A year ago I sat down to write a little blog post on this topic. I wrestled with it because I thought it was important, but I finally set it aside and wrote about something more important. I couldn’t leave it alone, though, so we’re back!
Affogato does a lot of work with our clients on leaves of absence. For most of our clients they are rare, but often confusing and sometimes emotional. It feels like you’re in one of those traffic roundabouts where the employee’s “real life”, understanding and complying with the law, making sure that employees feel supported and valued, and keeping the business running all come together. Roundabouts can be very efficient if you know how to use them, but if you don’t, they’re just an intimidating traffic hazard to be avoided.
Part of the challenge for small businesses is that so often an employee’s leave starts on the down low. How does that happen? The unplanned use of lots of PTO, or the manager who just doesn’t put someone on the schedule, or the employee who starts calling off work a lot. We’ve all seen it happen.
Our instinct is to be nice, or to be strictly business, and to avoid being nosy. We say things like “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you need to be at work” or “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry that bad thing is happening in your life/with your family/to your health; take all the time you need”. Sincere? Probably. Good for your business? Not so much. More like getting stuck in that roundabout.
We really don’t make it easy. I looked up “leave of absence” in a few of my go-to sources: SHRM, HR California, Brightmine, and I found nothing. (That was frustrating, since leaves are so important in HR, but I digress.) How’s this dictionary definition: formal permission to be away from work, or the period of time that you are allowed to be away. I like the emphasis on permission while saying nothing about pay.
Some of the confusion comes because we don’t always separate pay from the rights and obligations of a leave of absence.
Huh?
I think of all leaves as having a series of separate but related “lanes”: length of leave; type of leave; job protection with health insurance benefits; and pay. And guess what? Same roundabout, different entrances and exits for each.
Your Affogato HR Consultant can walk you through your employees’ leave situations, what you need to do to comply, and help create policies that make sense for your business.
To your success,
Jonna, Lisa, Suzanne, Lisha, Karen, Christina & Linda