Absenteeism is defined to be, any failure of an employee to report for or to remain at work as scheduled, regardless of reason. Along with absenteeism we talked about the pros and cons of taken your personal time off that employees are entitled to.
This conversation in class stuck out to me because there seemed to be more cons to taking PTO than pros. A few of the pros would be, being able to take care of a sick child/family member/self and getting a mental break from the workplace and work itself. Some of the cons we listed in class about taking PTO were that you get behind on work, come into a lot of missed emails and phone calls, deadlines become crunch for time, co-workers may look at you as not committed for taking off during busy times, and coworkers may think you are not a team playing by taking personal time off.
TO me I find this extremely striking because PTO is time that an employee has earned throughout their career and should not feel uncomfortable taking their entitled time off. Employees’ absenteeism in the work place may be unknown to coworkers, which could cause some tension.
I have worked in the HR office for about 7 months now and am in charge of the PTO for the company. Where I work, people are very particular about their PTO. Some individuals who have been with the company for several years have over 200 hours of PTO! I’ve noticed that a majority of the individuals with that amount of PTO simply don’t take the full amount. Not only because they want to be able to carry some over into the next year, but simply because taking a lot of time off because more work in the end.
I do not think absenteeism should be looked down upon in the work place. If it is non excusable and constant, then yes it is a problem. In the terms of personal time off, it is no ones business what the employee uses their time off for and should not give them a hard time for taking their earned time off.
katiecharles 