger employees still seem to have this overwhelming need to share why they are calling in, which means its starts making the rounds.
I can see why you’d think that but I went from working at a Chicago bank to a blue collar job at a warehouse in KY the past two years, and here it’s the same deal. Perhaps even better for employees - here you call and leave a message in a HR mailbox that you’re using PTO and they e-mail the shift manager a list of people that aren’t coming in, so there’s no interaction that could result in questions (though I’m sure people still explain themselves by voicemail). The only way to know/judge why a co-worker was off is if they blab when they get back.
The way they seem to manage things differently is that while the bank issued you everything on Jan 1 - full set of personal and vacation days for the year, here they’re earned throughout the year so people can’t disappear for a week right off the bat, and few have the discipline to accumulate a full week off. According to mgmt., over90% of terminations are attendance, people burning through allotted days and fired when something comes up and they’re out but have to take off. I’ve seen one guy fired three times for attendance since I started here (you can re-apply after 6 months).
A local independent pharmacy currently has a want ad in the newspaper for a part-time technician, and one of the criteria for employment there is “Must be able to work when scheduled.”
:smack:
Some people might be surprised about that. I wasn’t.