How to Balance Flexibility for a Single Parent Employee Without Affecting Team Morale?

Hello, here is the situation I'm facing:

Employee Flexibility and Challenges

A woman employee in the organization, a single parent, has been with us for the past 5 months. It is easily understood that being a single parent and taking care of a lot of things is challenging. There aren't many issues with her work as she tries to complete it accordingly. The problem is that she asks for permission regarding flexibility in work timings even though she has been granted that from the very first day of work. For example, she mentioned that her children's school and college admissions would cause her to be late, which was agreed upon. Additionally, when her daughter required medical attention and had to travel to another state, she needed leaves, which were also approved. She has to leave early from work as her in-laws are elderly and alone at home, and this too was agreed upon. She often changes her timings, either coming in late or leaving early, but she covers 6 to 7 hours of work daily. However, there are times when she hurries with her work, which affects the quality of her output. Despite understanding her situation, we have accommodated her requests most of the time, rarely saying no. Now, her mother is ill, and again she requires flexibility in timing, intending to come in late and leave early, working from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm.

Balancing Employee Needs and Organizational Policies

While we are understanding of the fact that she is a single parent and want to support her without burdening her, acknowledging that her reasons are valid, my Managing Director (MD) believes we are being overly lenient by accepting all her requests, which may impact other employees. I also worry that other employees, who come from far distances and still stay late to ensure they complete their stipulated work hours, may feel that she is being granted excessive liberty.

Please advise on how to handle such situations as I feel stuck.

Hi,

Kindly ask them and advise them about the situation politely. Also, ensure that she understands to ask for leave for 1 or 2 months to complete personal work and then rejoin our company.

Regards,
Dinesh

Dear Aishwarya,

Please note the following:

Single parent considerations

a) To be a single parent (or double parent!) is a personal matter for the employee. The company has nothing to do with the personal matters of the employee.

Leave policy

b) Every employee earns a certain quota of leave. The employee is free to use the leave as per personal requirements, irrespective of the reasons for availing leave. If the Head of Department (HOD) can spare the employee, then let the employee go on leave.

Concessions and equality

c) Any concessions given to the employee should be for a temporary period, and the frequency of concessions should be minimal. Excessive concessions could lead to a violation of the principle of equality and demotivate other employees.

Performance measures

d) It is important to design performance measures for the employee. Regardless of the concessions given, there should be no dilution of the Key Result Areas (KRAs) of the employees. It seems that this female employee's KRAs are not properly defined, and if they are, the measurement is not being done correctly.

Personal example

e) Let me provide a personal example. Within our circle, there is a case where a female employee works until 1500 hours, attends to domestic duties at home, and then works from home from 2100 to 2400 hours to make up for the lost working hours. Her company did not compromise on her KRAs, and she maintained her performance despite domestic commitments.

Managing employee demands

f) If the administration of your company continues to yield to the demands of the female employee, other employees may also come forward with their demands. How many employees will you accommodate?

Final comments

Call the employee and have a senior staff member explain the importance of the organization's culture and discipline. Her domestic issues should not affect her employment. Make it clear that she cannot take the company's leniency for granted. If her performance deteriorates, consider issuing her a notice. This written notice will provide grounds for taking tougher actions against her.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Dear Shri AISHWARYA MANJUNATH,

The first thing, what is the reason for accepting all the requests of the employees? Who is responsible for this? Are they interested in the employees or the organization? Certainly, some factors are playing behind these employees' actions in the name of kindness and welfare. Kindness should not be used for one's advantage. Interest is important but should not surpass the interests of the organization.

Have a good day...

I thank everybody for your valuable feedback.

Current Work Situation

Dinesh sir, I totally agree with your point. Let me add on, currently, she's not working on any client projects. Everything she's doing involves handling content from the organization, such as newsletters, blogs, articles, web content, etc. The MD says that we cannot be strict with her as she does not have much work to do. However, I feel that whether there is work or not, this habit must end somehow. Otherwise, they will get used to asking for permissions, and we will need to keep granting them because we are doing it. If it stops or reduces now, we can handle it better in the future. We have informed her that she can't keep asking for this all the time. Problems never end. Like you said, it's her personal matter.

