Supervision Concepts and Practices of Management 12 edition

Part 2 Supervisory Essentials   End of Chapter 6: Positive Discipline  

2-3 Critical Incident: Who Didn’t show up for work?

Great Lakes coating was a small manufacturing firm employing only a dozen people. The firm used Lang Temp service to provide seasonal and replacement personnel as needed. Owner Andy Simmons served as director of sales and was on the road most of the time. Karin Mitchell served as receptionist, bookkeeper, and office manager. Engineer Tommy Bell was a “man of many talents.” He could design and fix anything. Typical of many small firms, the company had few policies governing employee behavior.

On Monday, March 23, the production line was ready to run, but Frederick Hall was a “no show.” Supervisor Joe Thomas was fuming. Per their agreement, Hall had taken ten days off from work to attend to personal business, and he was scheduled to be back today. No one had heard from him. Thomas wanted to fire Hall immediately, but he knew he should not do something so rash. He thought to himself: “Has Hall had an accident? Is he ill? Couldn’t he have used his cell phone to call in this morning?” Thomas was unsure what steps he should take in this situation.

            Hall had worked at Great Lakes Coating for more than six years and was, at best, an average employee. When he wanted to, he was a good-though not great-employee. Sometimes he ignored instructions and preferred to do things “his way.” His coworkers didn’t particularly like him. He had been tardy a few times, and Thomas had given him a written warning within the past month.

            In his third year with the firm, Thomas had responsibility for all production, maintenance, receiving and shipping functions. Simmons had given him the authority to hire and to direct those operations as necessary. Thomas was particularly good at diagnosing and solving production problems. He was well liked and respected by all-all except Hall-for his expertise and fairness. As Thomas pondered the situation with Hall, he thought of how the adage “twenty percent of your employees will cause you eighty percent of your problems” applied to him.

            A few weeks ago, Hall had been stopped for a traffic violation. The police check uncovered that he had two outstanding warrants in another state. Thomas arranged for Hall to take time off work to attend the court sessions for those legal problems. In return, Hall had agreed to make up the time off, which he did.

            During his court appearance, however, Hall was given a jail sentence. He had two choices: two months of weekend jail time with work release during the week or 10 consecutive days of jail time. As Hall put it, he “liked his weekends to party hardy and relax,” so he chose the 10 consecutive days of jail time.

           Thomas agreed to give him time off with the condition that when he returned to work, he’d be back on probationary status. Hall agreed to these terms. He was to serve his time from March 9 through March 20. Thomas contracted with Lang Temp Service to provide a “temp” for the duration of Hall’s incarceration. When break time came and he still hadn’t shown up, Thomas called both Hall’s home and cell phones, but got no response. He then asked Karin Mitchell to try to contact him. The day ended, and Thomas still had not heard from hall. March 24 came and went, and still Hall hadn’t appeared. Thomas had to decide how to respond to this apparent job abandonment.

A. What are the pros and cons of Great Lakes coating’s not having formalized policies regarding employee behavior?

B. What are the main issues that Joe Thomas has to deal with?

C. What do you this Joe Thomas should do about his matter?

D. What is your contingency plan in case your plan of action doesn’t work?