By Tom Grandy
You want us to stop paying sick, vacation and holiday time? Are you nuts! We would have a revolt on our hands. Well, hear me out. Holidays are expected, right? Vacation is earned, correct? Sick days are abused, right? When an employee wants to take a day for hunting, fishing or to visit a sick friend, what happens? They call in and take a “sick” day. When sick days are gone the request switches to asking to take a vacation day. You know the drill because it happens on a pretty regular basis. The company didn’t just miss a day of work but the worker often has to lie to get the time off. He or she wanted to go here or there so they used a sick day, right?
What’s the solution? Combine all sick, vacation and holidays into what you now call Personal Days. The company policy is that Personal Days can be used any time, for any reason. If they want to use them for vacation, great. If they want a day off for no reason, go! When personal days are created employees tend to manage their time better. They don’t have to lie about what they are doing and when the personal days are gone…they’re gone.
If you choose to, you can have a company policy that any Personal Days not used at the end of the year may be turned in for cash. That just might be enough incentive for a tech to show up to work when they might have otherwise stayed home. It has worked for others…it might work for you. Give it a try.
