I can still remember the day when my sales manager came into my office, closed the door and sat down. He was rarely in the office so the fact that he was there unannounced and that he closed the door were both unusual signs. “I have lung cancer.” He began without preamble. “But I am going to beat it. I may miss a few days here and there with my treatment but my doctor says I can continue to work.”
I was stunned. I expressed my sympathy for him and his family. My first concern was for him. He was an employee but as with most small companies I thought of my employees as more than just someone who put in eight hours and then went home.
After he left my office I was able to focus on what I had just learned would mean to the company. His title was Sales Manager but he did nearly all of the sales with only part time help from another employee. What were the company’s legal obligations? What were my moral obligations and how would my actions be viewed by my other employees?
Illness can be an inconvenience at a minimum and a major drain on productivity. As small business people we hope all our employees are as dedicated as we are and will not take advantage of sick days. More often than not that hope is a false one. The smaller the business the more critical it is that each employee be available and on the job. Even if they are hourly employees and you do not pay them when they not there they are still hurting your productivity as you have to shift other personal to cover the missing employees work of it does not get done. If they are not missed when they are not there then why do you need them?
I was always reluctant to not pay employees for sick days because I did not want them coming to work sick and spreading the disease. I also was reluctant to assign a number of sick days because I was concerned that the employees would then begin to think of them as extra vacation days.
You should make a policy so that you have something on which to base future decisions. Do you want to allow a number of days? Are some of your employees covered by a union agreement upon which you can base you policy? What happens if the employee does not use the sick days; are they added to vacation, lost, paid?
Is there a time limit after which you can no longer hold a job open? For example, if you have an accountant who is going to be off for an extended period of time what is the threshold for replacing that employee; two weeks, a month, six weeks? In my case I set a policy where the company recognized the importance of each employee but the company reserved the right to replace an employee if the illness extended beyond two week. The policy only said we could not would.
In the case of my sales manager I continued to pay him during his illness. As the illness progressed he missed more time. What began as a day a week in the beginning became almost no work at the end. Not only did it cost the company pay for work that was not being done but the work was not being done. The illness impacted the company and the livelihood of all the employees.
The day came when it became clear he was not only not contributing to the business but it was becoming a risk. I told him he needed to stay home, be with his family and concentrate on his health. I paid him for an additional two weeks. He was dead in three.
It was a difficult and emotional experience. I never did try and figure out how many “sick days” I paid.
Without a policy my actions created one. A few months later one of my employees announced they needed surgery and would be off six weeks to several months. This employee assumed because I paid the salesperson with cancer I would pay this employee as well. The position was critical and could not be vacant for an extended period.
Create a policy that you can live with.
Original Material copyright 2010 Thomas Robinson
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