A reader writes:
I personal a small enterprise with six full-time staff. One of my staff, my bookkeeper Leah, has grandchildren and has lately requested to work part-time (two days off, three days on) in summers so she will be able to spend extra time with them.
She is a good, long-standing employee. However, this really presents many challenges for our small firm — primarily, protection for her throughout a brief time frame and the way we will fill that position and/or cowl the job duties of any staff who’re protecting for her. Her position is exclusive (and he or she has entry to all of our financials) so discovering temp assist throughout this time will probably be difficult and probably dangerous. This goes to be considerably troublesome to handle on a week-to-week foundation and really solely advantages the employee, not the employer. What would you do?
If it doesn’t be just right for you and also you’re prepared to danger shedding her over it, you may clarify to Leah that it’s not potential for her place. From there, it’s up to her to determine if she nonetheless wants the job, figuring out these are the constraints.
However, earlier than you try this, ensure you’ve thought by the next questions:
• Are you prepared to lose Leah over this? There will all the time be occasions when the reply to that’s sure, and that’s okay. Or you may understand that whereas it might be inconvenient to accommodate her in this fashion, it might be extra inconvenient to have to rent and prepare somebody new. Or it won’t! I can’t inform what the reply is, but ensure you’ve really thought this by first, since that is what all of it comes down to.
• How troublesome would Leah be to exchange? That shouldn’t govern all the choice because you’ll lose each employee ultimately, whether or not it’s to one other job, retirement, alien abduction, or so on, and it’s best to by no means really feel so hamstrung by the concept of getting to exchange somebody that you simply agree to issues that don’t make sense for the enterprise … but you additionally shouldn’t reject employee requests with out giving severe thought to this query first.
• Are there inventive methods to make it work? For instance, perhaps two days a week off each single week of summer time can be arduous to say sure to, but all of August is really gradual and Leah might take off a large quantity of it with out a lot affect. Or perhaps there’s a gifted junior one who’s been asking for stretch alternatives and can be delighted to fill in for Leah and their work can be simpler to discover temp protection for. Or who is aware of what — but if Leah is a long-standing employee who’s finished good work, it is smart to see if there’s a manner to get you each what you need. Maybe there isn’t — but give it some thought first.
Also, generally with questions like this, individuals will say, “Don’t say yes unless you would be willing to offer the same thing to others who ask for it.” That’s value serious about too, but it shouldn’t be your main driver. Sometimes it is smart to go out of your manner to accommodate somebody who does nice work and can be troublesome to exchange, even while you wouldn’t do it in any other case. You simply need to be ready to be clear about these causes if different staff ask, and to stand by these causes (and also you additionally need to ensure it’s really performance-based and role-based, and that you simply don’t develop patterns the place, curiously, everybody who will get particular perks are the identical race/intercourse/and so forth.).
