Case: Discipline and Documentation – Here She Goes Again

Background

“I’ve come to the end of my patience with Roberta Weston,” said accounting manager Sam Best. “The position she’s in is so important to us that we simply can’t afford any more of her omissions or mistakes. For the sake of the hospital and the department, I believe she’s got to go. When I hired her, she told me she had solid experience in hospital accounting and billing, but I was not able to get a direct reference for her because I could not contact her previous supervisor, and all the HR office there would give me was her dates of employment, title, that she left voluntarily and was eligible for rehire.”

“What’s the problem?” asked human resource director Charlene Harrison.

“Problems, plural,” Best answered. “She’s so late in posting receipts on rentals in the medical arts center that we wind up double-billing a number of physicians every month. Actually, it’s the same with just about all miscellaneous income-since she’s responsible for all receipts except third-party reimbursement. Most of the time she is late getting the posting completed and frequently she fails to properly credit collections/deposits to the correct account. We’re losing control of income, and I get three or four complaints a week from people who claim they’ve been billed again for charges they’ve already paid.”

Best shook his head and added, “I’ve really tried to give her every chance to turn around, but nothing seems to work, at least not for very long. I don’t know if she doesn’t comprehend how important timely posting is or if she just doesn’t know how to do it.”

Harrison said, “I’ve reviewed Roberta’s file. The only evidence of a problem I found was your rather detailed performance improvement review of two months ago. In that process, you’re supposed to give the employee detailed direction aimed at correcting the problem. You did that, and you also provided a warning that task performance would be monitored closely for 30 days and that she could be let go by the end of that period if her work didn’t come up to satisfactory levels. You did the review well, but I didn’t see anything about any follow-up”

Best said, “That’s because she had shaped up by the end of the 30 days.”

“But now she isn’t working up to the requirements of the job?”

“No. Her work was just marginally okay at the end of the 30 days, but within two weeks after that the bottom dropped out again and the mistakes started rolling in.”

Harrison asked, “What do you mean by ‘again’?”

“This is the third time I’ve been through this with her. I go over the areas in which she’s not working up to standard, she puts on a burst of effort and does better, and a month or so later she falls back into her old ways.” Best frowned and added, “I can’t put up with it any longer. Three strikes-she’s out.”

Harrison said, “According to her file it’s just one strike. The only documentation is your single performance improvement review. What about the other two times?”

“Strictly verbal.”

“You didn’t write up anything? You’re supposed to cover oral warnings with a counseling form or at least a memo for the record.”

Best said, “If I wrote up one of those every time I had to talk to an employee, I’d never get done writing. It’s a lot of work.”

“I know it is,” responded Harrison, “but you’ve got to have your documentation. As it stands right now, if we terminate her she could probably give us a real hard time with a couple of outside agencies.”

“So what should I do?” Best asked.

Instructions

1. Describe the ways in which the employee might be able to give the organization a “real hard time” if she is terminated now.

2. Develop a plan of action that you would recommend Sam Best to follow in dealing with employee Roberta Weston.