Because a “real business” would never accommodate a serious medical disability, even that of an intern?
The margarita was the size of my head. It was a good farewell.
It’s done through the school, and every semester there’s a end-of-semester review that the employer is supposed to fill out. I’ve written up my comments and left them with my boss to enter, since the form isn’t available until the last week of the semester.
I work for a business populated by human beings and not robots.
The way you stated it made it sound like you would be OK with the guy showing up at the crack of 10, taking a two hour nap at noon, and going home at 4…
Did you mean to include an “or” in your lost of possible accommodations? E.g., you could give flexible hours to accommodate health issues, including arriving late OR leaving early OR taking a long break in the middle of the day (OR working part time.)
Obviously there’s some kind of limit. If he was only going to put in 7 hours a week that wouldn’t be ok. If he was scaling back to 30-35 hours or adjusting his work schedule that would probably be fine. Somewhere in between we might have to run past legal since I’m not sure where the “reasonable accomodation” line would be in this situation. It’s something we’d work with my boss and HR (by HR, I mean, the person that happens to do HR-type stuff in addition to other duties - it’s a small company).
We would have tried to accommodate as possible, as long as we weren’t being taken advantage of.
This is why I love working for one of the “best places to work in America.” We have several massage chairs and a “meditation” room which is basically a nap room. Not two hours, but 20 minutes can be very refreshing.
I was recently (within the last year) diagnosed with a medical condition, and in a bit of defense of the intern… I don’t know why but I was hesitant to tell anyone about it. One major symptom is major fatigue. It took me a while even though I knew it was hereditary, but I finally fessed up and let everyone know that I wasn’t out partying the night before (quite the opposite). I also have to go in for a treatment each week that requires me to leave three hours early. It is basically a modern day leaching.
My work has no problem with the accommodation… I can VPN from home and as long as I get my work done they don’t mind if I come in a bit late, leave early, or go to the “meditation” room.
ETA: one difference though is I’ve been there 28 years.
You tiptoed around the guy putting his feet up and going to sleep when he was supposed to be working, you accommodated your employee as he didn’t do his work and didn’t complete his projects. You were taken advantage of.
There is helping your employees and then there is the reality that most businesses would not accept that behavior for one second, what must your other staff think to see somebody sleeping at work without any real censure?
By your own words, any employee could just claim to have a disorder and without having to explain what it is would be allowed to duck out for a nap whenever they felt like it. Thats why I ask do you work for a business, because no business I know would tolerate that.
It is good practice to help your employees and keep them happy, but it is possible to go too far and hurt your business by allowing unacceptable behaviors. As a manager, I genuinely think you could perhaps evaluate your own performance here and whether you were far, far too soft in dealing with this employee, to the detriment of everybody. It certainly didn’t help him in the long run.
Really? Back when I worked in the rat race, you DID NOT tell your boss about any medical issues unless you needed to file for medical leave. They would find some way to get rid of you if you had a medical condition that interfered with your work. They wouldn’t say it was because of the condition, but they’d come up with something. They’d even get rid of people who actually used all of their allotted sick days every year. The said you had 14 days, but not really.
You know this guy was an intern right? I have never seen a situation in which an employer has exactly the same expectation of an intern as for a regular employee.
Part of the assumption usually is that:
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this person is just being introduced to professional life for the first time and won’t necessarily understand what behavior is expected without being told
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The employer will make an effort to guide the intern when he or she goes wrong, but no one expect genuine disciplinary action except in dire circumstances, such as actual criminal activity
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If, in the end, all the guy wants to do is good off then why go through the anguish of disciplining him like an employee? He’ll be gone by the end of the term anyway. It’s up to him to make the most of the opportunity.
We just fired someone (not an intern) for similar behaviors as you’re describing. He was an alcoholic and was coming in hungover, leaving in mid-day and never coming back, sleeping at his desk all afternoon, etc. Similar pattern.
It is like the 1950’s is scolding us and telling us to get off or their lawn.
I work for a Fortune 500 company. I can at any time if I feel like I need to on one of the three days I go into the office… play Foosball, play ping pong, take a yoga class, work out in the fitness center with a personal trainer, play video games, relax in a massage chair, “meditate” for 20 minutes, watch a bit of whatever is on one of the many big screen TV’s while sipping a latte, play basketball, attend a presentation often on cultural awareness or woman’s issues, etc., or enjoy a nice meal prepared by professional chefs, or visit the Nurse Practitioner if I’m not feeling well. Every few weeks I can enjoy a band, and in the summer there are cookouts and farmer’s markets.
This doesn’t include the “big” celebrations.
Our productivity has never been better.
There are lots of evil sweatshops in America. But if you have anything on the ball in your industry you’re a goof to stay at a sweatshop.
uh huh.
Not quite sure what this means, but I guess my response is “yup.”
Google “best places to work” or SAS working conditions, or Google Work benefits. These are just a few of the examples. Also try a search on Nap Rooms.