Friday, May 20th, 2011
As managers and team leaders, we’ve all been faced with “no call/no show” situations with our team. So, how do you respond when this happens? Are you kept in the loop, or do you hear about it hours or days after the fact?
A year ago, a close friend and colleague shared a very scary situation with me. She experienced a “no call/no show” from a dependable team member who had been with the practice a few months. Her instincts kicked in and she had a nagging feeling that something was wrong. She got in her car and drove to the home of the team member, only to find she had passed away sometime over the weekend. It was a horrible, but very real situation that made me realize….if something happens to a team member, who will miss them and find out what has happened?
We live in a time where families are spread across the country. More and more people live alone and are very independent. So, when a team member doesn’t come to work, or call-in sick, what is your action plan? Until my friend told me what had happened to her, we would call the team member’s listed phone numbers and leave a message until we reached them. Her story changed the way we respond to these situations, and this week it saved a team member’s life.
On Monday morning, our Human Resources Director received a phone call from a concerned team member that a co-worker hadn’t shown up for work, or called in. This was not like her at all, as she has an exemplary attendance record. Our personnel records didn’t reflect the co-worker’s current address, so the team member tried to give directions to our HR Director, but then offered to just go herself, since she wasn’t sure of the apartment number, but had been there herself and knew exactly where she lived. He sent her with instructions to call him as soon as she knew anything. A few minutes later her ran into my office, with the team member on the phone. “I’ve got to go!! She’s hurt bad and the ambulance is on the way” is all I heard as he ran to his car.
The actions taken by a pair of team members in our practice saved their co-worker’s life. She had suffered a seizure, had seriously injured herself during the seizure, and had stopped breathing. That was Monday morning…..today is Friday, and against all odds she was discharged from the hospital this afternoon. It has been an emotional week for the entire team and we made efforts to keep everyone informed as we received progress reports. We are all so thankful to work in a practice that feels closer to family (at least it does to me), than merely a place to work.
So….what is your no-call/no-show action plan? Did you just change the steps you will take the next time it happens?
Tags: action plan, attendance, emergency response, no-call, no-show
May 28th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
WOW. Scary story, but so glad people trusted their instincts. I think there’s no harm in being overly protective if someone doesn’t show up for work. People like to know that others are watching out for them. If they are the flaky type who don’t show up without calling, they’re not going to stay part of the team for long. But when reliable people don’t show up and don’t call…it’s reasonable to worry and investigate.