Actual Comments on Why Employees Leave:

“Immediate supervisor. I was hospitalized and she texted me at the hospital telling me that I needed to return to work so the work could get done. She hates it when we call out sick.”

The Solution

Based on limited information, it appears the supervisor was insensitive to the employee’s situation and chose to put the work as the top priority. However, the employee’s comment needs further investigation.

There is a perception the supervisor has an intolerance for employees being out sick. This is symptomatic that the supervisor has difficulty with disruption in the day-to-day work environment. The reality is that employees will have unscheduled leaves of absences and supervisors will have to develop contingency plans around those absences. This can be overcome by good planning, managing the work, and regular follow up with employees.

The employee’s responsibility is to communicate absences, planned or unplanned, to the manager or person designated by the company. Generally speaking, most organizations have defined sick leave policies and processes to follow when employees will not be at work. It is the employee’s responsibility to know and follow those procedures as some absences are covered under state and/or federal law.

Both the supervisor and employee have a responsibility to communicate with each other. Many management problems or employee issues can be avoided with effective communication. The outcome of this situation was the employee resigned her position with the company causing disruption to the work team and added expense to the employer.

(This blog post brought to you by HSD Metrics, an exit interview company that helps companies reduce employee turnover by providing automated reference checking, exit interviews, and by measuring employee retention. The comments from exiting employees that are featured in this blog are collected from actual exit interviews conducted using ExitRight, HSD’s exit interviewing service. Because we place the privacy of our clients at the top of our priority list; the names of all involved parties are kept completely confidential. Check our blog often for posts like this, to reduce employee turnover within your organization. If you are interested in learning more, contact us today.)