Last week, I faced a situation no manager wants to face--the dreaded "no-call, no-show."
I have a team member whose last sign-on to the system was on Monday, 3/15. I did not discover that he was absent until Wednesday, 3/17 when he missed our weekly 1-1. He did not respond to emails/texts/phone messages. I called his emergency contact on Thursday, 3/18, and left a message and received no response. I escalated the issue to HR, and after additional attempts to contact the employee failed, they initiated a "wellness check." This involves coordination with the local police department to check in on the employee and see what's going on. Late Thursday we received communication from the local police that the employee was fine and heading to the airport to travel to India due to a sudden death in the family.
First, it's a relief to know the employee and his immediate family are safe. My imagination was running wild the whole week with all the possibilities. Second, the larger issue for my client is the lack of communication. The employee can't claim ignorance of the policies because he's kept us informed previously when his power was out for several days. I understand that a sudden death in the family is not something that's easy to deal with, but to have radio silence for several days is bad form. At a minimum, one would expect either the employee or someone on his behalf would call the attendance line and at least leave a message to keep the client informed.
I don't understand the behavior but I do understand the consequences of this behavior. In this case, the price of a phone call will most likely be the termination of employment.
I have a team member whose last sign-on to the system was on Monday, 3/15. I did not discover that he was absent until Wednesday, 3/17 when he missed our weekly 1-1. He did not respond to emails/texts/phone messages. I called his emergency contact on Thursday, 3/18, and left a message and received no response. I escalated the issue to HR, and after additional attempts to contact the employee failed, they initiated a "wellness check." This involves coordination with the local police department to check in on the employee and see what's going on. Late Thursday we received communication from the local police that the employee was fine and heading to the airport to travel to India due to a sudden death in the family.
First, it's a relief to know the employee and his immediate family are safe. My imagination was running wild the whole week with all the possibilities. Second, the larger issue for my client is the lack of communication. The employee can't claim ignorance of the policies because he's kept us informed previously when his power was out for several days. I understand that a sudden death in the family is not something that's easy to deal with, but to have radio silence for several days is bad form. At a minimum, one would expect either the employee or someone on his behalf would call the attendance line and at least leave a message to keep the client informed.
I don't understand the behavior but I do understand the consequences of this behavior. In this case, the price of a phone call will most likely be the termination of employment.
but even that can be really hard to doin that time. It's unfortunate.
You are not being understanding or reasonable in the slightest. A death in the family can be devastating, and of course somebody is going to act differently than if they had a simple power outage.