Employee Consistently Late and Taking Extra Breaks: How Should I Address This?

I need your help. Please guide me. One of our employees joined just four months ago and has been consistently coming in late every morning. The lunch break is scheduled for one hour (1:00 pm to 2:00 pm), and he is supposed to leave at 12:45 pm and return at 3:30 pm. However, during office hours, he takes 15 to 30 minutes to go outside for a smoke, tea, or coffee, which is affecting the work of other employees. Additionally, it has been observed multiple times that he is not fulfilling all his job responsibilities. Despite giving him verbal warnings twice, he has not shown any improvement.

Please suggest what actions I should take in this situation.

Thank you.

Sir,

Please refer to the company's standing orders, which include a clause regarding misconduct related to late arrival. You are required to issue a show-cause notice specifying the instances of monthly tardiness and requesting an explanation.

After giving a warning 2 to 3 times and informing the employee that repeated late coming incidents will be documented in their personal file, potentially affecting their career advancement, the individual is likely to make an effort to arrive promptly for duty.

Regards,
PGR

What is the designation of the employee? What type of work does he do? What are his KRAs? I am surprised at the fact that you have tolerated such feckless behavior or cavalier attitude of the employee for four long months. You could have terminated his services after 1-2 months itself.

What about the employee's HOD? Why is he tolerating this nonsense? Anyway, as Mr. Neswararao has suggested, now find out statistics of late-coming for the month of May 2016 and issue him a show-cause notice. If the explanation is not satisfactory, issue him a warning letter. If the employee remains intractable even after a written warning, terminate his services after 15 days. If he has completed just four months in your company, then he could be a probationer. Terminating services of a probationer should not be that difficult if you have inserted a clause to this effect in the appointment letter.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Probation Period and Disciplinary Actions

The employee is a new entrant. What is his probation period? He should not be allowed to continue indulging in breaking the service rules or rules of discipline. He has disobeyed two verbal warnings, which should be followed by a written caution notice advising him to refrain from such indisciplined activities.

Even thereafter, if he continues to defy the organization's rules of discipline, take necessary action to remove or dismiss him under the organizational rules such as Standing Orders or under the terms of the employment contract as applicable to him. Inappropriate actions for recurrent willful misdemeanors on his part warrant stern action against him, including his removal or dismissal. Failing to do so will make him a potential threat to the maintenance of organizational discipline, and thus, he should be addressed promptly by the management.

Thanks,

Samir Kr. Bhattacharya