Leave and Work Timing Adjustments

Mr. Rocky12, we can't ask her to take leaves for months because she is the only content writer in our organization. That would be a tough decision to make, I think. She won't take leave, but she will alter the work timings. Our actual timings are 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. She's been coming at 10:30 and leaving by 5, saying that her mother is a heart patient and could have an attack at any time. Though it is personal, we can't close our ears, right? From day one, there has been one reason or another with her. She says, "I will stay back if there is work, but when I don't have it, I shall leave early."

Decision-Making Authority

But I think it's not her call to decide on that. Whether she has work or not, we get to decide when she comes and when she leaves, right? How do I put this across to her?

Ms. AISHWARYA MANJUNATH,

Being good is being bad. Maintaining a win-win status is better at any point of time or given point of time for the employees as well as the employer. If you refuse her request once, you can feel the heat. Make a suitable decision to utilize her knowledge or talent to the fullest level for the organization to avoid such a situation in general.

V. Murali

Understanding the Situation

I understood the situation and suggest the following points:

1) Talented employees are not necessarily the best-performing employees in the world.

2) She has better skills and can judge the work content. Since there is no one to do her work, she is taking advantage of it.

3) I have seen this similar problem before.

Solution

1) Since organizational culture plays a crucial role in maintaining motivation and caring for everybody, appoint one more junior under her to learn the work.

2) Inform her that due to her personal issues, she can only check the work done by the junior.

3) Speak with your Managing Director (MD) and request approval for additional manpower as an extra junior to support her and take over some of her work.

4) Get feedback from the MD on the accuracy of the junior's work over a period of 6 to 8 months.

5) Ask your female employee to mentor the new junior and make it a Key Result Area (KRA) for her to develop the new junior.

6) Stay in contact with the new employee without revealing the intention of their employment under her. Simply state that more orders are coming in, and they are appointed to speed up the work.

7) Later, the MD can interact with the junior for any work-related matters.

8) Avoid assigning any work to her and let her enjoy her time.

9) If possible, suggest that she work from home. If working from home does not show commitment, then appropriate action should be taken.

It is important to take these steps. Remind your MD that "Organizational culture eats strategy for breakfast and dinner." Today, the misbehavior of one employee may cause minor issues initially (i.e., for breakfast), but if everyone begins diluting the good culture, it can lead to significant losses (i.e., for dinner).

Regards,
Manjunath

Being very liberal to the employee isn't always good. It depends from situation to situation. So, it's better to be more process-oriented and comply with the rules and regulations of the company.

I would suggest talking to her privately about the same because it is affecting the work and even the employees as well. Once it becomes a habit, she may start taking the work for granted. Therefore, talk to her politely but clearly explain the problem. She will understand if she has genuine issues.

Dear Aishwarya, having allowed her concessions of time off for her personal issues on a number of occasions so far, it is time to act tough now. She is not showing any sense of gratitude by not making up for lost working hours or working from home. She is perhaps availing this time concession as a matter of habit or right and does not believe that she owes anything in return to the organization.

I believe you should clearly convey to her that she will no longer be given this time concession without compensating by doing extra work. If she continues, a pro-rata salary deduction will have to be implemented.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR Consultant

Thank you very much, Vinayak Nagarkar, for your reply. Could you please provide me with a brief explanation of how pro-rata salary is calculated? I have heard that the actual work hours are compared to the desired work hours to determine the final result. Could you clarify exactly how this calculation is done?

Thank you in advance.

Dear Aishwarya,

Pro-rata is calculated by dividing the monthly rate of salary by 26 days to determine the per day salary, which is then further divided by 8 hours to arrive at the per hour rate. Deductions will be proportionate to the number of days/hours of non-working/absence period in a month.

Regards,

Vinayak Nagarkar
HR Consultant

Dear Aishwarya,

Can you try the suggestions below, which I have seen practically work in my old organization without arguments?

1) Put an announcement in the organization that an employee is allowed to come late up to 4 times a month, limited to a maximum of 15 minutes per late arrival.

2) After the 4th late arrival, if an employee is 1 minute late, half a day will be deducted.

3) Each deduction in leave results in fewer savings on the leave card.

4) No leave results in loss of pay.

5) Loss of pay leads to punctuality.

Regards,
Manjunath

There are many ways and means to mentor employees. Rather than the above suggestions, try to address or solve the issue of the employee by helping her, or else, get a blanket exemption from the management and not to be quoted by any other employees under any circumstances, and close this subject once and for all. Otherwise, engage the said employee on a part-time basis and fix the hours and terms and conditions accordingly. Then there are no problems in your office from other employees.

V. Murali