Handling a Friend as an Employee: How to Address Unreported Leave Issues?

Dear all,

I wish to discuss another case with you.

Handling an Employee Unwilling to Report and Apply for Leave

How would you handle an employee who is unwilling to report and apply for leave? One of our employees mentioned that he has been suffering from a fever for the past week but has not applied for leave in our HRIS. I informed him about this and told him to apply, but he has not done so. Unfortunately, he is a friend of mine, and I am his HR contact. Finally, I have decided to report this to our management.

Please review this case.

Dear Priya S Lakshmi,

What you have done is correct. The HR department should not withhold any information. It should be reported to the authorities concerned. Friendship and an organization's rules and regulations have no bearing on each other. Affection towards an acquaintance or acquaintance itself should not become a burden to exercise one's duties and responsibilities.

If the employee is on leave, then does he have the means to access the company's HRIS?

By the way, did you ask the employee the nature of his sickness? Why is he suffering from a fever for more than a week? What is the diagnosis? Did you ask him to send the scanned copies of the prescription from the certified physician and also the scanned copies of the supporting medical documents?

Could you send someone to his home to assess the nature of the sickness? If not, then you may send a bouquet of flowers with a card "Get Well Soon" plus a small fruit basket. The visiting employee should gather more information surreptitiously about the sickness of the employee.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Not so far. I cannot take action without confirmation on the procedures from management. So far, we have given our employees the freedom to take leave if it is a genuine case without requiring a medical certificate.

He can submit his application to our HRIS as he has access. He has never informed me about the leave, according to our reporting level. An employee can take leave by informing their team lead.

On a humanitarian basis, management has told me to remind employees to apply for leave. I did the same. However, his repeated ignorance in answering calls and replying to messages has become worse.

Personally, I came to know he is not suffering from any critical medical issues.

So I decided to implement the following procedures:

1. Ask for a medical certificate, and if not submitted, he shall be imposed with LOP (Loss of Pay).

Hi, at times, employees tend to take liberties like this. Try to reach him and explain that in the absence of proper medical proof, his absence from duty will be considered as leave without pay. Also, please check whether the employee is just waiting for the salary processing date for payment and then planning to abscond without any information. It is a standard corporate process to hold salary for long leaves without proper information.

Reference your post (No. 3).

As you know, the employee is availing sick leave just for the sake of taking leave. You can communicate with your friend (the employee) to report forthwith; failing which, action shall be initiated against him by the management.

Please also let us know whether he has any leave to his credit. In case of no leave, you can consider the period of absence from duty as Loss of pay - this is a common standard practice followed in companies.