“I have a plumber coming to give me an estimate, so I will be in late today.”
“I need to run to the car dealership over lunch, so I might be gone longer than normal.”
“I have to go to the dentist, so I might be woozy after lunch and need to leave early.”
Private Practice Lawyers: Rater Your Work With In-House Counsel
Please share your thoughts in this brief and anonymous survey.
“My car won’t start this morning, so I will need to take the day off.”
“My husband took my set of keys this morning so now I can’t drive to work.”
As an in-house manager, I get it, life happens. Sometimes you really do find yourself in a jam and need to take a day off work. Other times, you really may just need to take a personal day to run errands or simply to do nothing at all.
However, call me another cynical attorney, but after receiving all of the above e-mails from the same employee within the two weeks of taking over a new team, I began to doubt they were being sincere.
Your Law Firm’s Website Is Failing You.
Here’s What The Best Ones Are Doing Differently.
I would much rather any of my employees come and tell me the truth rather than invent a new excuse.
It is not just the little white lies about her absences that bothered me; as far as I am concerned, whatever you wish to do on your own time is your own business. However, the ease with which she was able to craft a new excuse off the cuff naturally led me to question the work product she would turn in. If she was so bold as to believe she could pass off the series of above excuses, what else was she capable of?
Lest you think I am a terrible manager for not immediately terminating the employee or exploring other punitive remedies, trust me — I tried. Unfortunately, our corporate HR policy leaves the decisions surrounding time and attendance up to each individual department. And as you might have guessed, the former manager over the team I had recently acquired had opted not to adopt any policies on the topic whatsoever.
Which meant her behavior, while defying all societal and professional norms, was not technically wrong or impermissible.
While I knew this clearly needed to be corrected, I also recognized how terribly unfair and unpopular it was going to make me with the rest of my new team. The ones who opted not to abuse societal norms even in the absence of policy or those who would plan their personal days in advance so as to minimize the impact on daily operations would be unduly penalized for one team member’s actions.
Ultimately I implemented just enough of a policy to stymie her last-minute excuses while still leaving enough flexibility for my more honest team members.
Having worked in a pure legal environment and a typical office setting, I can say those employees who are looking to take advantage of the rules are just as prevalent in both settings. Regardless of education, title, or pedigree, there will always be individuals looking to skirt the rules to their advantage.
And if you are one of them, please take this advice to heart: don’t be that person. Not only will your team members begin to resent your attitude, so too will your boss. And I can guarantee you it will not put you on the fast track to a promotion.
Besides, if you happen to report to an attorney, you know the ones who quite literally went to school to receive training in sniffing out lies, your antics probably won’t go unnoticed for long.
Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at [email protected].