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Oracle Tips by Burleson |
Abusing
Work-hours and Attendance Rules
The reality of what constitutes work-hours for
computer professionals is, of course, whatever it takes to get the job
done. Typically, there are core work-hours defined that all employees
are expected to generally adhere to. Computer professionals commonly
change their work schedules to provide the best support with the least
disruption to business operations.
Regardless of the common flexibility of work-hours
for IT professionals, core work-hours remain a measurable guideline
for the times when employees are expected to be working. If an IT
employee has core work-hours of 8 to 5 and regularly arrives at work
an hour late for no good reason, then there is a performance issue to
be addressed. Employees abuse work-hours by taking long lunch breaks,
too many breaks throughout the work shift, leaving work early,
disappearing from work for unknown reasons, overusing compensation
time, and not showing up for work at all.
Leniency by the manager in these situations is
only acceptable to a point if it is justified. Otherwise, it is not
fair to the other technicians who are appropriately following the
employer’s attendance rules. Tolerating
undesirable behaviors by any staff members will cause dissension
within the team and degrade the organization’s productivity. Most
minor deviations from core work-hours can be settled with a simple
conversation between the manager and employee.
Abuse of Hours Story
Abuse can and does occur. Jason was a fairly
proficient Unix Administrator in an organization. Over time, he began
to cut corners in subtle ways to shorten his workday so that he was
far below the required hours for a workweek on a consistent basis. It
was not uncommon for IT personnel to start their workday anywhere
between 6am and 8:30am. The company did not have a problem with
flexible hours as long as company policies were satisfied for the
required minimum hours for professionals.
Jason worked both ends of the normal workday,
coming to work late and leaving early. He would also regularly take
long lunch breaks, smoke breaks, and even run to the nearby mall
during the other work-hours to purchase personal items. He could not
be found for meetings he was supposed to be attending or he would run
into a meeting late and claim he was working on a technical problem.
The time was adding up to the point where the whole department was
beginning to notice.
Management had discussions with Jason about his
behavior and he seemed to be in denial. He always had an excuse. He
stated that if he came in to work late, he would stay late. That his
lunch and smoke breaks were not excessive and that we should focus on
other employees who are really abusing attendance rules.
After these discussions he improved his attendance briefly but fell
back into his bad habits. The time was up for Jason. He was not
improving his attendance problems.
Jason was fired for several reasons including: the
attendance policies were well documented in written form and
communicated to all IT employees; the policies were very specific
about the minimum number of work-hours expected of all professionals;
Jason’s behavior was documented to show a pattern of abuse; and he was
given adequate time and warning to improve his behavior.
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