New Employee Not Returning to Work: Is This Absconding or a Genuine Medical Issue?

Hi, we have a new employee (fresher) who joined us in mid-April 2017. In May, she took 10 days of leave for family functions. For the last week, she has not been coming to the office, citing a strain in her finger. When we asked her when she is likely to return, she said she will consult with the doctor first and then provide a definite date.

We have a training bond signed by her for Rs. 30,000, and we are holding her cheque. It seems like she may be fabricating a medical condition and might not want to continue with us. What should we do? Is this a case of absconding since she is not committing to any date to resume office? Also, what should we do with her bond/agreement and cheque, considering we have spent a month and a half training her?

Kindly advise.

Regards,
Manoj

Hi Manoj,

She is not absconding as she is in correspondence with you. If you have trained her, that is good. You must have records for that. What are the terms of the appointment letter issued to (and accepted by) her? You can issue a letter saying that she is not entitled to take so many leaves. Later, if no satisfactory reply is received, deal as per the Appointment Order Terms.

V. Raghunathan

Addressing Employee Absenteeism and Underlying Issues

People do get sick, and we have no control over when that will occur to us. That's a given fact of life. If she is genuinely ill and unable to work at this point in time, you have to deal with that. I don't see it as a sackable offense.

However, the sore finger reason seems—on the face of it—to be trivial, though we have no real data about this. Is there a medical certificate that states clearly the problem and why she cannot work?

In my personal view, there is something else going on here. It may well be that she is not happy working for your organization. So you need to find out what the real problem is. Go back to the recruitment process and look at the interview, the questions asked, the answers she gave, etc. Were promises made regarding the work she would be doing, and now that has not materialized?

During her training, was she interested and an active participant? Was the training properly executed by qualified trainers, and was it relevant to the job she was hired to do? If this was just 'rubbish' training that delivered no value, then she has every right to feel cheated if she was promised more when applying for the job.

People are always quick to blame employees for any little thing. What about the employers? From what I read on this site quite regularly, very few employers are saints.

Dear Manoj,

The best option for you is to ask her to provide all medical papers related to her sickness and consult with your company doctor or another medical practitioner. If she is unable to come to the office to submit all those documents, then ask her to send a scanned copy or photocopy to the official email. Based on the doctor's comments, further courses of action can be considered.

Employee Privacy and Medical Conditions

She can simply state that she has a medical condition and choose not to disclose the specifics. She has every right to do so and keep her medical condition private. How can a company force her to reveal it by requesting her medical reports? HR executives participating in this forum, is it appropriate to ask for personal health records and make them public?

Need for Strong Employee Privacy Policies in India

India really needs a strong policy to protect employees, their privacy, and their right to choose their profession. If a company is truly good, freshers will not consider quitting. It's often due to the type of work assigned to talented people that makes them reluctant to work for an organization.

Sir, I think it's too late to apply service conditions and disciplinary proceedings on her as she is showing lame excuses. She is absconding duties willfully, a clear-cut case of dereliction of duties.

Better late than never. Please go ahead, sir.