Recently, I found out a friend of mine had been in the hospital for what turned out to be Pneumonia. Her doctor recommended that she take at LEAST two weeks off of work, preferably more, in order to recuperate. Tracy didn’t have enough leave to be able to stay off of work that long and still get paid, so she decided to return to work after 2 weeks. We could debate the benefits and drawbacks of returning early versus taking time off without pay. Instead, I’d like to focus on what happened when Tracy returned to work.
Tracy returned to work on a Monday. As soon as her boss came in, the first thing her boss did was walk into Tracy’s office and say “please tally up all of your leave so we can be sure it’s accurate.”
I’m trying to imagine what that would feel like. You’ve come into work, you are physically exhausted and emotionally drained from the illness as well as the financial stress the illness caused from hospital stays, medical bills, and the though of not being able to care for your children. Your first day back at work, you’d like to be at home in bed, but you’re going to give the job your “all” as you’ve always done. You haven’t seen or spoken to your boss for 2 weeks. She enters your office and with an almost gleeful smile says “Let’s account for all the time you took.”
This boss is a jerk! Actions speak louder than words. And because of the first sentence this boss chose to use with Tracy, her actions say “you don’t matter” “I want to make sure you’re not trying to get away with anything” “Did you take my company for a ride with your leave” etc.
I’m not suggesting the bottom line doesn’t matter. I am suggesting that for bosses to get what they want for the bottom line, people need to matter.
They need to care about the person, break the ice a little bit instead of jumping right into business. It only takes a few seconds to say:
“Welcome back”
“We missed you”
“So glad you’re back”
“Hope you are feeling better”
“Anything we can do for you?”
It never hurt anyone to be kind. If a boss is so worried about loyalty, then the boss needs to model the behavior she wants. Show loyalty to employees if you want to see loyalty back.
I think we are all intelligent enough to understand that benefits and leave need to be addressed. But give people some credit. Many people will address it to the boss before the boss even has to bring it up (if the boss can wait past first thing in the morning).
