The Running Commentary

Entitlement Culture claims another victim!!

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This is rather a tough post for me to write. I had to, on Friday, together with one of my colleagues, make a decision that saw me lose one of my staff members.

This young man was somebody that we took a chance on, we took out of a really mundane job and trained to become an operator on one of our machines. A chance that he embraced with both hands and  he delivered great results after on six months on the job. We just, three months ago, changed his status from fixed term employee to permanent employee. I must say that I was looking for great things from him.

A couple of days ago he was booked off as he was ill. He advised us that he had been booked off for 6 working days. When he returned to work, he brought with him a medical certificate to support this absenteeism. I was informed by our HR department that it appeared that his certificate had been altered.

A call to the doctor confirmed our worst suspicion, he had only been booked off for two days. He had altered his certificate so they he would not lose his pay. When confronted with the evidence from the doctor, the employee confirmed that he had in fact altered the certificate. This in effect meant that he had shattered his direct lines trust as well as mine.

I cannot tell you how sad I was too see him go, after investing a little over 20 months in getting him to a point where he was becoming one of our top employees.

I understand that some reading this post might think that this was a harsh result (although he resigned before any sanction could be made – so in effect he was not dismissed) I write this to give some indication to the feelings that you go through as a manager.

I truly hope that he is able to find some really good alternative employment, but cannot help but end with a sense that our title of entitlement in our country has claimed another victim. When will people learn that, no matter how small the deed is, losing you livelihood over it is extreme.    

entitlement cultureJob Lostlost opportunitysadsick certificate

Mike • November 3, 2008


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