[Nebraska]

Guy calls in sick the first day of the beginning of his third week. I fire him. Too harsh?

Quite frankly do not have time to deal with this kind of crap.

[Stonehenge]

Beginning of third week? That might be a little harsh, IMO. Depends on the circumstances, I suppose. Calls in sick or is late on first day, forget it. Third week, who knows? That it's a Monday is a bit suspect, but I'd want to know more about the situation.

At least he didn't call in arrested.....

[Nebraska]

It is basically what is a case of 'brown bottle flu". He called earlier and I told him that either he has a Doctor's note or be at the shop at 8:00 AM. If he chooses the Doctor's Note route to call by 6:00 PM today... He wasn't at the shop at 8, no call as of yet....20min remain.........

[Stonehenge]

When did he first call in? Prior to the start of the work day?

I require my guys to page me if they are calling in sick:

1) I don't typically listen to my messages in the morning, so this way I don't get an unpleasant surprise when I get to work,

2) It forces them to face the music by actually talking to me.

Then of course, sometimes they still leave a message...But on those occasions they soon wish they'd have paged me.

[Nebraska]

6:00 AM he left the message.

Starting time is 7:00 AM.

His Crew Leader and I ended up going out at 8:00AM; gave me an hour to take care of the essential issues and put the others on the back burner till this evening.

Had that fake overly sick raspy voice that disappears as you engage someone in a conversation because they are too dumb to keep up the drama they initially presented.

I have two guys that I can use to replace him with just a phone call. He's a nice kid but his attention to detail cost me $63 in damages last week. Not to mention a lot of TIME apoligizing and easing customer minds. Whatever possible lost revenue from having to divert myself from marketing, sales, and administrative duties.

We had our talk on Saturday and I thought everything would go well. I by no means am a harsh employer to work for, always give the benefit of the doubt, and always respect the guys that are working for/with me.....But who calls on their 11 day of work and says they're sick....Back in the day if that ever happened to me when I was working for someone I would be on the phone with my employer with my tail between my legs recognizing that it does not look good, offering a Doctor's Note, or at the very least offering to come in later etc..etc..

[diginahole]

Hmmm.... sounds like the absence was enough to tip the scales on an already shakey relationship. Probably a good decision to let him go now. What was his supervisor's reaction?

[Nebraska]

His supervisor's immediate reaction was "he's probably hung over". His secondary reaction was, "It's a good thing your wife isn't going into labor........I'd hate to have to mow all these by myself or with a temp without any experience."

He did ask me if he called in sick would he still have a job....kind of joking..kind of unsure of himself. I had to reassure him that he has been my right hand man and that I would trust him that if he did call in sick it was for the right reasons.... He's the one that showed up last year before his Grandmother's funeral to get everything ready...left...attended the funeral...then came back the same day after his personal business was taken care of...all on his own. I offered the day off with pay plus another and his response was "who's going to make sure this all get's done?"

[diginahole]

It sounds like a solid business decision.... sleep well.