I have an employee who's consistently late for work. I've spoken to him about it, but it hasn't made any difference. He's a valued member of my team and this doesn't seem like a sackable offence. What can I do?
The question is, how much of a problem is this, as it might well be a sackable offence. If it's not causing any problems then
it probably isn't, but what I suspect happens is that when you have one member of staff turning up late, other people can then get annoyed about it and it does have a very real business impact.
Make sure you are using the right language when you approach this person, as telling somebody not to be late per se is not half as powerful as saying, "Because you were late this morning, Claire over there had to stay an extra half an hour." Couching it in these terms will hopefully get the person to start realising the impact they are having and start to change their behaviour.
If nothing changes, then this might become a sackable offence, as even if someone is very good at their job, if they are making everyone else bad at theirs, then sacking them might be perfectly valid. Think about the business consequences of their actions and point those out, because most people think that when they are late it does not really make any difference, but it usually does.
Deborah Meaden is author of Common Sense Rules (Random House, £7.99). Read more advice from Deborah Meaden.
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