I’m the GM for a small company that recently opened a new location in my country. I’ve known the owner for 8 years and jumped on board when he wanted to invest here.
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Listen to your employees. A while back we noticed someone was being really slow and inattentive at their job. We didn’t reprimand or write her up, I spoke to her that we noticed she’s no her usual self. She told me, in tears, that her boyfriend gave her an STD and was super scared. I directed her to an STD specialist clinic, reassured her that it sounded treatable and she’d be fine (she was). I also made sure she had enough time to get to her appointments, tests, pick up medication, etc.
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If someone’s down, don’t double down. One of my employees is currently in the hospital. Labor law says I have to pay him 50% of his wages for the first 3 days, and then nothing after. The state pays out 60% for the rest of his sick period. I’m paying him 100% of his wages. It’s a drop in the bucket for the company, but means the world to him.
The 60% that the state will pay him is going straight to him, I told the guy to call it the “sucks being sick” bonus. -
Eliminate any trace of trouble. I had a bully in the group who was hounding one of my employees.
Had a big issue on a Friday morning, sent him home for the rest of the day. Interviewed others to get facts straight, promptly fired on Monday knowing what I found out. -
One of them is HIV positive. He needs a lot of tests and appointments for his care. I don’t dock his pay for not being in the office while getting that taken care of. I also don’t ask for a voucher or anything from the clinic justifying his time off. I trust everyone to be rational with their time.
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Two employees are WFH. I need to constantly remind them to log off on time. When they text or email after hours my reply is “log off, we’ll get to this in the morning”.
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No questions asked about vacations. I don’t need to know what you’re doing. Just that you’ll be off.
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And finally: TAKE days off. One of my employees has 9 accumulated days. I’m asking him to take off somewhere and get that balance down.