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New attendance policy?

duckswangoose's picture
Sat, 05/27/2006 - 03:27 — duckswangoose

So what does everyone think about the new attendance policy?

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Sat, 05/27/2006 - 11:45 — NoCoHo

I quit before it was explained to any extent, so enlighten me, if you would.

All I know about it is that now performance and attendance are an all-in-one. As my former GM explained it, a really good employee who sells like crazy could have a couple of occurrences and not get a PIN. However, it sounded to me like a PIN was now going to be issued for not smiling enough and the like.

Sat, 05/27/2006 - 12:06 — duckswangoose
duckswangoose's picture

There are no occurrences. Your attendance is tracked but there basically is no attendance policy now. It's up to the GM and managers to decide if your attendance problems are an issue or not. It basically went back to the policy that we had before occurrences were ever a word in our vocabulary.

The way it was explained to me is that before, someone could be fired for being 144 minutes late (24 x 6 minutes) over the course of the year, whereas someone who called in 11 times (and missed 88 hours) on Saturdays wouldn't be. Now the managers can look at the total employee and not have to fire someone who has gotten stopped by trains on the way to work and almost killed themselves getting in the door and to the timeclock.

Basically, it's up the GMs discretion and how each employee's attendance affected the business.

I like it. I can see that it might be a problem in some stores. Our GM tries to be fair. With some of the GMs, I could see it being a "who do I like" type thing.

We had one employee who's father had alzheimer's. She was late once in a great while because of some problems with his caretaker or health or could not anticipate health needs in time to ask off. She was fired. She was a great employee who was loved by staff and customers and was punished for being a caring person. Right after she was fired, her father passed on. She would have never been late again.

Sun, 05/28/2006 - 01:23 — duncan

Eh? Was this on einfo? I haven't heard about this at all. It sounds good, though - god knows how many times people have stayed at work when they were sick because they didn't want to get an occurrence for leaving a couple hours early.

Sun, 05/28/2006 - 05:43 — duckswangoose
duckswangoose's picture

It was sent to the GMs. It was supposed to be communicated to the stores this week and becomes effective with the new Handbooks in June.

Mon, 05/29/2006 - 18:20 — NoCoHo

duckswangoose wrote:
There are no occurrences. Your attendance is tracked but there basically is no attendance policy now. It's up to the GM and managers to decide if your attendance problems are an issue or not. It basically went back to the policy that we had before occurrences were ever a word in our vocabulary....Basically, it's up the GMs discretion and how each employee's attendance affected the business.

Damn good thing I walked when I did then. My GM was refusing even to tell me how much unaccrued vacation I had left as well as refusing to let me borrow against my vacation. I know she thought I was interviewing when what I was actually trying to do was accommodate her request that I take afternoons only as much as possible and find someone to fill for me if the week's schedule was already posted. As many people in our area who got their roofs pounded in recent hailstorms, you'd think she'd have cut me some slack as I needed the time to get estimates on our roof and get other much-needed home repairs done. I was tempted to ask her if she's never heard of the customary 2-4 hour window where repairwork is concerned.

Yeah, I would not have been around much longer anyway once this policy was put in place. Seems to me it'd be fine for stores with decent GM's, but for those of us who have it otherwise, there'll truly be no leeway and no recourse to speak of for those disliked for whatever reason...like a paranoid GM.

Sun, 06/04/2006 - 21:09 — royale

I think the new policy will create issues of favoritism. I can see managers and GMs looking the other way for employees they really like and keeping good track of those employees they want to get rid of. I liked the old policy where it was fair and consistent for all of us. Although I can say that because I showed up to work on time and didn't have a problem. I used a couple occurrences when I was really sick, but that's what they were there for. I guess it doesn't really matter now.

Mon, 06/05/2006 - 12:41 — Magus

The new policy is used in almost every job outside of retail. I am amazed at how long it has taken Borders to switch.

Mon, 06/05/2006 - 21:11 — Monkey

This has not been communicated at my store and the occurances system is still being enforced. Should I be concerned?

Mon, 06/05/2006 - 21:17 — Magus

The new policy is in the new employee handbook. It is to be handed out asap, everything went into effect June 1st.

Tue, 06/06/2006 - 02:43 — duckswangoose
duckswangoose's picture

Everyone needs to have their new handbook by 6/15 - I believe that's the "official" date for the new policy, but we've started it already in our store.

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