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[quote=Anonymous]I'm a middle manager in the federal government. An employee on my team always has a conflict when they need to present at a conference, webinar or meeting or travel on a site visit or to a professional development or retreat. I didn't really notice it during the pandemic, because we were working remotely and moved everything to virtual. Now that we are back to having in-person meetings, conferences, panel discussions or even virtual webinars or Zoom/Teams calls, this employee will state that she has a "medical procedure". We need to go on a site visit and manager don't typically travel. I asked for some dates she was available and she said she had no conflicts. So we scheduled the site visit with our other offices and the partner organization, and now she has a "medical procedure". At our one-on-one, I brought it up to her. I told her that I could be flexible about her schedule, but would appreciate if she knows in advance, to give me a heads up so we can schedule around her appointments or other leave. To not single her out, I sent an email for planning purposes to the team, asking if they could please enter any leave they have scheduled for the next month and let me know about any other leave they have scheduled.

The employee sent me back a note that she is sorry that she is taking leave and that this is "life or death". I said I understood and if there was anything I could do to accomodate her as her supervisor, to please let me know. For example, we could do the site visit as a desk monitoring visit or we could postpone it until later. I also suggested she contact our reasonable accomodations office. The employee told me she does not need to get an RA. I cannot ask her to get one.

For the past six months, every time I ask her to represent the agency or present, she has a last minute conflict. I talked to her about unscheduled leave. This is never an entire day thing, but rather a period of hours. She does not have a fear of public speaking and is a terrific presenter. I brought it up to her again at her mid-year and she again stated that she wasn't able to plan the leave. I understand that she may have a health reason or personal matter, but literally it is every time I ask. I showed her the dates I asked and how she had declined all of them and then asked her again about possibly getting accomodations. I also asked for any advance leave.

My HR wants me to send her a memo about leave restriction for unscheduled leave. I think that is a little excessive. She has no performance issues and I see this as a conduct thing. However, she is placing me in a bad position as another team member has to present and many times, I have presented for her. Most people on my team enjoy traveling, so that is not as big a deal. What would you do? [/quote]

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