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If you fire them, be prepared for some bad PR. Remember the diabetic woman who took some chips so she didn't pass out? Got fired and got national negative publicity.
Would you find a reason to fire them? They aren't your problem after all; you are here to make money!
Would you work with them and their schedule until they are better? They are human beings and they deserve dignity.
I had an employee that had a operation that required him not to lift anything, so I had him work in the shop doing nothing for a month. I paid him 2k which was about 2k below his normal wages.
He recovered, work a month at his regular job and quit to go work for another company.
My policy is, if an employee can't work, if they can make to work, I'll pay something to do anything even if it's sitting around keeping me company.
My gf's dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness. It caused him to slowly become paralyzed until his brain could no longer control breathing activity and pass away.
His employer made an incredible effort to stay on-board and he literally worked until the day he died. I suppose it would have been different if he was a labor worker... but he was a knowledge worker (a pharmaceutical phd chemist), so he still had value to the company as long as his brain functioned and he could communicate.
At my company (< 50 people), we have a situation where we provide salary and benefits to someone who cannot work anymore due to an illness.
i just started with this new company but i heard they have this old guy been on and off with the company. He was not in good health. Technically he is an employee but as of now, he is not healthy enough to come back. But I was told he can come back when is he better...
smaller company, 2 owners, things are a little personal i guess.
I had an employee that had a operation that required him not to lift anything, so I had him work in the shop doing nothing for a month. I paid him 2k which was about 2k below his normal wages.
He recovered, work a month at his regular job and quit to go work for another company.
My policy is, if an employee can't work, if they can make to work, I'll pay something to do anything even if it's sitting around keeping me company.
My gf's dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness. It caused him to slowly become paralyzed until his brain could no longer control breathing activity and pass away.
His employer made an incredible effort to stay on-board and he literally worked until the day he died. I suppose it would have been different if he was a labor worker... but he was a knowledge worker (a pharmaceutical phd chemist), so he still had value to the company as long as his brain functioned and he could communicate.
At my company (< 50 people), we have a situation where we provide salary and benefits to someone who cannot work anymore due to an illness.
Would you find a reason to fire them? They aren't your problem after all; you are here to make money!
That depends if I could afford it or not.
I was self employed for over 20 years of my life, most of the time employing between 6 and 25 employees, and there were times I couldn't afford to pay myself. All my employees got checks but on payday mine would sometime languish until I had more money in the checking account.
For most of the time I did pretty well but if I had earned just half of what my employees thought I did I would have retired ten years ago.
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Would you work with them and their schedule until they are better? They are human beings and they deserve dignity.
Longest I ever worked with an employee was one who broke his leg playing baseball with his son on July 4th.
Pretty bad break, needed surgery.
Four four months I paid 100% of his salary ($24.75/hr in 1997) and continued to pay for his family medical insurance at a rate of around $700/month if I remember correctly. Probably cost me $26,000 or thereabouts.
Why? Because I felt it was the right thing to do but more importantly I could afford to do it at the time. The late 90's were boom years and I was doing very well.
What about companies that are barely hanging on, what are they supposed to do?
What about some personal responsibility on the employees part such as purchasing short term disability insurance to protect the family? Generally get two years worth that covers 66% of your gross salary (the insurance proceeds are not subject to any taxes) that starts 30 to 90 days after the onset of the disability. I think you can get it to kick in after 7 days but that gets kind of pricey with 90 days being relatively cheap protection.
Personal responsibility, who would have ever guessed?
That is what insurance is for. Accommodate them and hire additional help to backfill the position, if that is what is needed. Legally they cannot be fired.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I have had this experience several times, both at places with over 1,500 employees. Here we have a sick leave donation program where co-workers can donate some of their unused time to help someone that has exhausted theirs due to a prolonged illness. We also offer long-term disability insurance, so the person would at some point be able to collect about 60% of their pay. If necessary we will hire a temp but will not replace someone until such time as they have resigned or
died. In once case that's exactly what happened, we had temps for over a year and then the person died, then we were able to announce an opening and hire a replacement.
Would you find a reason to fire them? They aren't your problem after all; you are here to make money!
Would you work with them and their schedule until they are better? They are human beings and they deserve dignity.
In business, having all the smarts in the world won't amount to anything if you don't have heart.
I would do what I could to support them by allowing them to continue with their job, and finding something else for them to do if it became too much for them to handle.
Life is hard enough for people, why make it more difficult?
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