AIBU - employee always booking appointments during the work day

[Glitttter]

I am a small business owner with 3 members of staff. We've been working remotely like so many other people. 2 of them are brilliant, dedicated etc. the third woman just seems not to pull her weight, which might be the basis of why Im annoyed. However, recently, she keeps needing to start work late, disappear in the day, or leave early, for dentist/eye test/routine check up appointments.

My gripe is that she works part time, but always seems to arrange these routine appointments for days when she's working. AIBU to expect her to arrange appointments in her own time - at least mostly - instead of missing work to do so?

Fire her

You don't like her and think she's lazy.

Some medical ones you have to take as given but dentist, eye etc can usually be done on other days/times or during annual leave. Do you have a policy , if not you probably need one.

Unless it's an appt she gets no choice over (like many NHS) ones then she needs to arrange it on her day off.

If it has to be on a working day then she needs to take annual leave or make the time up.

Perhaps if you start clamping down on this, she will buck her ideas up or leave of her own accord. When is she due a performance review?

I agree that eye tests and dentist appointments etc should be booked for outside of working hours. She's taking the mick.

@araiwa you do realise it's not that easy if she has worked there for me than 2 years?

Start easing her out of the company. She's not pulling her weight and skiving off.

What does her contract say. If it specifies appointments should be arranged outside work hours where possible and if not time to be made up just refer her to that. That was standard in private firms I’ve worked in.

Op most places have later apts. Her ortho was at 5 but I left office at 4.45 to meet her. She a bit cheeky!

Do you have company guidelines on this?

Are you keeping a record of everything she does?

[quote Woodmarsh]@araiwa you do realise it's not that easy if she has worked there for me than 2 years?[/quote]
Not true, you can just fire someone if they are no good. The average amount they will get from a tribunal is six to seven thousand, assuming it's a straightforward unfair dismissal without an element of discrimination. That's if they even bother, not everyone will.

Generally a bill under ten grand is well worth it if it means getting rid of a poor employee. The alternative is to keep them on, doing shoddy work, which often costs more in the long run.

Dentist and eye test should happen once a year

Routine check ups - what are these? We don’t have general check ups in the UK. If it’s a check for an ongoing condition then it may be a hospital clinic and she won’t get any choice over when it is.

TBH if she seems to have multiple “eye tests” or “dentist check ups” in a short period it kind of suggests she’s doing something else. Maybe looking for another job…?

Appreciate you can’t really ask for evidence though

She might not have much choice in the matter. Dentists/GPs are dealing with huge backlogs at the moment and it's often very much a case of getting what you are given.

@ChainJane that can be a lot of money to a small business vs following correct procedures to get rid of them

True SusieBob and also she may have built up a backlog of these things having not been for ages during covid.

Hi,
Thanks for your responses. It's helpful. We don't have a policy because we're so small and I've never needed one before. I like to think we're quite flexible, and if she put the time in in other ways I think I'd feel differently. But, for eg. today, she had a 'contact lens appointment' at 11am, and then tacked on some lunch, so left at 10:30, and came back at 1pm!

Honestly, I wish we could part ways, but it's not so simple because of the process I'd need to go through (can't say much more without specifics sorry). Might be time to start the process though.

Her next performance review is just before Christmas. Think I need to grit my teeth and make it clear we can't afford, and dont want, people who are here for the ride.

If less than 2 years service, fire her.
If more than 2 years service, put her on a performance improvement plan and start managing her out. You'll have her gone soon, or she might stop slacking off.

You also need to start booking in meetings when she pops up and says she has an appointment. Then just tell her that she needs to be at the meeting as it is during her contracted hours and she hasn't taken annual leave. If she misses enough of them, that's another point in your favour.
Just manage her out.

Speaking as a teacher who is (rightly) expected to do as many of those as possible in the holidays, there is absolutely no need for routine eye or dentistry to be done during work time, we simply would get laughed out of the office. Same for routine things at GP eg smears.

We are of course ok when it's a hospital appointment as everyone knows how hard it is to rearrange those to a specific new time, antenatal and to an extent I think orthodontics is tolerated. GP appointments are a bit of a grey area as generally if you need one you're already at home I'll but there are times where this isn't the case so there is a little flex there. Anything urgent or acute is obviously different but everybody knows that.

So in short, she is BU except for if it's hospital appointments which you generally take what you're given, if she works PT and also has annual leave which she could use if somewhere is only open on days she works.

However I hope you have it somewhere that this is the policy otherwise you might be fighting s hard battle to stop her doing it...

If you are the employer then you need to sort out her contract of employment which will stipulate that as she is part time it will be expected that dental and eye appointments etc., which she has a degree of control over will be made in her own time. When she has got appointments in work time then she will have to give you notice before hand and you want to see evidence of said appointment on headed paper signed by a member of their staff.

Give her an official final written warning and put her on a PIP for 12 months so all her absences are monitored. You could say you want written evidence of every medical appointment; so she isn’t allowed any unauthorised absences and as soon as she gets one she’s out.

Just start saying no. Or insisting they come out of annual leave entitlement or she makes up the time…

@minipie. So far, 2 dentist appointments, several GP appointments (fine, and for a minor issue she's been open about), eye test, seperate contact lens check, and once she finished early because she went to the chiropractor. They're never at the beginning or end of a day and mysteriously often on the 3 days she works for us.

I wondered if she was applying for jobs, but surely you'd do that on a day you didn't work?

You can request different times with the NHS my sons had so many apps lately I've found them to be so good at changing then for a more convenient time. Yanbu op. I start work at half 9 in the holidays so have booked my sons app early morning at 8:30 or for when I finish. It's not always doable but alot of the time it is.

OP surely she isn’t just announcing she has an appointment today and leaving? Surely she has to ask to book the time off? And you say “no”.

Dentist and eye test you can have anytime she's definitely doing that on purpose. My sons physio only does mornings which is why I take the first one at 8am /8:30. Defo say no next time.